Year in review: The highs and lows of 2024
01/01/2025 05:00 AM
OPINION: It's been a memorable year for the South African game and a year in general to remember, as @rugby365com look back at the highs and lows of 2024.
Sharks claim EPCR Challenge Cup trophy
Following a campaign to forget in the 2023/24 United Rugby Championship season in which the Sharks ended 13th out of 16 teams - they managed to turn the tables and bring more than a silver lining to their season by defeating Gloucester in the 2023/24 Challenge Cup Final to become the first South African side to win an EPCR trophy.
This win was also backed up on the domestic front when former Lions star Jordan Hendrikse slotted a last-minute penalty against his former team to claim the 2024 Currie Cup for his new side.
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Bulls fall short in URC Final, again
The stars seemed to be lining up for the side from Pretoria following their first URC Final defeat to their arch-rivals, the Stormers, in 2022 at the Cape Town Stadium.
The Bulls hosted the 2024 Final against Franco Smith's Glasgow Warriors and were hot favourites to claim the title for the first time.
Despite a 13-0 lead and dominating the set-piece, the hosts imploded and lost a second URC Final in three seasons.
The latter is more disappointing seeing that they had the home advantage and Glasgow had travelled to Limerick and then Pretoria and still managed to get the job done.
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Next generation of Springboks
One issue South Africa had in the past was succession planning in terms of player personnel.
Looking back at the successful side of 2007 - with a good amount of players who went on to finish their career at the 2011 World Cup, there was suddenly a gap in player personnel the new coach, Heyneke Meyer, had to fill.
Meyer later on recalled players such as John-Philip (Bakkies) Botha, Victor Matfield and Juan Smith as well as Heinrich Brüssow in 2015 as players weren't coming through at a satisfactory rate at a franchise level.
Things got worse when Allister Coetzee was handed the poisoned chalice in 2016, with the bulk of the 2007 squad retired leaving an inexperienced group of players to step up to the Test scene - which would turn out to be the darkest period in the professional era in Springbok history.
With Erasmus doubling down as Director of Rugby and head coach of the Springboks in 2018, the results were almost immediate as franchises started doing their bit to develop players at a faster rate.
Erasmus also took huge leaps of faith in talents many wouldn't have considered to be good enough be it where they ply their trade and/or their physical stature.
Fast forward to 2024 and Erasmus has already given a taste of the Test arena to 12 new players, knowing that the bulk of the 2019 heroes will most likely not be around in 2027 - players such as Willie Le Roux, Faf de Klerk, Bongi Mbonambi and Eben Etzebeth to name a few.
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Eben Etzebeth surpassed Victor Matfield as the most-capped Springbok
"They grow up so fast" is something one hears often when family members talk about their children.
In rugby, it sort of feels the same way in terms of Eben Etzebeth.
The colossal lock forward made his Stormers debut straight from playing for UCT and the Western Province Under-21 side in 2011 and made his Test debut against England in June 2012 before making his Currie Cup debut later that season and forming part of the first Western Province side to clinch the trophy in 11 years.
Fast forward 12 years on.
Etzebeth has surpassed the great Victor Matfield as the most capped Springbok player ever.
Currently on 130 caps, he could go on to surpass the likes of Richie McCaw (148) and Alun Wyn-Jones (Wales: 158, British & Irish Lions 13) should he stay fit until 2027.
