Jaco van der Walt (born 1 February 1994) is a South African-born

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

rugby union player who currently plays for in the

United Rugby Championship The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

Rugby Union career

Amateur career

He first represented the as early as primary school level, when he represented them at the Under-13 Craven Week competition in 2007. In 2010, he played at the Under-16 Grant Khomo Week competition and he played at both the 2011 and 2012 editions of the Under-18

Craven Week The Craven Week is an annual rugby union tournament organised for schoolboys in the Republic of South Africa. The tournament started in July 1964, and is named after the legendary Springbok rugby union player and coach Dr Danie Craven. The ...

. He was also included in the South African Schools squad in both those seasons. He then played for the side in the

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

and the

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Under-19 Provincial Championships, making just one appearance in each. Despite being eligible for the Under-19s, he represented the for the majority of the 2013 season, starting in thirteen matches during the 2013 Under-21 Provincial Championship, scoring 17 points. He also represented local university side during the

2014 Varsity Cup The 2014 Varsity Cup was contested from 3 February to 7 April 2014. The tournament (also known as the ''FNB Varsity Cup presented by Steinhoff International'' for sponsorship reasons) was the seventh season of the Varsity Cup, an annual inter-u ...

competition, making 7 appearances.

Professional career

His first class debut for the came as a 20-year-old in the first match of the 2014 Currie Cup Premier Division. He was named on the bench for their season-opening match in a trans- Jukskei clash with the . First-choice fly-half Marnitz Boshoff left the field ten minutes into the second half with a fractured arm, which led to Van der Walt's introduction. He kicked one conversion and two penalties as the Golden Lions ran out 41–13 winners. In November 2017, Scottish

Pro14 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

side

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

announced that Van der Walt joined them on a two-and-a-half-year contract. In January 2021, Van der Walt signed an undisclosed-length contract extension with Edinburgh, saying the capital club were "building a really strong side." Van der Walt left Edinburgh in June 2023 to join the .

International career

He made his international debut for

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

against Ireland, at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, on 5 December 2020. He scored 3 penalties and 1 conversion in a match Scotland lost 16-31.

Personal life

He is the older brother of Gerdus van der Walt. Both brothers came through the ranks at the and they played together on occasion; on 8 May 2015, both were selected in the starting line-up for the Golden Lions' match against the in Welkom, while they also played next to each other in the final match of the 2015 Currie Cup Premier Division regular season, in a match that saw Gerdus make his debut in the competition. Jaco van der Walt’s grandfather was a detective in the Dutch police force before emigrating to South Africa.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van der Walt, Jaco 1994 births Alumni of Hoërskool Monument Living people Scotland international rugby union players South African rugby union players Sportspeople from Randfontein Rugby union fly-halves Golden Lions players Rugby union players from Gauteng Edinburgh Rugby players Lions (United Rugby Championship) players Scottish rugby union players Bulls (rugby union) players Blue Bulls players