South Africa national rugby league team

South Africa

Team information
Nickname	The Rhinos
Governing body	South African Rugby League
Region	Asia-Pacific
Head coach	Darryl Fisher
Captain	Shane Gillham
Home stadium	Brakpan Stadium
IRL ranking	25th
Uniforms
First colours
Team results
First international
Great Britain 49 – 30 South Africa  (Durban, South Africa; 23 August 1962)
Biggest win
Brazil 0 – 82 South Africa  (Noosa, Australia; 5 June 2022)
Biggest defeat
Australia 86 – 6 South Africa  (Gateshead, England; 10 October 1995)
World Cup
Appearances	2 (first time in 1995)
Best result	Group stage, 1995, 2000

The South Africa national rugby league team to date have competed at two Rugby League World Cups in 1995 and 2000.

Rugby league was originally introduced to South Africa in the 1950s with the staging of several series tournaments within the country that saw fixtures between the English and the French however this concept failed to generate the needed interest and was not upheld. The South Africans did not see further international rugby league until the 1960s where the first national side undertook fixtures against the visiting British and a tour to Australia. From the 1960s onwards the international fixture list for the South Africans was minimal and it was not until the early 1990s when they began to play with some lasting regularity.

Since they began playing international rugby league South Africa have always found it difficult to compete against the more established nations and so progress and improvement have been slow. Possibly their greatest achievement to date has been the qualification and participation in two World Cups in both 1995 and 2000 where South Africa failed to win a fixture after being seeded in tough groups at both tournaments where they had to play world champions Australia along with England, Fiji, France, Papua New Guinea and Tonga.

South Africa traditionally play in a predominately green uniform with black shorts, they have commonly been referred to as The Rhinos since the early 1990s. The South African emblem is a red and yellow King Protea plant which is the national flower of South Africa. South African internationals are played at a variety of venues throughout the country with no singular home ground being used.

It has often been said that South Africa has great potential for rugby league, but the sport has a relatively low profile in the country with rugby union being the predominant and more established code. This is exacerbated by the fact that very few schools offer rugby league as an extracurricular activity and there are relatively few youth clubs. The popularity of the South Africa national rugby union team and South Africa national rugby sevens team in the country further hinders the development of rugby league as potential players are groomed to play in the national and provincial Rugby union teams and the national Rugby sevens team from a young age.