Bulls Daisies maintain undefeated streak in Women’s Premier Division as title race heats up

Laurian Johannes-Haupt during Springbok Women training session at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on February 04, 2025 in Pretoria, South Africa. (Photo by David Van Der Sandt/Gallo Images)

By Yanga Sibembe

20 Feb 2025

With 2025 being the year of the latest Women’s Rugby World Cup edition, the national team coaches are keeping a particularly sharp eye on developments in the domestic scene.

The new season of the Women’s Premier Division, South Africa’s domestic rugby competition, is under way. Defending champions the Bulls Daisies have shown quality so far this season and appear destined to clinch a third consecutive title in the competition.

The Daisies were champions in 2023 and 2024, and as the only fully professional side playing in the competition they hold a slight advantage over their rivals. At the halfway mark of the eight-game league campaign of the annual showpiece, the Pretoria-based team remains undefeated.

They showed their quality when they demolished the Sharks Women 69-5 to preserve their perfect record in their most recent outing. Of course, there are still four more matches to play in the group phase, but few people would bet against the Daisies pushing all the way again. In 2021 and 2022, the Boland Dames also won back-to-back titles, but could not make it a hat-trick.

Bok Women assistant coach Laurian Johannes-Haupt, who is a former Springbok herself, says that although as national team coaches they would love to see some stronger competition for the Daisies, the way the team operated would always hand them an advantage over their rivals.

Springbok Women assistant coach Laurian Johannes-Haupt. (Photo: David van der Sandt / Gallo Images)

Chumisa Qawe of the Bulls during the Womens Premier Division final match against DHL Western Province at Loftus Versfeld Stadium. (Photo: Lee Warren / Gallo Images)

“It’s always exciting to see a team that is taking women’s rugby seriously and achieving their objectives. Ideally, all unions and franchises should get on board in terms of being professional. I know it’s not easy to do that, but that’s what we’d like to see,” Johannes-Haupt told Daily Maverick.

“What we are seeing at some of the unions, although they are not professional, is that they are conducting themselves in a professional manner… The Daisies have the majority of the Springboks in any case, so we expect them to be doing well,” the coach said.

Indeed, Daisies players such Libbie Janse van Rensburg, Lusanda Dumke, Jakkie Cilliers and Sanelisiwe Charlie (to name a few) are players who are important in the Bok Women set-up. However, Johannes-Haupt says the fact that there is even a domestic league to begin with is a positive for the national team. Especially with the 2025 Women’s World Cup coming up in a few months.

“I’m just happy that the girls get to play as much rugby as they can, especially for our World Cup prep campaign. It’s really special that they get to play. For now, we as coaches are just watching their behaviour and habits at their unions, how they perform. This provincial league is massive for us as coaches, from a national perspective,” Johannes-Haupt stated.

Ideal situation

The Bok assistant coach also said that as much she was pleased that there had been improvements domestically, at this point the most ideal situation for female rugby players in the country was for them to move abroad, to countries that had established fully professional leagues.

Bok prop Babalwa Latsha paved the way back in 2020, becoming Africa’s first woman to sign a professional rugby contract when she joined Spanish team Eibar. A few of her Bok teammates have since followed in her footsteps.

“For now, I would love for our players to get international deals. We are blessed that we have about five of our players playing in the Premier League in the UK. Week in and week out they are playing against international opposition, the kind of quality they will face at the World Cup. So, they come into the Springbok team with that special weapon,” said Johannes-Haupt.

“Yes, we do hope to improve our domestic competition. And SA Rugby is working on things to make our league a bit more professional, with the best of the best playing each other,” the 40-year-old said.

In January Johannes-Haupt became the first full-time female rugby coach to be involved with a national team in SA Rugby’s ranks when she was appointed Bok assistant coach.

Laurian Johannes-Haupt during a Springbok Women training session at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on 4 February 2025. (Photo: David van der Sandt / Gallo Images)

To fulfil this mandate, the former Junior Bok Women coach decided to leave her previous full-time occupation as a teacher at Athlone High School.

“I’ve had a really good and swift transition. The nice part is that I’ve been in the system. So it’s not much that I needed to get used to, besides the fact that it’s now rugby all day, every day. Where there was previously a tussle between me being in the class and the rugby, now I can immerse myself in rugby. Which is exciting,” Johannes-Haupt said.

“It was a tough decision (to walk away from teaching). Although I love both teaching and rugby, I had to choose between the two,” she said.

“It’s a World Cup year and I wanted to give the best of myself to a programme, or give the best of myself to the classroom. I couldn’t do both… Rugby is still an opportunity for me to teach, just to a different audience.”

The Bok Women face Brazil, Italy and France in their pool matches of the 2025 World Cup, which will be played from 22 August to 27 September in England. The Premier Division final will be contested by the two teams that finish at the summit of the ongoing league campaign. It takes place on 28 March, and the Daisies are almost certain to be one of the finalists, considering their form this season. DM

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Ideal situation