Abraham Johannes Jacobus "Braam" van Straaten (born 28 September 1971) 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 its m ...

footballer. He was capable of playing either at fly-half or centre, and represented the

Springboks The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks (colloquially the Boks, Bokke or Amabokoboko), is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jersey ...

in 21 tests from 1999 to 2001, scoring 221 points. Van Straaten was born in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

and made a relatively late start to professional rugby, making his debut for the

Bulls Bulls may refer to: *The plural of bull, an adult male bovine *Bulls, New Zealand, a small town in the Rangitikei District Sports *Bucking bull, used in the sport of bull riding *Bulls (rugby union), a South African rugby union franchise operated ...

in 1996 at the age of 24. Joining the legion of former Springbok Rugby players that have participated in the Absa

Cape Epic The Absa Cape Epic, founded by Kevin Vermaak and also known as the Cape Epic, is an annual mountain bike stage race held in the Western Cape, South Africa. First staged in 2004, it has been accredited as ''hors catégorie'' (beyond categoriza ...

mountain bike stage race, Van Straaten took on the challenge in 2009 and successfully completed the race with partner Corne Klem.

References

1971 births Living people Leeds Tykes players Sale Sharks players South African rugby union players Stormers players Western Province (rugby union) players South Africa international rugby union players Bulls (rugby union) players Griquas (rugby union) players Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union players from Pretoria {{SouthAfrica-rugbyunion-bio-stub