Izak Stephanus de Villiers 'Balie' Swart (born 18 May 1964), is a former South African

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

player. He played as a prop, with the ability to prop on either side of the hooker.

Playing career

Swart is a product of

Paarl Gimnasium Paarl Gimnasium is a public Afrikaans medium co-educational high school situated in the city of Paarl in the Western Cape province of South Africa. History Rev. van der Lingen founded the school in the centre of town in 1858. The school has pr ...

and represented and captained the Schools team at the 1983

Craven Week The Craven Week is an annual rugby union tournament organised for schoolboys in the Republic of South Africa. The tournament started in July 1964, and is named after the legendary Springbok rugby union player and coach Dr Danie Craven. The to ...

tournament. He also was selected for the South African Schools team in 1983, once again the captain. After school he played for the

University of Stellenbosch Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

before making his provincial debut for Western Province in 1987. During 1992, he joined , now the Golden Lions and until 1999, playing over a hundred games for the union. He had 16 caps for

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, from 1993 to 1996, never scoring. He was a member of the winning team at the 1995 World Cup finals, where he played in four games, including as tighthead prop in the 15–12 final win against the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...

. He also played in the first edition of the Tri Nations competition, in 1996. Swart also played in fifteen tour matches for the Springboks.

Test history

World Cup Final

Coaching career

After ending his player career, in 1999, he became a coach and started with the . In 2000 he moved to New Zealand, coaching at Nelson Bays and at the . On his return to South Africa he was assistant coach at the and Springbok scrum coach during the 2007 Rugby World Cup. In 2011 he started working for SA Rugby, assisting coaches and referees with scrum laws and later became involved with

SANZAR SANZAAR (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina Rugby; previously known as SANZAR) is the body which oversees Super Rugby and The Rugby Championship competitions in rugby union. SANZAAR meets annually and is composed of the CEOs from ...

, working with the referees.

References

External links

Balie Swart International Statistics
1964 births Living people South African rugby union players South Africa international rugby union players South African rugby union coaches Golden Lions players Rugby union props Lions (United Rugby Championship) players Alumni of Paarl Gimnasium Western Province (rugby union) players Rugby union players from the Western Cape {{SouthAfrica-rugbyunion-bio-stub

Playing career

Test history

Coaching career

See also

References

External links