Willem Jacobus le Roux (born 18 August 1989) 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 it ...

player. He is a versatile back-line player who generally plays as a fullback or

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is e ...

, though earlier in his career he played mostly as a

fly-half 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– ...

. He plays for the South Africa national team and for

Toyota Verblitz Toyota Verblitz is a Japanese rugby union team in the Japan Rugby League One. Verblitz is a portmanteau of ''verde'' (Spanish and Portuguese for 'green') and ''blitz'' (German for 'lightning'). The team is owned by Toyota Motor Corporation and is ...

in the

Top League Japan Rugby League One (formerly the Top League) is a rugby union competition in Japan. It is the highest level of professional rugby competition in the country. The Japan Rugby Football Union created the competition in 2003, by absorbing the ...

. He was born in Stellenbosch.

Club career

Le Roux was born and raised in the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

and he started his professional career with . He spent 2 years with the Cavaliers, helping them to lift the 2011 Currie Cup First Division title in his final appearance. He moved north to join the along with several of his Boland team-mates in 2012 and started 9 of the Peacock Blues 10 games during his debut season in Kimberley. After a rocky start in which he was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle on full-back Jurgen Visser and subsequently suspended for Griquas second match of the season Le Roux established himself as one of the top players in South African domestic rugby. Upon moving to the in 2012, Le Roux was instantly called up to the Super Rugby squad. He made his debut in Week 1 of the

2012 Super Rugby season The 2012 Super Rugby season was the second season of the current 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition, which involves teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. For sponsorship reasons, this competition is known as FxPro Super R ...

as a half-time substitute for

Dusty Noble Dusty Noble (born 30 April 1984) is a former South African rugby union footballer. His regular playing position is Wing. He represented the Cheetahs in Super Rugby and Griquas in the Currie Cup. He has previously played for the and the . He le ...

as the Cheetahs lost 25–27 to the 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 Dem ...

. Despite this early setback Le Roux went on to have an excellent first season in Super Rugby, playing mostly on the wing he scored 7 tries in 16 appearances. His second season proved even more successful as he helped the Cheetahs reach the play-offs with a further 6 tries in 17 matches. In July 2013, it was announced that Le Roux had signed a new contract with the until the end of 2015, which also meant that he would play for the domestically from 2014 onwards. He left the Cheetahs after the

2015 Super Rugby season The 2015 Super Rugby season was the 20th season of Super Rugby and the fifth season featuring an expanded 15-team format. For sponsorship reasons, this competition was known as Asteron Life Super Rugby in Australia, Investec Super Rugby in New ...

to spend some time playing in Japan with

Canon Eagles The Yokohama Canon Eagles is a Japanese rugby union team founded in 1981 that competes in the Japan Rugby League One and is owned by Canon. The team was previously based in Machida, Tokyo, Japan. According to the official website, it was founde ...

before joining the for

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

. In August 2016,

English Premiership The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

side

Wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. ...

announced Le Roux would join them in January 2017 after finishing his commitments with the

. He left Wasps in 2019 having played 46 games and scoring 50 points. On 5 May 2019 Le Roux returned to Japan to sign for

in the

from the 2019–20 season.

International career

Le Roux was selected to represent 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 ...

for the first time during the South African Quadrangular tournament of 2013 against , and . He played the full 80 minutes of all three test matches against these teams with distinction, hardly faltering any time at full-back, and contributed to the try-making by joining the Springbok backline in sprints for the opponents' tryline. He also played an integral part in South Africa's

2013 Rugby Championship The 2013 Rugby Championship, known as ''The Castle Rugby Championship'' in South Africa, ''The Investec Rugby Championship'' in New Zealand, ''The Castrol Edge Rugby Championship'' in Australia and ''The Personal Rugby Championship'' in Argentin ...

campaign, featuring in all six matches. He scored tries in both home and away tests against and in the deciding game at home to . Le Roux started the 2013 end-of-year tests on the bench for the match against , however an injury to starting

Morne Steyn saw him enter to the fray as an early substitute in the full-back position. It was a position he was to retain for the remaining two tour matches. He turned in a particularly impressive display in the 28-0 destruction of scoring one intercept try and setting up another immediately from the restart for team-mate

JP Pietersen Jon-Paul Roger "JP" Pietersen (born 12 July 1986 in Stellenbosch, South Africa) is a South African rugby union player for the in the Currie Cup. He generally plays fullback or wing but occasionally, he plays at outside centre. He played in 69 ...

. On 14 June 2014, Le Roux produced a man-of-the-match performance to help beat during the 2014 incoming tours, scoring a try and providing three assists. In 2014, he was one of five nominees for the IRB Player of the Year award. Le Roux was named in South Africa's squad for the

2019 Rugby World Cup The 2019 Rugby World Cup was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening match ...

. South Africa went on to win the tournament, defeating

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 ...

in the final.

Springbok statistics

Test Match record

Pld = Games Played, W = Games Won, D = Games Drawn, L = Games Lost, Tri = Tries Scored, Con = Conversions, Pen = Penalties, DG = Drop Goals, Pts = Points Scored

International Tries

Super Rugby statistics

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Le Roux, Willie Living people 1989 births South African rugby union players South Africa international rugby union players Cheetahs (rugby union) players Griquas (rugby union) players Boland Cavaliers players Rugby union wings Rugby union fullbacks People from Stellenbosch Afrikaner people Yokohama Canon Eagles players South African expatriate rugby union players South African expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate rugby union players in Japan Alumni of Paul Roos Gymnasium Sharks (rugby union) players Wasps RFC players Toyota Verblitz players Rugby union players from the Western Cape