SA Rugby Magazine

SA Rugby Magazine

September 2015 (Issue 215)
Categories Sport, Rugby union
Frequency 11 times a year
Circulation 23,382 (ABC Jan-Mar 2016)
Publisher Highbury Safika Media (Pty) Ltd
First issue April 1995
Country South Africa
Language English
Website http://www.sarugbymag.co.za
ISSN 1024-3216

SA Rugby magazine is a Rugby Union magazine published 11 times a year (monthly, with a combined January/February issue during the off-season). It covers Springboks, international, Super Rugby, Currie Cup, Varsity Cup, 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, which was hosted by South Africa. Springboks wing Chester Williams was on the cover.

SA Rugby magazine was initially published by Random House Struik, 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 known as Highbury Safika Media) and relaunched with the May 2002 issue.

An Afrikaans edition of the magazine was published from the September 2015 issue to the July 2016 issue.

Notable issues

The April 2005 issue of SA Rugby magazine was its 100th, featuring Ashwin Willemse, 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,[1] and cost R29.90.

To celebrate its 20th anniversary in April 2015, SA Rugby magazine selected the best 20 Springboks since 1995.[2] 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 and Henry Honiball; scrumhalves Joost van der Westhuizen and Fourie du Preez; loose forwards Francois Pienaar, Juan Smith and Schalk Burger; locks Mark Andrews, Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha; hookers John Smit and Bismarck du Plessis; 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).

The 188-page 2015 World Cup preview issue (September 2015, R29.90) was the first to also be published in Afrikaans.

Staff

Former editors of the magazine include John Dobson, Chris Schoeman and Simon Borchardt. Regular contributors include Mark Keohane, a multiple SAB Sports Journalist of the Year award winner; Jon Cardinelli, Highbury Safika Media's chief rugby writer and 2013 SAB Sports Journalist of the Year and SAB Sports Feature Writer of the Year;[3][4] and Ryan Vrede, senior rugby writer. Gary Lemke is Highbury Safika Media's group sports editorial director and multiple SAB Sports Journalist of the Year winner.[5]

Website

The magazine's website www.sarugbymag.co.za was launched in February 2013.[6] It offers news, opinion, analysis, match previews and reports, live text commentary, videos, fixtures, results and logs.

In 2014, the desktop version of SARugbymag.co.za had 954,970 unique users and 5,122,653 page views, while the mobile version had 3,304,911 unique users and 6,151,987 page views.[7]

A separate, dedicated 2015 World Cup website was launched that year, although other World Cup-related articles still appeared on the main website.

In 2016, dedicated South African schools rugby and European rugby] websites were launched.

Awards

References

  1. ↑ "SA Rugby May 2014 (200th issue!)". MediaSlut. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  2. ↑ http://www.sarugbymag.co.za/blog/details/the-20-best-boks-since-1995
  3. ↑ "SAB Sports Media Awards Winners 2013". MediaWeb. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  4. ↑ "Jon Cardinelli is the SAB Sports Journalist of the Year". Highbury Safika Media. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  5. ↑ "Sports editorial director Gary Lemke wins another award". Highbury Safika Media. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  6. ↑ "Highbury Safika Media launches the new SA Rugby website". MediaUpdate. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  7. ↑ http://www.google.co.za/analytics/
  8. ↑ "Sappi PICA Awards 2002 - Winners". Bizcommunity.com. Retrieved 8 April 2014.
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