Nizaam Carr (born 4 April 1991) is a South African

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 ...

footballer who plays as a back rower. He is renowned for his athleticism and linking play.

Personal life

Carr grew up in Mitchell's Plain and attended West End Primary before his father moved to Rondebosch East, where he still lives with his family. Carr is the first Muslim to be named in a Springboks squad and to play for his national team after his subsequent debut against Italy. He fasts during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, even while playing rugby. He runs a rugby academy at Islamia College in Lansdowne and hopes to inspire more young players from his community to achieve higher honours in rugby.

Club career

Born in

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 ...

, Carr attended Bishops and played in their First XV in 2008 and 2009. Carr made his way through the junior ranks of , playing Craven Week in 2009 and then made it to the senior team in 2011 where he debuted against the . Impressive outings in a Province jersey somehow saw him called up to the Stormers Super Rugby squad for the 2012 season and he made a total of 7 appearances before a serious knee injury ended his year. However, he bounced back during 2013 and made 14 appearances for the Stormers and also helped Western Province reach the final 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 ...

. Carr started the 2014 Super Rugby season on the bench, but an injury to Siya Kolisi led to him starting the final 11 matches of the Stormers' campaign in the number 6 jersey. He returned to his preferred number 8 position during the 2014 Currie Cup Premier Division, with his team ending the season as champions. By captaining the Stormers in round 18 of the

2015 Super Rugby season The 2015 Super Rugby season was the 20th season of Super Rugby and the fifth season featuring an expanded 15-team format. For sponsorship reasons, this competition was known as Asteron Life Super Rugby in Australia, Investec Super Rugby in New ...

, Carr became the first Muslim to have captained a Super Rugby team. On 30 October 2017, Carr signed a 3-month deal to join English Premiership side

Wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

. He rejoined the team on a full-time basis after the

2018 Super Rugby season The 2018 Super Rugby season was the 23rd season of Super Rugby, an annual rugby union competition organised by SANZAAR between teams from Argentina, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. After two seasons in which 18 teams participate ...

. On 12 June 2020, Carr returned to South Africa to rejoin the

Bulls Bulls may refer to: *The plural of bull, an adult male bovine * Bulls, New Zealand, a small town in the Rangitikei District Sports *Bucking bull, used in the sport of bull riding *Bulls (rugby union), a South African rugby union franchise operated ...

for their next

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 ...

season, after the conclusion of his contract with

. On 28 June 2021, it was announced that Carr would once again return to Wasps, after the conclusion of his Currie Cup commitments with the Bulls. Wasps entered administration on 17 October 2022 and Carr was made redundant along with all other players and coaching staff. After being made redundant by Wasps, Carr returned to South Africa once again to rejoin the

in the URC competition.

International career

Carr was a member of the South Africa Under 20 team that competed in the

2011 IRB Junior World Championship The 2011 IRB Junior World Championship was the fourth annual international rugby union competition for Under 20 national teams, this competition replaced the now defunct under 19 and under 21 world championships. The event was organised by rugby' ...

where he made a total of 4 appearances and scored 2 tries. In October 2014, Carr was called up by the

South Africa national rugby union team 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 ...

for their 2014 end-of-year rugby union internationals. On 22 November, he made his Springbok test debut against the Italy national team. In 2016, Carr was included in a South Africa 'A' squad that played a two-match series against a touring

England Saxons England A is England's men's second national rugby union team. The team has previously been known by a number of names, such as England B, Emerging England and, most recently, England Saxons. England A play a key role in the development of emerg ...

team. He was named in the starting line-up for their first match in

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein ( ; ), also known as Bloem, is the capital and the largest city of the Free State (province), Free State province in South Africa. It is often, and has been traditionally, referred to as the country's "judicial capital", alongsi ...

, but ended on the losing side as the visitors ran out 32–24 winners. He was named on the bench for the second match of the series, coming on as a first-half replacement in a 26–29 defeat to the Saxons in George.

Honours

winner

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

* Pro14 Rainbow Cup runner-up

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carr, Nizaam Living people 1991 births South African rugby union players South Africa international rugby union players Stormers players Western Province (rugby union) players Wasps RFC players Rugby union players from Cape Town Rugby union flankers Rugby union number eights South Africa Under-20 international rugby union players South African Muslims Bulls (rugby union) players Blue Bulls players Alumni of Diocesan College, Cape Town South African expatriate rugby union players in England 21st-century South African sportsmen Ikey Tigers players