Jannie
de Beer

Jannie de Beer is a retired rugby union player who represented South Africa at international level.

Jannie de Beer Bio

Jannie de Beer is a retired South African rugby player who is best remembered for his world record five drop goals in the 1999 Rugby World Cup.

Born in Welkom, South Africa in April 1971, Jannie de Beer was primarily a kicking fly-half amassing well over 1,000 points during his professional career.

He first played for local team Griffons as a youth in 1989, before then making his senior debut in 1990 for Free State (now Cheetahs) aged 19 in the Currie Cup. He would go on to spend the majority of his club level days with the provincial side, but did have brief spells at other South African teams, the Golden Lions in 1995, their franchise side Cats in 1998 and Bulls in 2000 - the latter two sides being in the Super 12. Jannie de Beer also had a short spell in England at London Scottish in the 1998-99 season.

Across these 10 years Jannie de Beer played over 100 times and he was prolific as a point scorer, achieving over 900 points for the Cheetahs alone. His final season, 2001-02, saw him return to England to join up with Saracens, but he ended his career that year due to a persistent knee injury.

Jannie de Beer’s international career started in 1997 when he was called up to play against the British & Irish Lions. His appearances were sporadic and he never quite managed to establish himself in the Springbok’s starting line-up.

However, as aforementioned, he gained national and international fame during the 1999 Rugby World Cup with his five drop goals against England. However, he then tried to repeat the feat against Australia in the semi-final of the competition, only to be closed down every time. This would prove to be Jannie de Beer’s last game for South Africa, bringing his total caps to 13 and his points to an impressive 181.

Jannie de Beer is a devout Christian and is still involved in the game. He most recently became the director of rugby at the Windhoek Gymnasium Private School in Namibia.