Theuns Andries Willem Kotzé (born 16 July 1987) is a

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

n international

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player, currently playing with the in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

n domestic rugby. He is a utility back that can play as a scrum-half, fly-half or fullback, but is best known for playing as a fly-half for in the

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

tournaments in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

and

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

Career

2005 : Schools rugby

Kotzé was born in

South-West Africa South West Africa was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990. Renamed ''Namibia'' by the United Nations in 1968, it became independent under this name on 21 March 1990. South West Africa bordered Angola ( a Portu ...

– before the country gained independence from South Africa and was renamed

– but grew up in

Upington Upington () is a town founded in 1873 and located in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, on the banks of the Orange River. The town was originally called Olijvenhoutsdrift ('Olive wood drift'), due to the abundance of olive wood trees i ...

in South Africa's

Northern Cape The Northern Cape ( ; ; ) is the largest and most sparsely populated Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley, South Africa, Kimberley. It includes ...

province. From there, he was selected to represent at the premier South African high schools competition, 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 ...

, in 2005.

2006–2010 : Leopards / NWU Pukke

After school, Kotzé moved to

Potchefstroom Potchefstroom ( ; ), colloquially known as Potch, is an college town, academic city in the North West (South African province), North West Province of South Africa. It hosts the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. Potchefstro ...

where he enrolled at North West University, also joining the rugby academy. In 2006, he played for in the Under-19 Provincial Championship, before advancing to the squad the following year. In 2008, he represented university side in the

inaugural In government and politics, inauguration is the process of swearing a person into office and thus making that person the incumbent. Such an inauguration commonly occurs through a formal ceremony or special event, which may also include an inau ...

Varsity Cup Varsity Cup is the collective name for four South African rugby union competitions involving the top rugby playing universities in the country. It was launched in 2008, with eight teams participating in the Varsity Cup competition and each unive ...

tournament. He appeared as a replacement in the first ever match in the competition's history, a 23–17 win for the NWU Pukke against the . That was his only appearance in the competition, but he once again represented the Leopards U21 side in the Provincial Championship in the latter half of the season. He returned to Varsity Cup action in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, mainly playing as a scrum-half for NWU Pukke. He made four starts and two appearances as a replacement during the regular season, scoring a try and nine points with the boot in their 27–15 victory over . His team won five of their seven matches to finish in third position on the log to qualify for the semi-finals. He was an unused replacement in their 19–17 semi-final victory over UCT in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, but played off the bench in the final, as they lost 6–11 to the other

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

-based university, . Kotzé established himself as the first-choice full-back and goal-kicker for NWU Pukke during the

2010 Varsity Cup The 2010 Varsity Cup was contested from 1 February to 29 March 2010. The tournament (also known as the ''FNB Varsity Cup presented by Steinhoff International'' for sponsorship reasons) was the third season of the Varsity Cup, an annual inter-uni ...

. He started all eight of their matches in the competition, scoring two tries and kicking 67 points to finish the competition as the leading points scorer. Despite this, his side only reached the semi-finals of the competition, where they were eliminated by eventual champions . In September 2010, Kotzé made his first class debut by coming on as a replacement for the in their 17–59 defeat to in the 2010 Currie Cup Premier Division. He made his first start three weeks later against the in

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

and made his home debut in their next match against the in

Rustenburg Rustenburg (; , Afrikaans and Dutch language, Dutch: ''City of Rest'') is a town at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range. Rustenburg is the most populous city in North West (South African province), North West province, South Africa (549 ...

. It was a disappointing season for the Leopards, however, as they lost all fourteen of their matches in the competition to finish bottom of the log.

2011 : UJ / Welwitschias

At the start of 2011, Kotzé once again played in the

, but this time in the colours of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

-based university side . He started all eight of their matches – mainly in the fly-half position – helping them to six wins in their seven matches to finish top of the log during the regular season, before losing to in the semi-finals. Despite improving on the 77 points he scored in 2010 to be the tournament top scorer, getting 82 points for UJ in 2011, he finished third in the points-scoring charts behind Demetri Catrakilis and Wesley Dunlop. At the conclusion of the 2011 Varsity Cup, he joined up with

n side '

Vodacom Cup The Vodacom Cup was an annual rugby union competition in South Africa. Annual Vodacom Cup competitions were played between its inaugural season in 1998 and 2015 and was contested between February and May each year. The Vodacom Cup was the succes ...

squad. Kotzé played off the bench in a 33–71 defeat to and started their home match against

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

side a week later, scoring a try in each of those matches, as well kicking a conversion in the first match.

2011 : Rugby World Cup

After making his international debut for against on 15 June 2011, scoring 19 points in a 29–23 victory, Kotzé was named in the Namibia squad for the

2011 Rugby World Cup The 2011 Rugby World Cup, was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The World Rugby, International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japa ...

to be held in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and started as Namibia's fly-half in all four of their matches in

Pool D Pool may refer to: Bodies of water * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a roc ...

. After kicking fifteen points in their opening match in the competition, a 25–49 loss to , he scored one try and one conversion in their 12–49 loss to in the second match. They faced African rivals in their third match, which the defending champions won 87–0, and suffered another big defeat in their final match against , going down 7–81, with Kotzé converting a

Heinz Koll Heinz Koll is a rugby union player. He plays for Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, B ...

try. With four defeats out of four, Namibia finished bottom of Pool D to be eliminated from the competition.

2012 : UJ

He returned to domestic action at the start of 2012, to play in his fifth

season. He started in six of 's seven matches during the regular season, which included a 93–0 win over during which Kotzé converted eleven of the twelve tries scored in the match for a personal points haul of 33 points in the match. UJ finished in third position on the log and qualified for a semi-final match against , but suffered a 0–23 loss to be eliminated from the competition.

2012 : SWD Eagles

After appearing for in their matches against and hosts in Group 1B of the Africa Cup, Kotzé joined the

George George may refer to: Names * George (given name) * George (surname) People * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Gior ...

-based for the

2012 Currie Cup First Division The 2012 Currie Cup First Division was contested from 30 June to 13 October 2012. The tournament (also known as the Absa Currie Cup First Division for sponsorship reasons) is the second tier of South Africa's premier domestic rugby union comp ...

. He appeared for them in seven consecutive matches in the competition; five starts and twice as a replacement. He also scored a try in their 33–27 victory over the and kicked 32 points for his side. The SWD Eagles eventually finished in fifth position on the log, missing out on the play-offs. Kotzé then returned to

, where he played in two more international matches – against and respectively.

2013 : Durbanville-Bellville

Kotzé then joined

-based club side Durbanville-Bellville, one of two teams that represented Western Province Rugby Union in the inaugural SARU Community Cup competition. Kotzé appeared in three of their matches in the competition, scoring a total of 29 points in their matches against Pretoria Police, African Bombers and Bloemfontein Police to help Durbanville-Bellville qualify for the

quarter-finals A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

, where they eventually won the Bowl competition, effectively finishing in 5th position.

2013–2014 : Aix / 2015 Rugby World Cup qualification

Kotzé then moved to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, where he joined an team that was recently relegated from the

Pro D2 The Pro D2 is the second tier of rugby union club competition division in France. It is operated by Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) which also runs the division directly above, the first division Top 14. Rugby Pro D2 was introduced in 2000. It ...

to the

Fédérale 1 The championnat de France de rugby à XV de 1re division fédérale (), a.k.a. Fédérale 1 (), is a French rugby union club competition, it is the elite of amateur rugby in France. The competition has been organised by the Fédération Français ...

. He appeared in sixteen of their eighteen matches during the regular season to help them finish in third position in Pool 2 in the competition to qualify for the play-off phase of the competition. He started both legs of their Last 16 tie against FC Oloron and came on as a replacement in their quarter-final second-leg match against Massy, which they lost 14–34 to remain in the league for 2014–15. Kotzé scored 187 points for Aix during the season, scoring two tries, 47 penalties and 18 conversions. During his time at Aix, he also made two appearances for in matches against and in November 2013. He also played for Namibia at the 2014 Africa Cup, where they were promoted to Division 1A, the top tier of the competition, which also doubled up as the final qualification phase of the African qualification series for the

2015 Rugby World Cup The IRB 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was ...

. Kotzé played in all three their matches against Kenya, Zimbabwe and hosts . Kotzé converted twelve of Namibia's thirteen tries that they scored in their final match, an 89–10 victory over Madagascar, to seal a place for Namibia in the Rugby World Cup in dramatic fashion as they won the title on points difference from Kenya and Zimbabwe after all three sides finished level on log points.

2014–2015 : Bourg-en-Bresse

For the 2014–15 season, he joined another team that was recently relegated from the

to the

, . He started thirteen matches for them, scoring 141 points through two tries, 37 penalties and ten conversions to help them finish in fourth position on the Pool 2 log to qualify for the play-offs. However, for the second year in a row, Kotzé tasted defeat in the play-offs, with Bourg-en-Bresse losing to Vannes in the Last 16 on this occasion. Kotzé was once again involved with the Namibian national team during his time at Bourg-en-Bresse. He played for them in an international match against 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, which ...

and also played in matches during their European tour, where they lost to in

Colwyn Bay Colwyn Bay () is a town, Community (Wales), community and seaside resort in Conwy County Borough on the north coast of Wales overlooking the Irish Sea. It lies within the historic counties of Wales, historic county boundaries of Denbighshire (h ...

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

and to in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

2015 : Rugby World Cup

As part of Namibia's preparation for the

, Kotzé played in several matches in the run-up to the tournament; he played in all three of their matches in the 2015 Africa Cup – helping them win all three to retain the title they won in 2014 – as well as matches against in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

and two matches against in Windhoek. He also featured in all three of Namibia's matches in

Pool C Pool may refer to: Bodies of water * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a roc ...

of the Rugby World Cup. He kicked three penalties in their 14–58 defeat to defending champions in their opening match and converted all three of the tries that his side scored against in their 21–35 defeat in their second match. He scored all of Namibia's 16 points (one converted try and three penalties) in their match against as his side fell just short of their first ever victory in a Rugby World Cup match, losing 16–17, in the process also becoming Namibia's all-time top points scorer and their top points scorer in a Rugby World Cup tournament. He also kicked two conversions in their final match, which ended in a 19–64 defeat to .

2016–present : Boland Cavaliers / Kings

After the 2015 Rugby World Cup, it was announced that Kotzé would return to

to join the prior to the

2016 Currie Cup The 2016 Currie Cup Premier Division was the top tier of the second stage of the 2016 Currie Cup, the 78th edition of this annual South African rugby union competition organised by the South African Rugby Union. It was played between 5 August ...

season. Shortly after being officially announced as a Boland Cavaliers player, he was also given a contract by

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...

-based side the

Southern Kings The Southern Kings were a South African professional rugby union team that competed in Super Rugby and Pro14. They were based in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape province and played their home matches at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. They w ...

to play for them during the

2016 Super Rugby season The 2016 Super Rugby season was the 21st season of Super Rugby and the first season featuring an expanded 18-team format. It was also the first season that teams outside Australia, New Zealand and South Africa featured, with the Jaguares from Ar ...

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kotze, Theuns 1987 births Living people Namibian rugby union players University of Johannesburg alumni Rugby union players from ǁKaras Region Expatriate rugby union players in South Africa Namibian expatriate sportspeople in South Africa Namibia international rugby union players Leopards (rugby union) players SWD Eagles players White Namibian people Namibian Afrikaner people 2011 Rugby World Cup players 2015 Rugby World Cup players Rugby union fly-halves Provence Rugby players Union Sportive Bressane players Namibian expatriate rugby union players in France 21st-century Namibian sportsmen