Johannes Jakobus Kitshoff (born 25 January 1984 in George,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

) is a former 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 ...

player, that played first class rugby with the between 2012 and 2016. He was a utility forward that could play as a lock, flanker or number eight. He announced his retirement at the end of the 2016 season.

Career

Youth and amateur rugby

At school level, he played for

Worcester Gymnasium Worcester Gymnasium is a high school established in 1992 in Worcester, Western Cape, South Africa. It was created through the amalgamation of two previous schools, Worcester High School and the Worcester East Commercial High School. In the previ ...

and he represented Boland at various underage levels, including playing in the 2004 Under-20 Provincial Championship. He was also part of the side that played in the Under-21 Provincial Championship in 2005. He then spent years playing club rugby for Rawsonville in the Boland club leagues. He joined Durbanville-Bellville in the Western Province Super League for 2011 before returning to Boland to play for Ceres.

Boland Cavaliers

Kitshoff finally got a chance to play at provincial level when he joined the for the

2012 Currie Cup First Division The 2012 Currie Cup First Division was contested from 30 June to 13 October 2012. The tournament (also known as the Absa Currie Cup First Division for sponsorship reasons) is the second tier of South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competit ...

season. He started their opening match of the season against the in

Nelspruit Mbombela (also known as Nelspruit) is a city in northeastern South Africa. It is the capital of the Mpumalanga province. Located on the Crocodile River, Mbombela lies about by road west of the Mozambique border, east of Johannesburg and north ...

on 7 July 2012 to make his first class debut, aged 28, eventually making seven appearances in the competition. In 2013, he made eight appearances 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

Currie Cup The Currie Cup is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition, played each winter and spring (June to October), featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier ...

competitions and he played in all seven of their matches in the

2014 Vodacom Cup The 2014 Vodacom Cup was played between 7 March and 16 May 2014 and was the 17th edition of this annual domestic cup competition. This edition of the Vodacom Cup was played between fourteen provincial rugby union teams in South Africa from the C ...

competition. He also started five of their six matches in the 2014 Currie Cup qualification tournament, where they finished fifth to progress to the 2014 Currie Cup First Division.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitshoff, Hanno South African rugby union players Living people 1984 births George Rugby union locks Rugby union flankers Rugby union number eights Boland Cavaliers players