Oppo was only interested in Springbok Men: SA Rugby

This week, the two announced a three-year agreement ahead of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, with the Chinese cellphone company signing on to be the official handset partner, but only for the Springbok men.

Speaking to SABC Sport, Colquhoun says they have to respect the brand’s direction.

“We've got eight national teams, and Oppo came and they wanted to talk about the Springboks and we respected that, and we spoke about that,” he explained.

In 2022, First National Bank expanded its partnership with SA Rugby by becoming the primary sponsor of the national women's team ahead of the Women's Rugby World Cup in October last year.

The Bok women, who haven't played competitive rugby since being eliminated at the group stages of the World Cup in New Zealand, are now in Europe for two matches against Spain and Canada – the latter finished third at that tournament.

And Colquhoun is optimistic that more competition appearances will attract a plethora of sponsorships.

“[Springbok] Women's is the best untold story in South African sport, we are really excited about them. FNB are staying on board as our principal partner.

We are knocking on doors very hard and we believe that in eight years’ time we'll win the World Cup and we'll have 100 Siya Kolisi stories in our women's team," he concluded.