Hillegard Muller du Plessis (born 25 June 1999) 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 the in

United Rugby Championship The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

and 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 ...

. He is former rugby sevens player for the

South Africa Sevens The South Africa Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament that is held in South Africa. It is currently hosted in Cape Town and is part of the Sevens World Series run by World Rugby. A South African leg of the World series has been include ...

team. Having won two

World Rugby Sevens Series The World Rugby Men's Sevens Series is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series, the com ...

titles, as well as a

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

gold medal.

Early life and schoolboy rugby

Du Plessis was born in

Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...

in South Africa's

Free State province The Free State, known as Orange Free State until the 28th of June 1995 when its name was changed, is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bloemfontein, which is also South Africa's judicial capital. Its historical origins lie in the Boer ...

as the son of Charl and Anneline du Plessis. He initially attended primary school in Reitz, where he represented local provincial union the at Under-12 level, before moving to

Paarl Paarl (; Afrikaans: ; derived from ''Parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a town with 112,045 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the third-oldest city and European settlement in the Republic of South Africa (after ...

and enrolling at the

Paarl Gimnasium Paarl Gimnasium is a public Afrikaans medium co-educational high school situated in the city of Paarl in the Western Cape province of South Africa. History Rev. van der Lingen founded the school in the centre of town in 1858. The school has pr ...

Primary School. In 2012, Du Plessis represented at the Under-13

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 ...

tournament held in

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State (province), Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legisla ...

, appearing in four matches at

inside centre 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– ...

and scoring a try in their opening match against the . At high school level, Du Plessis attended and played rugby for

. He was included in the Western Province squad for the 2015 Under-16 Grant Khomo Week, only to withdraw through injury. In the same year, he was selected in the

South African Rugby Union The South African Rugby Union (SARU) is the governing body for rugby union in South Africa and is affiliated to World Rugby. It was established in 1992 as the South African Rugby Football Union, from the merger of the South African Rugby Board a ...

's High Performance program. In 2016, he was named in Western Province's squad for the Under-18

tournament held in

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

. He started all three matches, scoring two tries in their second match against the , and helping them to a 27–20 victory over the in the main match to be crowned unofficial champions. At the conclusion of the tournament, Du Plessis was included in the South Africa Schools squad for the Under-19 International Series, helping the team to victories over

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

— scoring two tries in a 42–3 win — and

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 ...

. Du Plessis captained Paarl Gimnasium's first team during 2017, and was again included in the Craven Week side for the tournament in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

. He started all three matches at the tournament, scoring tries in matches against the and the . He received a second call-up to the South Africa Schools squad for the 2017 edition of the Under-19 International Series, but could not prevent the team suffering defeats to Wales, France and England, with Du Plessis scoring two tries in the final match in a 22–52 defeat.

Rugby career

After finishing school, Du Plessis signed a contract to join the

-based team, and also linked up with the South African Sevens Academy in

Stellenbosch Stellenbosch (; )A Universal Pronounc ...

. He was included the academy squad that competed at two events in the

2018 Sudamérica Rugby Sevens The 2018 Sudamérica Rugby Sevens was the twelfth edition of the Sudamérica Rugby Sevens, the continental championship for rugby sevens in South America. Five national teams competed for two slots, not only for the 2018 Hong Kong Sevens qualific ...

, helping them to win both the

Punta Del Este Sevens The Uruguay Sevens, branded as Seven Punta, is an annual international rugby sevens tournament. Currently held in the capital Montevideo, it was hosted as the Punta del Este Sevens in the resort city of the same name for three decades from 1989 ...

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

and the Viña del Mar Sevens in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. Shortly after returning to South Africa, Du Plessis was called up by the senior squad to travel to the

2018 Hamilton Sevens The 2018 New Zealand Sevens was the fourth tournament within the 2017–18 World Rugby Sevens Series and the nineteenth edition of the New Zealand Sevens, and the first to be held in Hamilton. It was held over the weekend of 3–4 February 2017 at ...

as their reserve player, but a

pulled hamstring Straining of the hamstring, also known as a pulled hamstring, is defined as an excessive stretch or tear of muscle fibers and related tissues. Hamstring injuries are common in athletes participating in many sports. Track and field athletes are p ...

resulted in Du Plessis being a late withdrawal from the team. This setback proved to be minor, as he was included in their next squad for the 2018 USA Sevens, where he duly made his debut. He also appeared at the events in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

(where he scored his first try in the series),

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

(where he scored 7 tries for the team) and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, in a season that saw South Africa go on to win the series by pipping

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

to the title. Du Plessis returned to the fifteen-man version of the sport when he was called up to the South Africa Under-20 squad for the

World Rugby Under 20 Championship The World Rugby Under 20 Championship (known as the IRB Junior World Championship until 2014) is an international rugby union competition. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, World Rugby, and is contested by 12 men's junior nat ...

held in France. He did not feature in their opening match of the tournament against

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, but was named in the starting lineup for their second match against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. He scored a try in the 19th minute of the match to set his team on the way to a 30–17 victory. However, he was replaced at half-time, and a

gluteal muscle The gluteal muscles, often called glutes are a group of three muscles which make up the gluteal region commonly known as the buttocks: the gluteus maximus muscle, gluteus maximus, gluteus medius muscle, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus muscle ...

injury ruled him out of the remainder of the championship. He returned to domestic action in South Africa for the in the Under-19 Provincial Championship. In 2022, He was part of the South African team that won their second

gold medal in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Du Plessis, Muller South African rugby union players Living people 1999 births Rugby union players from Bethlehem, Free State Rugby union centres Rugby union wings Rugby union fullbacks South Africa international rugby sevens players South Africa Under-20 international rugby union players Sharks (rugby union) players Sharks (Currie Cup) players Rugby sevens players at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for South Africa Commonwealth Games medallists in rugby sevens Medallists at the 2022 Commonwealth Games