Willem Adriaan Odendaal (born 11 July 1990 in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

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 ...

) 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, who most recently played with the . He can play as a scrum-half, centre or winger.

Career

Youth

Odendaal played school rugby for Hoërskool Eldoraigne and earned a selection to the squad for the Under-18

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 ...

in 2008. Shortly afterwards, he joined

Witbank Witbank (), officially Emalahleni, is a city situated on the Highveld of Mpumalanga, South Africa, within the Emalahleni Local Municipality. The name Witbank is Afrikaans for "white ridge", and is named after a white sandstone outcrop where wago ...

-based side the . He played for the team in the 2008 and 2009 Under-19 Provincial Championships.

Falcons

2010 saw Odendaal move to the

East Rand The East Rand is the urban eastern part of the Witwatersrand that is functionally merged with the Johannesburg conurbation in South Africa. The region extends from Alberton in the west to Nigel in the east, and south down to Nigel. It includes ...

to join the . After playing in a compulsory friendly match for them against the in

Nigel Nigel ( ) is an English language, English masculine given name. The English ''Nigel'' is commonly found in records dating from the Middle Ages; however, it was not used much before being revived by 19th-century antiquarians. For instance, Walte ...

prior to the 2010 Currie Cup First Division season, he made his debut in the competition proper by starting their first match of the season against the in

Welkom Welkom () is the second-largest city in the Free State province of South Africa, located about northeast of Bloemfontein which is the provincial capital. Welkom is also known as Circle City, City Within A Garden, Mvela and Matjhabeng. The cit ...

. He made eight appearances in the competition and playing mainly as a scrum-half. Eight appearances followed in the 2011 Vodacom Cup, which saw him score his first senior try against the and another against

Argentinean Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish language, Spanish (Grammatical gender, masculine) or (Grammatical gender, feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be resident ...

invitational side . Six starts and two appearances off the bench followed in his second Currie Cup campaign in

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 ...

, contributing one try. From 2012, Odendaal played mainly as a centre. After scoring two tries in six appearances during the 2012 Vodacom Cup competition, he firmly established himself as a first choice for the , starting in thirteen of their matches during the 2012 Currie Cup First Division season. He scored three tries, but could not help the Falcons finish higher than second-last in the competition. After a further seven appearances in the 2013 Vodacom Cup, he had his most prolific Currie Cup season for the Falcons, scoring seven tries in eleven appearances. He topped the try-scoring charts for the Falcons and finished ninth overall. His try-scoring form included scoring a first half hat-trick against the in Kempton Park, but could not prevent the Falcons losing the match as the visitors rallied back to win the match 38–37.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Odendaal, Willie South African rugby union players Living people 1990 births Rugby union players from Pretoria Rugby union scrum-halves Rugby union centres Rugby union wings Falcons (rugby union) players