Tinus du Plessis (born 20 May 1984 in

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 20 ...

) is a

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

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 and a member of the

Namibia national rugby union team The Namibia national rugby union team represents Namibia in men's international rugby union competitions nicknamed the Welwitschias, are a tier-two nation in the World Rugby tier system, and have participated in five Rugby World Cup competition ...

. He is a back-row player who plays on both flanks and at number eight.

Early life

Du Plessis attended

Windhoek High School Windhoek High School (WHS) is a secondary school in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. Popularly known as ‘’The Blue School’’, it was founded on 5 February 1917, making it one of the oldest existing schools in the country. Currently, WHS is ...

in Windhoek and is a graduate from

Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

. In 2003, he attended

Gisborne Boys' High School Gisborne Boys' High School is a boys' secondary school situated in Gisborne, New Zealand. It was founded as a co-educational school in 1909 as Gisborne High School. In 1956, the school became Gisborne Boys' High School when it was split into two ...

and played first XV rugby in the Super 8 competition in New Zealand.

Club career

He has played club rugby in Namibia for Wanderers RFC, and professionally in England for Rotherham Titans RFC. He was named Rotherham's player of the year in 2009. In December 2011 he joined

London Wasps Wasps Rugby Football Club is a professional rugby union team. They last played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby until being suspended on 12 October 2022. On 17 October 2022 the club entered administration, resulting in r ...

, on a deal taking him through to the end of the season. Having impressed during his time at Wasps Du Plessis was awarded a two-year contract. Du Plessis signed for English Championship club London Scottish for the remainder of the 2015–2016 season.

International career

He was selected for the Namibian squad to play in the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 2 ...

where he made three appearances. Having appeared in the Africa Cup in 2008 and 2009 and the RWC 2011 Qualifiers he now has 23 full international caps. He was a member of the victorious Namibia Squad that won the 2010 IRB Nations Cup which went alongside their 2009 African Cup win. He received the Man of the Match award in a 2011 Rugby World Cup match against Wales in which his Wasps teammate Heinz Koll scored a try. However Namibia lost the match 81–7.

References

1984 births Living people Namibian expatriate rugby union players in England Namibia international rugby union players Namibian Afrikaner people Namibian rugby union players People educated at Gisborne Boys' High School People educated at Windhoek High School Rotherham Titans players Rugby union flankers Rugby union number eights Rugby union players from Windhoek Stellenbosch University alumni White Namibian people 2007 Rugby World Cup players 2011 Rugby World Cup players 2015 Rugby World Cup players {{Namibia-rugbyunion-bio-stub