Jan Theodorus 'Theo' Jansen van Rensburg (born 26 August 1967, in

Carletonville Carletonville is a town in Gauteng and the seat of the Merafong City Local Municipality in the West Rand District Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, just north of the richest gold-mining area in the world. At 3,749 m, Western Deep Levels hold ...

), is a former

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 ...

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 played for the

South Africa national rugby union team 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 jerse ...

. He played as fullback.

Playing career

Provincial rugby

Van Rensburg represented

Western Transvaal The Province of the Transvaal ( af, Provinsie van Transvaal), commonly referred to as the Transvaal (; ), was a province of South Africa from 1910 until 1994, when a new constitution subdivided it following the end of apartheid. The name "Trans ...

at the

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 ...

for High Schools in 1984 and 1985 and also represented Western Transvaal at under–20 level. In 1989 he made his senior provincial debut for

Northern Transvaal Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

. Van Rensburg relocated to

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

in 1992 and made his

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 ...

debut as a Transvaal player. He moved back to Northern Transvaal in 1995, after which he also played for Eastern Province and South Western Districts.

Springboks

He played his first test match for the

on 15 Augustus 1992 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 ...

at Ellis Park in Johannesburg. At the end of 1992 Van Rensburg toured with the Springboks to France and England, but played in only one test on tour, that against England. Van Rensburg also toured with the Springboks to Australia in 1993 and as a replacement, to New Zealand in 1994. His last test was on 23 July 1994 against

at Athletic Park in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

. He scored 40 points (12 penalties, 2 conversions) in test matches for the Springboks and also played in 15 tour matches scoring 142 points (7 tries, 19 conversions, 22 penalties and 1 drop goal).

Test history

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

Accolades

Van Rensburg was voted as one of the five Young Players of the Year for 1990, along with Andrew Aitken,

Jannie Claassens Johannes Petrus "Jannie" Claassens (born 30 June 1969) is a South African former rugby union player. Playing career As a schoolboy Claassens represented at the 1988 Craven Week tournament. He made his provincial debut for in 1990 and played 10 ...

, Bernard Fourie and

Ian MacDonald Ian MacCormick (known by the pseudonym Ian MacDonald; 3 October 1948 – 20 August 2003) was a British music critic and author, best known for both ''Revolution in the Head'', his critical history of the Beatles which borrowed techniques from a ...

References

External links

espnscrum.com Theo van Rensburg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jansen van Rensburg, Theo South African rugby union players South Africa international rugby union players 1967 births Living people Rugby union players from Gauteng Rugby union fullbacks