Who is Stanley Raubenheimer: Ten things you should know about the South Africa coach

Stanley Raubenheimer guided the Springbok Women back to the Rugby World Cup.

He played for several sides across South Africa and has a wealth of coaching experience.

Ten things you should know about Stanley Raubenheimer

1. Stanley Raubenheimer was born on 19 November 1969. A scrum-half at Tygerberg RFC in Cape Town, he played pre- and post-unification in South Africa.

2. After the creation of the South African Rugby Football Union helped unify the sport in the country in 1992, he played for Western Province, the Bulls, the Pumas and Boland.

3. Experienced in the art of player development, he has worked as a coach for the South Africa Rugby Academy and Western Province U21.

4. He has also been an assistant coach for the Zimbabwe men’s team, working under former Springboks boss Peter de Villiers.

5. He describes himself as an “attack-minded coach” and was involved in the early years of Super Rugby, coaching at the Cats in Johannesburg, as well as the Griffins in the Currie Cup.

6. Raubenheimer was appointed South Africa Women head coach in May 2018.

At the time, the side had not played an International for four years as SA Rugby opted to rebuild its women’s programme after the 2014 World Cup and didn’t enter the qualification process for the 2017 tournament.

7. He had to wait more than a year for his first win as South Africa coach – an 89-5 drubbing of Uganda in August 2019.

Raubenheimer’s first win as Springboks coach came against Uganda (Getty Images)

8. He guided South Africa to RWC 2021 (being played in 2022) qualification with victory in the Rugby Africa Women’s Cup in 2019.

9. Keen to keep fit in his post-playing life, Raubenheimer is an avid cyclist.

10. Raubenheimer explained to Rugby World in 2020, in a piece on the Springbok Women story, that cross-gender comparisons within South African rugby are futile.

“It would be unfair to expect the women to emulate the success of the men given the vastly different circumstances within the rugby systems in South Africa,” he said in 2020. “Women’s rugby is still in its infancy over here, but there is a lot of effort going into the game.”

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