Jaco van der Westhuyzen (born 6 April 1978) is a South African former professional

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 who played

fly-half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...

or fullback.

Early life

Born in

Groblersdal Groblersdal is a farming town situated 32 km north of the 178 million m³ Loskop Dam in the Sekhukhune District of Limpopo. The town is South Africa's second largest irrigation settlement. The main crops in this man-made floodplain are cott ...

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It ...

province, South Africa, van der Westhuyzen was educated at Ben Viljoen High School,

, van der Westhuyzen studied law at the

University of Natal The University of Natal was a university in the former South African province Natal which later became KwaZulu-Natal. The University of Natal no longer exists as a distinct legal entity, as it was incorporated into the University of KwaZulu-N ...

(Pietermaritzburg) and through

UNISA The University of South Australia (UniSA) is a public research university in the Australian state of South Australia. It is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network of universities, and is the largest university in South Australi ...

. Van der Westhuyzen has played for South Africa A, U23s and U21s (helping them to the Sanzar title in Argentina in 2000), as well as the

South African Barbarians South African Barbarians is an invitational rugby union club styled along the lines of Barbarian F.C. It was formed in 1960 by Frank Mellish, the former 1951–52 Springbok selector and manager, together with former Natal Rugby Union President, ...

in 2001 and South Africa Schools in 1996.

Professional rugby career

He made his name with the as a

starting at U21 level in 1997. Played in both the

Currie Cup The Currie Cup is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition, played each winter and spring (June to October), featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier ...

(scoring 96 points in 21 games) and then making his

Super 12 Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

debut in 1997 as a 19-year-old. He was unable to cement himself a place in the starting line-up, and moved north to the Mpumalanga Pumas where he came under the eye of ex-Springbok centre

Danie Gerber Danie Gerber (born 14 April 1958 in Port Elizabeth, Union of South Africa) is a former South African rugby union player, who played for South Africa between 1980 and 1992. He played mainly at inside or outside centre, but also on the wing. His ...

. Van der Westhuyzen was first capped for 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 the 2000 Tri Nations tournament against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

as a replacement, but a knee injury after his first two tests curtailed his international career. Van der Westhuyzen then moved to the

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 ...

-based

Blue Bulls The Blue Bulls (known for sponsorship reasons as the Vodacom Blue Bulls) is a South African rugby union team that participates in the annual Currie Cup tournament. They are governed by the Blue Bulls Rugby Union and are based at Loftus Versfe ...

in 2001 helping them to the Vodacom Cup in his first year then, still playing as a

, claiming the Currie Cup title in 2002. He was named the South African

Player of the Year following the Bulls’ sixth-place finish in the competition – the highest of any South African team in 2003. He returned to the Bulls in 2006 after stints at Leicester Tigers and NEC Green Rockets. He has been played mainly at fullback since his return; Morné Steyn and Derick Hougaard are currently well-established as the team's fly-halves. He scored his debut international try against

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

in the

2003 Rugby World Cup The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup. Originally planned to be hosted by India, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the Indian Rugby Union and Rugby World Cup ...

, after he was called into the South African squad as a late replacement. In 2006, van der Westhuyzen was part of the Springboks side that was thrashed 49–0 by the Wallabies, in their opening Tri Nations match. van der Westhuyzen made many handling errors during the match, leading to

Butch James Andrew David "Butch" James (born 8 January 1979) is a South African former professional rugby union player who represented 40 times and was a member of the team that won the 2007 Rugby World Cup. His usual position was fly-half, though he also p ...

to be brought into the side. One of van der Westhuyzen's errors involved him dropping the ball and after in the bounced, kick it, claiming to the referee that he was attempting a drop goal. Later, van der Westhuyzen claimed he "needed to think of something".

Leicester Tigers

After the

he joined

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its hom ...

, where he initially was brought in as a fullback to replace

Tim Stimpson Timothy Richard George Stimpson (born 10 September 1973 in Liverpool) is a former rugby union international full back (and occasional wing). During his career he played for Wakefield, West Hartlepool, Newcastle Falcons, Leicester Tigers, Perp ...

. However, he was soon switched to

, following in the tradition of

Joel Stransky Joel Theodore Stransky (born 16 July 1967) is a South African former rugby union player. A fly-half, he is known for scoring all of South Africa's points, including the winning drop goal, against New Zealand in the 1995 Rugby World Cup final. ...

. His performances earned him a recall to the Springbok side in 2004. Van Der Westhuyzen made a total of 12 appearances, scoring 33 points for the Tigers.

NEC Green Rockets

Despite attempts by Leicester to keep him at the club, he decided to honour a contract he had signed with

NEC Green Rockets NEC Green Rockets Tokatsu (formerly NEC Green Rockets) is a Japanese rugby union team in the Japan Rugby League One. The team's captain iRyota Asano The previous captain was Takuro Miuchi, who was also the captain of the Japan national rugby unio ...

in Japan and was registered from 2004 to 2009.

Return to Bulls

In 2010 van der Westhuyzen rejoined Bulls for the 2010 Super 14 season.

Beliefs

Van der Westhuyzen is a devout Christian. He claims his knee injury was miraculously healed by prayer when he visited T.B. Joshua, pastor of The Synagogue, Church of All Nations in Lagos, Nigeria. According to him he was cured from a career threatening knee ligament injury immediately following the prayer.

Achievements

* SANZAR u21 Championship with South Africa Under-21 1999. *

2002 with

. * Superrugby winner 2007 & 2010 (

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 ...

) * Tri Nations 2004, with

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

References

External links

Profile at the Springbok Rugby Hall of Fame
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Der Westhuyzen, Jaco South African rugby union players South Africa international rugby union players Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union fullbacks Leicester Tigers players Green Rockets Tokatsu players Expatriate rugby union players in Japan 1978 births Living people University of South Africa alumni Bulls (rugby union) players Blue Bulls players Pumas (Currie Cup) players Sharks (Currie Cup) players Sharks (rugby union) players People from Mbombela South African expatriate rugby union players South African expatriate sportspeople in Japan South African Christians White South African people Rugby union players from Mpumalanga