Lambert Smith Groenewald (born 1 February 1989 in Worcester) is a South African-born Zimbabwean

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 who most recently played for the . His regular position is flanker.

Career

Youth

At youth level, he captained his high school team at

Paul Roos Gymnasium Paul Roos Gymnasium is a public, dual medium (Afrikaans & English) high school for boys in the town of Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa, and opened on the 1st of March 1866 as Stellenbosch Gymnasium. It is the 12th oldest school in the c ...

and represented at the 2007 Under-18 Academy Week and

Craven Week The Craven Week is an annual rugby union tournament organised for schoolboys in the Republic of South Africa. The tournament started in July 1964, and is named after the legendary Springbok rugby union player and coach Dr Danie Craven. The tou ...

tournaments before moving to the . He represented them at Under-19 and Under-21 level between 2008 and 2010.

Sharks

He made his first class debut for the in the

2010 Vodacom Cup The 2010 Vodacom Cup was contested from 26 February to 7 May. The 2010 Vodacom Cup is the 13th edition of this annual domestic cup competition. The Vodacom Cup is played between provincial rugby union teams in South Africa from the Currie Cup Prem ...

competition. He started the opening match of the season against the and scored a try after 29 minutes to help the Sharks XV to a 69–8 victory. A further five appearances followed in the 2010 Vodacom Cup, as well as eight appearances in the

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

competition. He did not play any

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 ...

rugby, but he did make one

Super Rugby 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 ...

appearance for the when he came on as a late substitute for Ryan Kankowski in their match against the .

Brescia and Ordizia

He left the in 2011 to join

Rugby Brescia Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: ...

in the Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

. He spent one season in Brescia and then joined Basque side AMPO Ordizia for the

2012–13 División de Honor de Rugby The 2012–13 División de Honor is the 46th season of the División de Honor de Rugby, top flight of the Spanish domestic rugby union competition since its inception in 1953. Regular season began in September 2012 and finished on April 28, 2013. ...

Golden Lions

He returned to South Africa in 2013, joining the in time for the

2013 Currie Cup Premier Division The 2013 Currie Cup Premier Division was the 75th season in the competition since it started in 1889 and was contested from 10 August to 26 October 2013. The tournament (known as the Absa Currie Cup Premier Division for sponsorship reasons) was t ...

season.

Pumas

After making just seven appearances in two years for the Golden Lions, he agreed to join

Mbombela Mbombela (also known as Nelspruit) is a city in northeastern South Africa. It is the capital of the Mpumalanga province. Located on the Crocodile River, Mbombela lies about by road west of the Mozambique border, east of Johannesburg and north ...

-based side the on loan for the 2015 season. He was a member of the Pumas side that won the

Vodacom Cup The Vodacom Cup was an annual rugby union competition in South Africa. Annual Vodacom Cup competitions were played between its inaugural season in 1998 and 2015 and was contested between February and May each year. The Vodacom Cup was the succes ...

for the first time in

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, beating 24–7 in the final. Groenewald made eight appearances during the season, scoring two tries. In July 2015, the Pumas announced that they signed Groenewald on a permanent basis for the 2016 season.

Zimbabwe

In May 2014, the ZRU confirmed that Groenewald would be available to play for the

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

during the

2014 Africa Cup The 2014 Africa Cup was the fourteenth edition of the Africa Cup, an annual international rugby union tournament for African nations organised by the Confederation of African Rugby (CAR). The tournament, as well as the 2012 Africa Cup, 2012 and 201 ...

, a competition that doubled up as the African qualifying competition for the

2015 Rugby World Cup The 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was onl ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Groenewald, Lambert South African rugby union players Zimbabwean rugby union players Living people 1989 births Golden Lions players Sharks (Currie Cup) players Sharks (rugby union) players Rugby union players from Worcester, South Africa Rugby union flankers Alumni of Paul Roos Gymnasium