Jean de Villiers

This article is about the rugby player. For the medieval commander, see Jean de Villiers

Jean de Villiers (born in Paarl) is a South African rugby union footballer. He started his career at wing, but now primarily plays centre. De Villiers plays for Western Province and internationally for South Africa.

A product of Paarl Gimnasium, the nursery of many a future South Africa (among them past international teammate Marius Joubert and current South African back-row star Schalk Burger), de Villiers made his first impact at international level in the South African Sevens team, playing a major role in teams that finished second in the 2001–02 World Sevens Series and third in the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Also in 2002, he made his first international impact in the 15-man game at the U-21 Rugby World Cup, scoring four tries in the tournament for the victorious Junior Springboks.

He made his first senior-level appearance for South Africa in November 2002 against France, but suffered a major knee injury five minutes into the game. After regaining fitness, he became an important player in the Boks' 2004 renaissance, which saw them earn an unexpected victory in the Tri Nations Series that year. Both he and his former Paarl teammate Joubert earned a share of the try-scoring lead in the 2004 Tri Nations, with three apiece.

De Villers won the World Cup with South Africa in 2007, although he injured his biceps during the opening game of the tournament and took no further part. In 2009 De...
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