Maria Natascha Louw

Maria (Natascha) Louw is a sport officer at the University of Venda. She played varsity and provincial rugby for more than 10 years. A World Rugby Educator and provincial rugby coach. Her Master’s thesis unpacked the life herstories of three historically significant Springbok rugby players. She is currently working on her PhD proposal.

Abstract

Reconstructing Perfromance Narratives of Three Herstorically Significant Springbok Women Rugby Players between 2002 and 2016
Maria M W Louw, Francois Johannes Cleophas, & Wilbur Kraak – Stellenbosch University
Early ball games can be viewed as a point of reference in understanding the history of rugby. From the Greeks that played Episkyros, to the modern-day professional game of rugby, the game has always been brutal and not for the faint-hearted. Consequently, rugby developed a broadly defined masculine character. This paper reconstructed performance narratives of three herstorically significant Springbok women rugby players between 2002 and 2016, namely Ingrid Botha, Yolanda Meiring and Lorinda Brown. These players were selected according to the following criteria: they all played national rugby between 2002 and 2016; they played either fifteens, sevens or both codes at international level; each won the player-of-the-year award and/or captained the national team and they participated in at least one World Cup tournament. The performance narratives of these three Springbok women start a discourse of addressing the void, unlike the Springbok men, that exists in biographical research about South African women’s rugby history. This void points to a broader unmapped African women’s rugby herstory landscape that needs historical intervention.