Bok duo’s historic European journeys cut short

At the beginning of January 2020 Babalwa Latsha was bursting with excitement after the announcement that upon signing for SD Eibar Femenino in Spain, she had become the first African woman to sign a professional rugby contract.

A month after the news of Latsha’s departure, another Bok player – Kimico Manuel – announced that she too was heading overseas. The wing penned a contract with German outfit Sport Club Neuenheim Frauenmannschaft in February.

Fast forward to a few weeks from those euphoric moments and both players are prematurely back in South Africa. This was after the respective leagues they were playing in were suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Of course, I would have liked to stay and play until the end of my contract (April), but it was for the best that the journey ended. Apart from the fact that I was disappointed, I was actually quite grateful that I had that experience,” Latsha told Daily Maverick.

“The overall experience of being able to ply my trade there and be surrounded by such a phenomenal team and people was one of the things that made it not less disappointing, but more bearable,” she added.

Latsha described the trip home as one of her worst travelling experiences. She says she left Spain on Tuesday, 17 March.

“I flew in the morning from Bilbao, Spain to France – where I was going to catch a plane to Cape Town. The flight was for 9am, but it was cancelled. And the next one was only at midnight. So, I had to spend all those hours at the French airport,” the prop said.

She says the anxiety of spending so much time at an airport of a country which neighbours one of the countries hardest hit by Covid-19 (Italy) was torturous, and that she spent most of the time rigorously sanitising her hands as fear crept in. 

Eventually, she departed France on a plane to Johannesburg, where she connected again to finally get a flight home to Cape Town.

Just like Latsha, Manuel also expressed her worry at being in a country which shares a border with Italy and told of how she struggled to secure a flight home as Germany was on the brink of lockdown.

Eventually, she did board her flight, coincidentally landing in South Africa on the same Wednesday as Latsha.

The former Western Province player added that even though she was happy to be home and safe, she was disappointed at how abruptly her adventure had ended.

“It was quite a disappointment because the league had just started. I only played one game, after which the training was cancelled. After that the gyms were closed as well as shops,” Manuel said to Daily Maverick.

Her contract was supposed to end in May 2020.

As it stands, both players are unsure where their futures lie in the aftermath of Covid-19, but prior to departure they were reassured by their respective teams that they would be kept in the loop of any developments in the coming months.

A big part in determining where they go from here depends on whether the various rugby leagues decide to wrap up their seasons once the scourge has been brought under control.

For now, the two Boks, like most athletes around the world, will be training in isolation to ensure that when they are called back on the field to entertain, they are in the best possible shape.

“I must encourage sportspeople to look after themselves, to look after their bodies, because the show must continue at some point. But for now, I must urge everyone to take proper preventative measures,” said Latsha. DM