Libbie Janse van Rensburg is still making history as a player, but the Springbok Women’s flyhalf is already being tapped up for a different role in rugby.
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Janse van Rensburg became the first Bok Women to score 200 international points just prior to the start of WXV2 in Cape Town. But if fellow South African Aimee Barrett-Theron has her way, South Africa’s Women’s Player of the Year for 2023 could be swapping scoring for refereeing.
“I would like to stay in women’s rugby after I am done playing,” said Janse van Rensburg.
“There is so much I can do off the field to grow the game in South Africa whether it is in the union, maybe going into refereeing.
“I have been speaking with Aimee Barrett-Theron as well and there is also an opportunity there. I will see when the time comes which way I am leaning.
“When I started playing rugby Aimee approached me already and asked me how long I wanted to play for because she reckoned I could make a good referee. I had never even considered taking up the whistle and I only really considered it after chatting to her.
“Seeing all the great milestones she has reached and what is doing from a woman referee point of view and it is really inspiring and makes me think about taking up the whistle.”
Janse van Rensburg was one of the stars of the first edition of WXV, with South Africa finishing third in the second tier of the competition. South Africa are back hosting again for 2024 and began their campaign with a battling win over Japan, before a narrow defeat to Australia.
Unfortunately, she picked up an injury in training after the Japan match and was not able to add to her 204 Test points, brought up with a try against Spain in a pre-WXV warm-up Test. She missed the WXV clash against Australia and was subsequently ruled out of Saturday’s final round clash with Italy too.
Before that, she faced a long wait to move off 199 points as injury ruled her out for five months before she achieved a dream by representing South Africa in the Olympic Games in Paris.
Back in the 15s fold, Janse van Rensburg is excited to remind the South African public what women’s rugby is all about: “The media management team made me very much aware of being close to 200! Pre my injury they were mentioning I was so close to it but then when I got injured it put a dampener on things and I sort of forgot about it.
“But as soon as I came back, they were pinning it on me. It was a little bit of pressure, but it is not something I go into the game thinking about. When I started playing rugby, I never thought I’d be the first player to score 100, the first player to score 200 but I am very proud to say I have achieved that.
“I hope it inspires the girls in South Africa, we have been getting such a good turnout of players developing and coming into the system. I hope it inspires some ladies to say ‘I want to beat Libbie’s record’ or ‘I want to be the most capped Springbok’, or anything like that.
“I hope someone stands up and says ‘I am going to give Libbie a run for her money’.”
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Picture: Grant Pitcher / Gallo Images
Words: SA Rugby Magazine
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