Andries Thomas "Andre" Markgraaff (born 23 December 1956) is a retired

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

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 ...

lock. He matriculated at Diamantveld High School and was a controversial national coach, who resigned after he was taped using the racial term kaffir.

Playing career

Markgraaff was selected for the South African team in 1986 against the

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but as an unused substitute. Markgraaff also represented Western Transvaal, Western Province,

Griqualand West Griqualand West is an area of central South Africa with an area of 40,000 km2 that now forms part of the Northern Cape Province. It was inhabited by the Griqua people – a semi-nomadic, Afrikaans-speaking nation of mixed-race origin, w ...

and the then

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in 20 games. He captained the South African Barbarians on a tour to Europe and the Junior Springboks.

Coaching

In 1988, he became coach of

. He became president of Griquas in 1991. In 1996, Markgraaff was appointed as the Springbok rugby coach. In 1997 Markgraaff was forced to quit after his controversial racial statements, when he referred to a black senior rugby administrator Mluleki George as a "kaffir". In his apology, Markgraaff said :"''I'm not making any excuses. I was very emotional at the time. I apologise to the black people of this country and to the whites for causing them embarrassment.''" During his short reign the Springboks won eight and lost five tests. In 1998, Markgraaff took the

Griquas The Griquas are a subgroup of mixed-race heterogeneous formerly-Xiri-speaking nations in South Africa with a unique origin in the early history of the Dutch Cape Colony. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Comm ...

to victory in the

Vodacom Cup The Vodacom Cup was an annual rugby union competition in South Africa. Annual Vodacom Cup competitions were played between its inaugural season in 1998 and 2015 and was contested between February and May each year. The Vodacom Cup was the succes ...

and then to the semifinals of 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 ...

, losing by 11–27 to the .Griquas and Cheetahs meet in pick of the Currie Cup action
Scrum.com, 20 July 2005 He also coached the

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Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

and was a founder of the PUK Rugby Institute. Markgraaff made a comeback in rugby administration and was the Deputy President of SARFU and the convener of SARFU's technical committee.

References

1956 births Living people Leopards (rugby union) players North-West University alumni Politics and race Rugby union and apartheid Rugby union controversies Rugby union players from Kimberley, Northern Cape South Africa national rugby union team coaches South African rugby union coaches Alumni of Diamantveld High School {{SouthAfrica-rugbyunion-bio-1950s-stub

Playing career

Coaching

See also

References