Full name | Jacobus Petrus du Randt | ||||||||||||
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Nickname | Os, Opa | ||||||||||||
Date of birth | 8 September 1972 | ||||||||||||
Place of birth | Elliot, Eastern Cape, South Africa | ||||||||||||
Height | 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) | ||||||||||||
Weight | 135 kg (298 lb; 21.3 st) | ||||||||||||
School | Adelaide Gymnasium | ||||||||||||
Occupation(s) | Farmer | ||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||
Playing career | |||||||||||||
Position | Loosehead prop | ||||||||||||
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Provincial/State sides | |||
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Years | Club / team | Caps | (points) |
1996–1997 1999 2000 2002–2007 |
Cheetahs Cheetahs Blue Bulls Cheetahs |
Super Rugby | |||
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Years | Club / team | Caps | (points) |
1997 1998 2000 2004–2005 2006–2007 |
Cheetahs Cats Bulls Cats Cheetahs |
National team(s) | |||
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Years | Club / team | Caps | (points) |
1994–2007 | South Africa | 80 | (25) |
Jacobus Petrus "Os" du Randt (born 8 September 1972) is a former South African rugby union loosehead prop who retired as the most-capped forward in the history of the Springboks (a record since surpassed by John Smit and Victor Matfield). For most of his career, he played in the domestic Currie Cup for the Free State Cheetahs, though he spent one season with the Blue Bulls. In Super Rugby, he represented the Free State Cheetahs when South Africa sent its top Currie Cup teams to the competition instead of franchised sides, later represented the Cats franchise (now known as the Lions), spent one season with the Bulls before returning to the Cats, and still later played for the Vodacom Cheetahs. He ended his career as one of the last remaining international-level players from the amateur era of the sport and the last active member of the 1995 World Cup-winning squad. His final match was the 2007 Rugby World Cup final, which the Springboks won, with du Randt playing the entire 80 minutes. With the win, he became the first and (thus far) only South African to achieve the honour. He is among a very select group of 20 international dual Rugby Union World Cup winners worldwide.
Os (his Afrikaans nickname means Ox due to his big, muscular build) was a powerful scrummager and a hard worker around the field. He also had very good ball-handling skills for a prop, and his defence was solid.
Born 8 September 1972 in Elliot, South Africa, du Randt made his first appearance for the Springboks in October 1994 against Argentina in a 42–22 victory, and he was a member of the 1995 World Cup squad, playing at loosehead prop in the final against New Zealand when South Africa won 15–12. Du Randt continued to be a key member of the Boks in the following years, and was named by Rugby World magazine as the second-best loosehead of all time in 1999. However, in 2000, at the age of 27, Du Randt suffered injuries that kept him out of rugby for nearly three years.