Bismarck Wilhelm du Plessis (born 22 May 1984) is a South African former professional

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, who played for the 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 ...

and 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 ...

. He played for the in 2003, before moving to the in 2005 where he spent the bulk of his career, and then to

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

in the French

Top 14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the National Rugby League (France), France National Rugby League, also ...

. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the best hookers of his time, both in club and country performances.

Career

A native of the town of

Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...

in the Free State province, Bismarck du Plessis made his debut for the Sharks in Super Rugby (then the Super 12) in 2005. As he plays hooker and played in the same team as South Africa's past captain,

John Smit John William Smit, OIS, (born 3 April 1978) is a South African former professional rugby union player and former chief executive officer of the Sharks. He was the 50th captain of the Springbok rugby union team and led the team to win the 2007 ...

, for much of his career he had been a backup to Smit; however, this changed when Smit moved to

tighthead prop In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16� ...

. Before Smit's change of position, Du Plessis nonetheless played in Super Rugby and the

whenever Smit was unavailable, and in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

was selected to play for South Africa in the

Tri Nations Series The Rugby Championship, formerly known as the Tri Nations Series (1996–2011), is an international rugby union competition contested annually by Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. These are traditionally the four highest ran ...

. He made his debut for South Africa as a substitute in the same game against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in Sydney in which his older brother,

Jannie Jannie is a given name. Notable people with the name include: * Jannie Blackwell, American politician * Jannie Bornman (born 1980), South African rugby union player * Jannie Boshoff (born 1986), South African rugby union player *Jannie Chan, Singapo ...

, who was in the starting XV, also made his Springboks debut. The Du Plessis brothers became the 23rd set of brothers to earn

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for South Africa at rugby union. Following an illness to

Pierre Spies Pierre Johan Spies (born 8 June 1985 in Pretoria) is a retired South African rugby union player. He usually played as a Number 8, but could also play as a flanker and at times was deployed on the wing. Between 2005 and 2015, he spent the major ...

, Bismarck du Plessis was called into South Africa's squad for 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 ...

; his brother Jannie was a later addition to the squad, replacing

BJ Botha Brendon James Botha, better known as BJ Botha (born 4 January 1980) is a South African former rugby union player. He played as a prop. He is now a housemaster and rugby coach at CBC Monkstown . Professional career Sharks Botha played in the ...

, who injured a knee in South Africa's final pool match against the

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

. During the 2008 end-of-year Test series, the Springboks moved Smit to tighthead in order to accommodate both him and the younger, faster Du Plessis in the front row together; this change has continued through the 2009 Super 14 season and into the Boks' 2009 Test season. After South Africa's second game of the

2008 Tri Nations Series The 2008 Tri Nations Series was the thirteenth annual Tri Nations Series, Tri Nations competition between the national rugby union teams of New Zealand national rugby union team, New Zealand, Australia national rugby union team, Australia and Sou ...

, against New Zealand, Du Plessis was cited for an

eye-gouge __NOTOC__ Eye-gouging is the act of pressing or tearing the eye using the fingers or instruments. Eye-gouging involves a very high risk of eye injury, such as eye loss or blindness. Eye-gouging as a fighting style was once a popular form of s ...

on New Zealand's Adam Thomson. At the subsequent disciplinary hearing, which was the first of his career, the judicial officer found that his action had been "careless", not deliberate, and imposed a three-week suspension, a significantly lower penalty than the three-to-six months' suspensions routinely imposed for deliberate eye-gouging.

2012–2015

Du Plessis was selected for the

2011 Rugby World Cup The 2011 Rugby World Cup, was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The World Rugby, International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japa ...

along with his brother Jannie. He came off the bench against Wales in which South Africa won 17–16. He then won a man of the match performance in June 2012 against England in the second test and also scored a try as the Springboks won 36-27 thanks to a late try from right winger JP Pietersen. During the

2013 Rugby Championship The 2013 The Rugby Championship, Rugby Championship, known as ''The SABMiller brands#Castle brewery, Castle Rugby Championship'' in South Africa, ''The Investec Bank, Investec Rugby Championship'' in New Zealand, ''The Castrol#Products, Castrol Ed ...

, Du Plessis received two yellow cards in a match against New Zealand and was then issued a red card. The IRB later admitted an error in one of the yellow cards. This red card was later overturned by the IRB and struck from Du Plessis' record. Bismarck has since featured prominently for the Springboks, being first-choice hooker. He was also selected for the

2015 Rugby World Cup The IRB 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was ...

Notes

References

External links

* * * *
Bismarck du Plessis
at Genslin Springboks * {{DEFAULTSORT:Du Plessis, Bismarck 1984 births Living people Rugby union players from Bethlehem, Free State Afrikaner people South African people of Dutch descent South African rugby union players South Africa international rugby union players Rugby union hookers Alumni of Grey College, Bloemfontein Sharks (Currie Cup) players Sharks (rugby union) players Free State Cheetahs players South African expatriate rugby union players in France 21st-century South African sportsmen Montpellier Hérault Rugby players Bulls (rugby union) players Blue Bulls players 2007 Rugby World Cup players 2011 Rugby World Cup players 2015 Rugby World Cup players