David Jacobus 'Divan' Serfontein (born 3 August 1954 in

Krugersdorp Krugersdorp (Afrikaans for ''Kruger's Town'') is a mining city in the West Rand, Gauteng Province, South Africa founded in 1887 by Marthinus Pretorius and Abner Cohen. Following the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand, a need arose for a ...

, South Africa) is a former Springbok

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.

Playing career

Provincial career

Serfontein started his rugby career in 1974 at where he was selected for the club's under-20 age group team. He was soon afterwards selected for the

Western Province Western Province or West Province may refer to: *Western Province, Cameroon *Western Province, Rwanda *Western Province (Kenya) *Western Province (Papua New Guinea) *Western Province (Solomon Islands) *Western Province, Sri Lanka *Western Provinc ...

under-20 team and in his first match he played alongside the future South African

cricketer Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

, Peter Kirsten. In 1976 Serfontein made his provincial first team debut for Western Province against the touring

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 ...

side of Andy Leslie. Western Province won this match 12–11. At the start of the 1981 rugby season, Serfontein was appointed as Western Province captain. He went on to captain his province 51 times and also led his team to three consecutive

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 ...

titles, in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

and

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

International career

Serfontein made his test debut for the

Springboks The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks (colloquially the Boks, Bokke or Amabhokobhoko) is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jersey ...

on 31 May 1980 at his home ground,

Newlands Newlands may refer to: Places Australia * Newlands, Queensland, a locality in the Whitsunday Region * Newlands, Western Australia, a town in the Shire of Donnybrook–Balingup Ireland * Newlands Cross, Dublin, named after the former Newlands ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

against the touring

British and Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England national rugby union team, England, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland, Scotland national rugby union team, Scotland, and ...

team, captained by

Bill Beaumont Sir William Blackledge Beaumont (born 9 March 1952) is an English former rugby union player, and was captain of the England rugby union team, earning 34 caps. His greatest moment as captain was the unexpected 1980 Grand Slam win. He played as a ...

. He also scored his first test try in this match. The test series against the

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, was followed with tests against the

South American Jaguars South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

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( the so-called

Rebel Tour The South African rebel tours were a series of seven cricket tours staged between 1982 and 1990. They were known as the rebel tours because the international cricketing bodies banned South Africa from competitive international cricket througho ...

) and

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. Serfontein was selected as captain for the two test matches against the touring

in October 1984 and in doing so became the 39th Springbok test captain. Serfontein retired from rugby union at the end of the 1984 season, having played 100 matches for Western Province and 19 consecutive test matches for the

. He also scored 3 test tries.

Test history

Accolades

Serfontein was named the

SA Rugby Player of the Year The SA Rugby Player of the Year is awarded annually to honour the South Africa's outstanding rugby union player of the year. List of winners Multiple winners * 4 times: :: 1979, 1981, 1985, 1987 - Naas Botha * 3 times: :: 2005, 2007, 2012 - ...

for 1982.

References