Garrick Frederick Mattheus (born 23 March 1996) is a South African

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 for the in the

Currie Cup The Currie Cup () is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier domestic competition, four South African franc ...

and the Rugby Challenge. His regular position is fly-half, but he can also play as a fullback. In 2020, he passed at Rugby Club Valpolicella.

Rugby career

Youth rugby

Mattheus was born in

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 ...

, where he attended

Grey High School Grey High School is a State school, semi-private English-medium high school (grades 8 to 12) for boys situated in the suburb of Mill Park in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the top sporting schools in the coun ...

. In 2014, he was selected to represent Eastern Province at the Under-18 Academy Week held in

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. His best performance of the tournament came in his first match, as he kicked three penalties and five conversions for a personal points haul of 19 points in their 49–31 victory over the Pumas. Later in the same year, Mattheus was also drafted into the squad that competed for their

2014 Under-19 Provincial Championship The 2014 ABSA Under-19 Provincial Championship was a rugby union competition held between the Under-19 players from the fourteen provincial rugby unions in South Africa, plus the sub-union. It was contested from 11 July to 25 October 2014. Gr ...

campaign. He played off the bench in a 17–13 victory over , before starting four of their final five matches of the competition, contributing 18 points with the boot. He joined the Eastern Province Kings academy on a full-time basis for 2015 and started the Under-19 team's opening match of the 2015 Under-19 Provincial Championship season, a 28–15 victory over . However, he lasted just 21 minutes of the match before being suffering a concussion and didn't feature in their next six matches. He made his return as a replacement in their 34–22 victory against and started their 29–10 victory over a week later. He was used as a replacement in their final two matches of the regular season against the s and the s, as Eastern Province finished top of the log, winning eleven of their twelve matches during the season. Mattheus also played off the bench in their 31–15 semi-final victory over Free State, as well in the final, which Eastern Province won by beating the Blue Bulls 25–23 in

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 ...

to win the competition for the first time in their history.

Eastern Province Kings

In 2016, Mattheus was included in the squad that played in the 2016 Currie Cup qualification series. He made his first class debut in their 19–14 victory over the on 7 May 2016. It took him just four minutes into his debut to score his first points by kicking his first of four penalties in the match. He also scored a conversion to contribute 14 of his team's 19 points in the win. Big points tallies followed in further games, scoring 15 points with the boot in their 35–all draw against the and 21 points against a through four penalties, two conversions and the first try of his senior career. He finished the competition as the Kings' top scorer with 66 points in his eight appearances.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mattheus, Garrick South African rugby union players Living people 1996 births Rugby union players from Gqeberha Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union fullbacks Eastern Province Elephants players Boland Cavaliers players Blue Bulls players Alumni of Grey High School 21st-century South African sportsmen