Arrison blazes a trail in rugby commentary

Six years ago, Layla Arrison was among the pioneers who played in the first Stellenbosch University women’s team, captaining them in their debut 2018/19 season.

Having smashed one glass ceiling, she’s continued her career rise by becoming SuperSport’s first English female rugby commentator.

After a successful rugby stint, highlighted by a place in the Springbok Women’s Sevens Invitational team and two seasons with the Bulls Daisies, she turned to commentary and has made the transition with the grace and guile of an outside centre, which she was.

Now 27, Arrison has been thrust into the deep end at SuperSport, recently co-presenting the Rugby Championship to millions of viewers.

“These were incredibly significant and surreal moments,” she said, adding that making her commentary debut on the SVNS circuit in Singapore the day after her birthday also ranked among her most special achievements.

Her father was an early inspiration, but Arrison’s preferred sport in her early years was cricket, where Kass Naidoo was a beacon for women who aspired to do television work. But as Arrison’s habits shifted, she looked up more to Motshidisi Mohono and Cato Louw, two other women who had broken through the gender barrier by establishing themselves as rugby pundits.

“I am incredibly fortunate to be able to call them not only colleagues but friends who have become family,” she says of a group who strongly reflect SuperSport’s long-running “Here for Her” campaign designed to celebrate and encourage women in sport.

Arrison’s entry into television was fortuitous and unorthodox. When she was 15, she was cast to play in the TV series Thomas on kykNET, which she did for two seasons (missing much school in the process).

As luck would have it, two years ago she visited the SuperSport studios where she met producers Arthur Khoza and Onge Zondani with whom she spoke. As a regular producer of women’s rugby, Zondani has a keen eye for new talent and she recognised something in Arrison.

“She believed in me, gave me the opportunity to join SuperSport and has backed me ever since,” says Arrison, who never needed asking twice.

Said Zondani: “She was brought to us by fate – the stars aligned because a week or two after she distracted my lunch, I needed a female analyst for the Rugby Africa Championship and the rest is history.”

Arrison’s trajectory has in some ways mirrored the growing emergence of women’s sport which now garners significant ratings, public interest and a share of the sponsorship pie.

In mid-July, for instance, she was on the sidelines for the Portuguese test match. Five weeks later, she was in among the like of Jean de Villiers, Victor Matfield, Gcobani Bobo and Justin Marshall for the SA-New Zealand fixture in Johannesburg, later teaming up with Hanyani Shimange for the build-up.

“I often say that if you don’t get on the women’s sport bandwagon now you are missing out,” she says. “I always wanted to be a voice for women’s sport and now outside of the four lines I quite literally have one. We have come such a long way but we have an even longer way to go. I don’t even mind if there is negative chat around women’s rugby or women’s sport, at least people are speaking about it when it was not even a conversation before.”

For years, there weren’t many female rugby commentators Arrison could look up to, but one she long admired was Rikki Swannell of New Zealand, whom she met and worked with in Singapore.

“They often say don’t meet your heroes but she was incredible.”

Arrison’s own style is layered in energy and enthusiasm.

“I believe that if you are smiling and enjoying what you do your audience is immediately drawn to whatever you are doing,” she explains. “I believe in being a hard worker: hard work beats talent every day of the week!”

If rugby consumes much of her time, she finds balance in unusual ways, not least by being an avid Lego builder – “I love being able to zone into a project” – and spending time with her partner and pet dog. She also admits to making her neighbours crazy by playing her guitar.

She doesn’t define success by the number of TV calls she gets or the times she may be recognised in the street. Her measure is more prosaic, believing that if you can make just one person smile with what you are doing you have already started a cycle of good events.

With a packed rugby calendar to anticipate, Arrison has much to look forward to as she settles into her new role at the World of Champions.

“My philosophy in life would have to be that anything you take on should be done to the best of your ability,” she says. “You sometimes only get one opportunity and in that bubble of opportunity how much of that space can you fill, and at the same time potentially create opportunity for others within that bubble? I want to be a platform of empowerment so that girls can see that they can shatter their own glass ceilings.”