Izak Stephanus de Villiers "Balie" Swart (born 18 May 1964) is a South African former

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. He played as a prop, with the ability to play on either the loosehead or the tighthead side. He earned 16 caps for the South Africa national team between 1993 and 1996.

Playing career

Swart is a product of

Paarl Gimnasium Paarl Gimnasium is a public Afrikaans medium co-educational high school situated in the city of Paarl in the Western Cape province of South Africa. History Rev. van der Lingen founded the school in the centre of town in 1858. The school has p ...

and represented and captained the Schools team at the 1983

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 ...

tournament. He also was selected for the South African Schools team in 1983, once again the captain. After school he played for the

University of Stellenbosch Stellenbosch University (SU) (, ) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant university in Sub-Sahara ...

before making his provincial debut for Western Province in 1987. During 1992, he joined , now the

Golden Lions The Golden Lions (), currently known as the Fidelity ADT Golden Lions for sponsorship reasons, are a South African professional rugby union team based in Johannesburg who compete in the annual Currie Cup. The team is governed by the Golden ...

and until 1999, playing over a hundred games for the union. He was part of the 1993 side that won the Super 10, Lion Cup and Currie Cup in one season. He had 16 caps for

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 ...

, from 1993 to 1996, never scoring. He was a member of the winning team at the 1995 World Cup finals, where he played in four games, including as tighthead prop in the 15–12 final win against the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...

. He also played in the first edition of the Tri Nations competition, in 1996. Swart also played in fifteen tour matches for the Springboks.

Coaching career

After ending his player career, in 1999, he became a coach and started with the . In 2000 he moved to New Zealand, coaching at Nelson Bays and at the . On his return to South Africa he was assistant coach at the and Springbok scrum coach during the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup () was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by F ...

. In 2011 he started working for SA Rugby, assisting coaches and referees with scrum laws and later became involved with SANZAR, working with the referees.

References

External links

* 1964 births Living people South African rugby union players South Africa international rugby union players South African rugby union coaches Golden Lions players Rugby union props Lions (United Rugby Championship) players Alumni of Paarl Gimnasium Western Province (rugby union) players Rugby union players from the Western Cape 1995 Rugby World Cup players {{SouthAfrica-rugbyunion-bio-1960s-stub