Jan Hendrik de Beer (born 22 April 1971) is a South African former

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. He played

flyhalf 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– ...

for the South African national team, 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 all he represented the Springboks in 13 tests, scoring 181 points. He was principally known as a kicking fly-half.

Career

Born in

Welkom Welkom () is the second-largest city in the Free State province of South Africa, located about northeast of Bloemfontein which is the provincial capital. Welkom is also known as Circle City, City Within A Garden, Mvela and Matjhabeng. The cit ...

, de Beer represented at the 1989 Craven Week tournament. He made his senior provincial debut for the in 1990 as a 19-year-old. De Beer made his début against the British & Irish Lions in 1997, being brought in for the dropped

Henry Honiball Henry William Honiball (born 1 December 1965) is a South African former professional rugby union footballer. He usually played at fly-half and sometimes as a centre. Honiball played for early in his career, but is best known for his time with N ...

whose running game had been contained by the Lions' defence in the first two of the three tests. He failed however to establish himself properly in the Springbok side. De Beer is most famous for his world record five drop goals in a single test match, set in the

1999 Rugby World Cup The 1999 Rugby World Cup was the fourth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial international rugby union championship. It was principally hosted by Wales, and was won by Australia. This was the first Rugby World Cup to be held in the sport's professi ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The Springboks won the match 44-21, knocking England out of the tournament. However, his attempts to repeat the tactic in the semi-final versus Australia backfired, as despite several attempts he only scored one in the match, and the Australians closed him down. It proved to be his final appearance for the Springboks. A professed

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

, de Beer credits his faith in God for his successes. De Beer retired from professional rugby in 2002 due to a knee injury. At the end of 2019, de Beer was appointed as the director of rugby at the

Windhoek Gymnasium Windhoek Gymnasium Private School (Windhoek Gymnasium) is a private school in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. The school has one campus in the Kleine Kuppe suburb, while the old campus situated in Olympia is now being used as an office complex f ...

Test history

''Legend: pen = penalty (3 pts.); conv = conversion (2 pts.), drop = drop kick (3 pts.).''

References

External links

*
Official website of the IRB Rugby World Cup 2003
accessed 17 October 2005.
“Star Q & A: Jannie de Beer”
accessed 17 October 2005.
“Rugby World Cup 1999: De Beer Diamond”
accessed 17 October 2005. 1971 births Living people Bulls (rugby union) players Free State Cheetahs players Lions (United Rugby Championship) players Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union players from Welkom South Africa international rugby union players South African rugby union players {{SouthAfrica-rugbyunion-bio-stub

Career

Test history

See also

References

External links