''SA Rugby'' magazine is a monthly South African Rugby Union magazine that covers Springboks, international,

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

, Currie Cup,

Varsity Cup Varsity Cup is the collective name for four South African rugby union competitions involving the top rugby playing universities in the country. It was launched in 2008, with eight teams participating in the Varsity Cup competition and each univers ...

, regional, provincial, club and schools rugby.

History

The first issue of ''SA Rugby'' magazine, dated April 1995, cost R8.50 and went on sale two months before the

1995 Rugby World Cup The 1995 Rugby World Cup was the third Rugby World Cup. It was hosted and won by South Africa, and was the first Rugby World Cup in which every match was held in one country. The World Cup was the first major sporting event to take place in Sou ...

, which was hosted by South Africa. Springboks wing Chester Williams was on the cover. ''SA Rugby'' magazine was initially published by

Random House Struik Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

, before being sold to Strobe Publishing, which published the magazine until the December 2001-January 2002 issue, when Strobe closed. The title was then purchased by Highbury Monarch Communications (now Highbury Media) and relaunched with the May 2002 issue. An Afrikaans edition of the magazine was published from the September 2015 issue to the June 2016 issue. In 2017, SA Rugby magazine began publishing 12 issues a year instead of 11 (with a combined January-February issue), which had been the case since 2002.

Notable issues

The April 2005 issue of ''SA Rugby'' magazine was its 100th, featuring

Ashwin Willemse Ashwin Willemse (born 8 September 1981 in Caledon, Cape Province) is a retired South African rugby union player. He played at wing for the national team, the Springboks. After winning an IRB Under-21 World Cup gold medal for South Africa in 2 ...

, Brent Russell, Victor Matfield and Schalk Burger, and cost R16.95. The May 2014 issue of ''SA Rugby'' magazine was its 200th, featuring Francois Steyn on the cover, and cost R29.90. To celebrate its 20th anniversary in April 2015, ''SA Rugby'' magazine selected the best 20 Springboks since 1995. They were fullbacks André Joubert and Percy Montgomery; wings Chester Williams and Bryan Habana; centres Jean de Villiers, Jaque Fourie and Francois Steyn; flyhalves

Joel Stransky Joel Theodore Stransky (born 16 July 1967) is a South African former rugby union player. A fly-half, he is known for scoring all of South Africa's points, including the winning drop goal, against New Zealand in the 1995 Rugby World Cup final. ...

and

Henry Honiball Henry William Honiball (born 1 December 1965) is a South African former professional rugby union footballer. He usually played at fly-half and sometimes as a centre. Honiball played for early in his career, but is best known for his time with N ...

; scrumhalves Joost van der Westhuizen and

Fourie du Preez Petrus Fourie du Preez (; born 24 March 1982) is a South African former professional rugby union player. He played as a scrum half for the Blue Bulls in the Currie Cup competition and the Bulls in Super Rugby between 2002 and 2011, and for Ja ...

; loose forwards Francois Pienaar,

Juan Smith Juanne Hugo Smith (born 30 July 1981) is a South African former professional rugby union player who represented South Africa in international test rugby, the Cheetahs in the Super Rugby competition, and the Free State Cheetahs in the Currie Cup ...

and Schalk Burger; locks Mark Andrews, Victor Matfield and

Bakkies Botha John Philip "Bakkies" Botha, (born 22 September 1979) is a South African former professional rugby union player who played as a lock for the Springboks until 2014. He was a member of the national team that won the 2007 Rugby World Cup in Franc ...

; hookers John Smit and

Bismarck du Plessis Bismarck Wilhelm du Plessis (born 22 May 1984) is a South African professional rugby union player, who plays for the in the United Rugby Championship and for the in the Currie Cup. He played for the in 2003, before moving to the in 2005 whe ...

; and prop Os du Randt. The selection panel was made up of 2007-World Cup winning coach Jake White, and veteran rugby writers Mark Keohane and Gavin Rich. The biggest issue of ''SA Rugby'' in the magazine's history is the 260-page 2011 World Cup preview issue (September 2011, R25.95), which beat the 236-page 2007 World Cup preview issue (September 2007, R21.95). Th
188-page 2015 World Cup preview issue
(September 2015, R29.90) was the first to also be published in Afrikaans. The last Afrikaans edition was published in June 2016.

Staff

Simon Borchardt edited the magazine from 2002 to 2019 after stints from John Dobson (now Western Province coach) and Chris Schoeman. Gary Lemke, 2015 SAB Sports Journalist of the Year, is Highbury Media's sports editorial director, while other staff includes chief rugby writer and 2013 SAB Sports Journalist of the Year Jon Cardinelli, senior rugby writer Craig Lewis, and rugby writer Mariette Adams. Several freelance writers, from South Africa and around the world, also contribute to the magazine.

Website

The magazine's websit
www.sarugbymag.co.za
was launched in February 2013. It offers news, opinion, analysis, match previews and reports, live text commentary, videos, fixtures, results and logs. In 2018, the website had 2,158,930 users and 13,965,570 pageviews.

Awards

* 2002 PICA Award for Innovation in Magazine Publishing

References

External links

/ sarugbymag.co.za
{{Rugby union in South Africa 1995 establishments in South Africa Magazines established in 1995 Monthly magazines published in South Africa Rugby football magazines Rugby union mass media Rugby union in South Africa Magazines published in South Africa Men's magazines published in South Africa South African sport websites Mass media in Cape Town