Rayno Shannon Benjamin (born 3 August 1983) is a South African

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

footballer who plays as a

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is exp ...

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricit ...

for Japanese Top East League side

Shimizu Blue Sharks Shimizu Koto Blue Sharks – nicknamed the Blue Sharks – are a Japanese rugby union team, currently playing in the Japan Rugby League One. The team is the rugby team of architectural, civil engineering and general contracting firm Shimizu, bas ...

Career

He started out his career in the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

with the Boland Cavaliers and his impressive performances saw him earn Super Rugby honours with the Stormers during the

2006 Super 14 season The 2006 Super 14 season started on 10 February 2006. The Grand Final was held on 27 May 2006. Super 14 is a provincial rugby union competition with 14 teams from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. This season was the first of the expansion ...

. He switched to

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legislative capital Cape ...

in 2007 for his first spell with the Cheetahs. However, he didn't manage any first team appearances and this saw him move on again to join the in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

. He stayed there for 2 seasons before spending the next couple of years focusing on his rugby sevens career. He returned to the 15 man game in 2011 and started his second spell with the Cheetahs which has seen him make more than 70 appearances in Currie Cup and Super Rugby matches.

International

Benjamin has been a long-term member of the Blitzbokke squad and has played in 11

IRB Sevens World Series The World Rugby Men's Sevens Series is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series, the co ...

events between 2006 and 2009. In 2013, he was included in the squad for the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens

References

Living people 1983 births People from Saldanha Bay Local Municipality Cape Coloureds South African rugby union players Cheetahs (rugby union) players Free State Cheetahs players Stormers players Golden Lions players Lions (United Rugby Championship) players Boland Cavaliers players Rugby union wings South Africa international rugby sevens players Rugby sevens players at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for South Africa Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players for South Africa Commonwealth Games medallists in rugby sevens Shimizu Koto Blue Sharks players Rugby union centres Medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games {{SouthAfrica-rugbyunion-bio-stub