Ah, the start of a new year. Quite often a time for reflection and well-meaning, if short-lived, promises to be a better version of yourself for the next 365 days, as you ponder the haze of booze and cheese and roast potatoes your life has become over the festive season. Time to give up a few vices and dust off that gym membership.
I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions – I think they mostly just set us up to fail – but I do think it can be an opportunity to take stock and consider what you want to do more of, or less of, in the coming year. Likewise, the start of a new year gives us an opportunity to dream a little about the things that would make us happiest this time around. And obviously, when we think about what makes us happiest, we think about rugby.
A few weeks ago, I wrapped up 2024 for the Springboks, Springbok Women, and Sharks, and it got me thinking about what’s on my wish list for those teams in 2025.
Springboks
The last couple of years have been incredible for Springbok fans – I think we’re all still basking in the glory of back-to-back Rugby World Cup wins, and then the truly phenomenal 2024 season that followed. It’s almost hard to imagine how we could realistically top that this year.
In the ultimate dream scenario, my wish is for the Springboks to have an unbeaten season. Obviously. Isn’t that every South African rugby fan’s dream? What’s more, assuming the Boks have 13 games again this year, an unbeaten run would allow them to equal that much spoken about 17 match winning streak back in 1997 and 1998, and set them up to exceed it next year. I mean….who wouldn’t want that?! I'd also be thrilled if they could keep the clever balance between blooding new players and maintaining an experienced core that we saw in 2024 while they're doing all this. I so badly want to see Willie Le Roux and Siya Kolisi get to their 100th caps - that's high on my wish list for this year.
I do, however, recognise that we can’t always get everything we want. So, while I don’t doubt the Boks’ ability to achieve my ultimate dream scenario, I thought I’d better consider an alternative scenario. If I can only have one wish for the Boks next year, it would be for them to beat the All Blacks at Eden Park. This game promises to be a monumental clash – the first time the Boks are playing in New Zealand’s fortress since that rather controversial Test back in 2013, and one that sees the All Blacks put their impressive run of victories (50 to date) at that venue on the line. I’m a little bit tempted to blow the budget and make the trip.
Of course, I’d love to see the Boks go unbeaten at home in 2025, which should be doable, and to have another clean sweep on the end of year tour, the fixtures for which have not been released yet. One assumes they’ll face Ireland and France, since they didn’t play them last year, and those would be particularly sweet victories to claim. But that Eden Park game is the one that really matters this year.
Springbok Women
This is a huge year for the Springbok Women, with professional contracts finally coming into play, a new women’s tournament launching, and, of course, RWC 2025. They had a good year last year, with really promising signs of progress under new coach Swys de Bruin, and I can’t wait to see what they can do in 2025.
Outside of the World Cup, the women’s fixtures for 2025 haven’t been announced yet, so it’s a little trickier to dream on their behalf. I’d love to see them win all their warm up games, and at least three out of four pool games at the RWC – France may be a bridge too far, but if they can beat Italy for the first time ever, I could get my one wish for them for 2025: that they make it to the quarter finals. Given that they didn’t win any of their games at RWC 2021, this would be immense…and it is absolutely possible. Anything beyond the quarter finals would be heaven! It would also be great to see them re-enter the top ten of the World Rugby rankings - their highest ever position was 10th, in 2011. That also seems really doable this year, depending on the RWC results. Exciting times.
Sharks
Ah, my Sharks. It's been a rollercoaster. But the 2024/2025 season is already off to a much better start than they had for the 2023/2024 iteration, so I’m feeling good about what this year holds.
I could talk about the games or tournaments I want them to win this year, and of course, in an ultimate dream scenario, they’d win the URC, at least make the finals of the Champions Cup, and retain the Currie Cup. They have the talent to do all those things. Which is why my one wish for the Sharks this year isn’t necessarily about what they do or don’t win.
Much like the Springboks, the Sharks took a great approach to combining experience with new talent last year, and I'd love to see them continuing with this in 2025 - the only way to build depth is to let young players play, and we all know depth is crucial when you're playing in a million different competitions, all year round.
But what I really, really want is for them to continue to find their way back to the team identity and culture they’ve always had – and we saw some of that manifested in the levels of self-belief displayed during the Challenge Cup and Currie Cup playoffs last year – and to play to their potential. If they can do this, and find the consistency and cohesion that seems to be elusive, they’ll in turn have all they need to deliver the results they absolutely are capable of – and to silence a lot of detractors in the process. If they could start by beating current Champions Cup holders, Toulouse, next weekend, that would be a bonus, and not just because I'll be in the stadium.
Beyond these teams, my overall rugby wish for this year is for it to be ever so slightly less stressful. I loved the one-point games (that we won), don’t get me wrong, and I’ll take a narrow victory over defeat every time, but if I could spend less time pacing and crying in 2025, that would be great…
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