Jace Van Dijk (born 1981) is an Australian professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

footballer for the

Easts Tigers The Brisbane Tigers are a rugby league club based at Langlands Park, in the suburb of Coorparoo in Brisbane, Australia. Since 1996, they have competed in the Queensland Cup, having competed in the Brisbane Rugby League from 1934 to 1997, where ...

in the

Queensland Cup The Queensland Cup, currently known as the Hostplus Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level regional rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It is run by the Queensland Rugby League (QRL) and is contested by fou ...

. He primarily plays at halfback or standoff. He previously played for the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

in the Super League. He is of

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

descent and plays for the

Netherlands national rugby league team The Netherlands national rugby league team is the national rugby league team of The Netherlands. It was formed in January 2003. The national team played its first international match in 2003 against Scotland A, where they lost 22–18. History R ...

Canberra

Van Dijk captained the

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby ...

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

team to their 2003 grand final win. In the following season, he was given a position as assistant coach with the Raider's feeder team, Souths Logan.

Celtic Crusaders

In 2008, Van Dijk was sidelined for three months after breaking his jaw in two places following a high tackle. Van Dijk was the National League Two 'Player of the Year' in 2006 and Rugby League Express’ 'Player of the Year' in 2007. The Crusaders' captain is third in the all-time scoring charts. He has scored 21 tries. Van Dijk was signed from

side

Wynnum Seagulls The Wynnum-Manly Seagulls are an Australian rugby league football club based at Kougari Oval, in Brisbane's bayside suburb of Manly West, which neighbours the suburb of Wynnum. They competed in the Brisbane Rugby League from 1951 to 1997. Sinc ...

. In August 2009, Van Dijk, along with five team mates, was ordered to leave the United Kingdom after the

UK Border Agency The UK Border Agency (UKBA) was the border control agency of the Government of the United Kingdom and part of the Home Office that was superseded by UK Visas and Immigration, Border Force and Immigration Enforcement in April 2013. It was f ...

identified breaches to their visa conditions. Celtic Crusaders cancelled Van Dijk's contract with immediate effect.

References

External links

Crusader's profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Dijk, Jace 1981 births Living people Australian people of Dutch descent Australian rugby league players Crusaders Rugby League players Eastern Suburbs Tigers players Netherlands national rugby league team players Place of birth missing (living people] Rugby league five-eighths Souths Logan Magpies players