South African rugby union player

Rugby player

Francois "Faf" de Klerk (born 19 October 1991) is a South African professional rugby union player who plays as a scrum-half for English Premiership club Sale Sharks and the South Africa national team. He was a member of the South Africa team that won the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

Contents

• 1 Pre-professional career
• 2 Early career
• 3 International career
  • 3.1 International tries
• 4 References
• 5 External links

Pre-professional career

Born in Nelspruit (now Mbombela), De Klerk played rugby at Hoërskool Waterkloof in Pretoria.

Early career

De Klerk was included in the Lions squad for the 2014 Super Rugby season and made his debut in a 21–20 victory over the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.

He joined the Golden Lions Currie Cup team for the 2016 season.

He joined English Premiership side Sale Sharks prior to the 2017–18 season on a three-year contract. In December 2018, the club announced that De Klerk signed a contract extension until 2023.

International career

De Klerk was rewarded for his Super Rugby form when he was selected by the then recently appointed Springbok coach Allister Coetzee in South Africa's 31-man squad for their 2016 three-test match series against Ireland and made his test debut as the starting scrum-half in the opening test at Newlands Stadium. In a tightly-fought series, Ireland won the first test 26−20, but the Springboks fought back to clinch the series, winning 32−26 in Johannesburg and 19−13 in Port Elizabeth.

After signing for Sale Sharks in 2017, De Klerk was ineligible to represent the Springboks due to having fewer than 30 caps. However, after this selection criterion was abolished in 2018, new Springbok coach R*ie Erasmus recalled De Klerk to the team for the 2018 three-test match series against England.

He was an important member of South Africa's victorious 2019 Rugby Championship campaign and was duly selected for the 2019 Rugby World Cup. In their 20 October quarter-final match against *an, he was named Player of the Match. He was a key player for South Africa's World Cup victory, being named as the starting scrum-half in two of their pool matches, as well as all their play-off games. He scored a try in their quarter-final win over *an. Faf was once again included as the starting scrum-half against England in the 2019 Rugby World Cup Final, which saw South Africa beating England 32−12 to secure a third Webb Ellis Cup lift.

International tries

As of 19 November 2021

References

External links

• Faf de Klerk at Springboks.rugby
• itsrugby.co.uk profile
• Interview with BBC Sport (November 2019)