Super Scouts is like LinkedIn for prospective rugby pros

If you have any interest at all in advancing your own career, chances are you’re on LinkedIn. It just makes sense, and it makes just as much sense that professional sports people looking to improve their prospects should have their own online platform. Enter Super Scouts.

At present, the recently launched network is aimed solely at rugby players, allowing them to upload vital elements of their playing CV, from the basics like position, height and weight, to their 40m dash time and 1 rep squat and bench press max.

The network, which aims to be the “only database of every player, coach, team, agent, scout and brand involved in South African rugby”, also allows players to load images and video footage of themselves in action on the field.

The site is the brainchild of Entrepreneur and rugby enthusiast Francois Liebenberg and has former Baby Bok, Lions and Boland coach Eugene “Loffie” Eloff onboard as a brand ambassador. Current players on the platform include Willie Britz, Francois Venter and Francois Uys.

Read more: These are the top 10 Rugby World Cup players to follow on Facebook (and their Instagram counterparts)

According to a press release sent to Memeburn, Super Scouts is geared at all participants in rugby. It claims that players gain exposure by uploading their free profiles, agents and scouts gain easy access to thousands of players, while schools, clubs, varsities and unions get the opportunity to showcase their facilities, players and sponsors. This, the network says, then gives brands who partner with Super Scouts a niche audience that is 100% aligned with their marketing strategies.

While having established names onboard is a good start, Super Scouts reckons it’ll actually be most useful for rural players who don’t get as much exposure as their urban counterparts. It also says that one of its primary aims is to facilitate the much talked about transformation of rugby at grass roots level by providing a world-first opportunity to the players who really need it.

It’s an interesting, and potentially lucrative, idea and if it achieves its aims, then it could prove vital too.