Franco Stephan Marais (born 23 September 1992) is a 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 ...

player for Red Hurricanes in the Japanese

Top League Japan Rugby League One (formerly the Top League) is a rugby union competition in Japan. It is the highest level of professional rugby competition in the country. The Japan Rugby Football Union created the competition in 2003, by absorbing the ...

. His usual position is hooker. In March 2018 it was announced that Marais would join

Premiership Rugby Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...

side

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

for the 2018–19 season. He will leave Gloucester at the end of 2019–20 season to join Japanese side Red Hurricanes. A side now under leadership of Gloucester's former head coach

Johan Ackermann Johannes Nicolaas 'Johan' Ackermann (born 3 June 1970) is a South African professional rugby union coach and former player. He played as a Lock (rugby union), lock during his playing career between 1995 and 2007. He is currently the head coach at ...

References

Living people 1992 births South African rugby union players Sharks (Currie Cup) players Sharks (rugby union) players Rugby union hookers South Africa Under-20 international rugby union players Gloucester Rugby players NTT DoCoMo Red Hurricanes Osaka players Rugby union players from Gauteng Urayasu D-Rocks players {{SouthAfrica-rugbyunion-bio-stub