Robert Albertus Kruger (born 28 April 1988 in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

, South Africa) 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 ...

player for

NTT Communications Shining Arcs Urayasu D-Rocks, commonly known as the D-Rocks, or the Shining Arcs, is a rugby union team owned by NTT Communications and is part of Japan's Japan Rugby League One, Rugby League One competition, currently in Japan Rugby League One#Division 1, Div ...

in the

Top League Japan Rugby League One (), formerly known as the Top League (), is a rugby union competition in Japan. It is the highest level of professional rugby competition in the country. The Japan Rugby Football Union created the competition in 2003, by ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. His regular position is a flanker, but he has occasionally played as a lock or number eight.

Career

Youth

Playing his schoolboy rugby for Standerton High School, Kruger was included in several youth tournaments for his provincial side, the Mpumalanga , playing at the 2004 Under-16 Grant Khomo Week, at the 2005 Under-18 Academy Week and the 2006 Under-18

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 ...

tournaments. At the start of 2007, Kruger joined

Potchefstroom Potchefstroom ( ; ), colloquially known as Potch, is an college town, academic city in the North West (South African province), North West Province of South Africa. It hosts the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. Potchefstro ...

-based side the . He played for the team in the 2007 Under-19 Provincial Championship and for the team in the 2008 Under-21 Provincial Championship.

Golden Lions

In 2009, Kruger moved to

to join the . He made his first class debut for them during the 2009 Vodacom Cup competition, starting their match in Potchefstroom against former side the . Six days later, he started their match against the in

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

and scored the opening try of the match, but could not prevent the Golden Lions suffering a 20–19 defeat. With just the two first class matches behind his name, Kruger was drafted into the

Super 14 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 ...

squad for the

2009 Super 14 season The 2009 Super 14 season kicked off in February 2009 with pre-season matches held from mid-January. It finished on 30 May, when the Bulls won their second Super Rugby title with a decisive 61–17 victory over the Chiefs at Loftus Versfeld sta ...

and included in their touring squad that travelled to

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

. He made his Super Rugby debut on

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

soil in a match against the in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, coming off the bench on the hour mark. Despite getting sin-binned in their next match, a 31–20 victory against the in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, Kruger was promoted to the starting line-up for the first time the following week against the in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

. Upon their return to South Africa, Kruger made a further two starts and one appearance off the bench. He made his

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 ...

debut in July of the same year, coming off the bench against the in

Leopards

However, he failed to establish himself as a regular for the , either domestically or in the Super Rugby, and returned to

to rejoin the prior to the

2011 Currie Cup First Division The 2011 Currie Cup First Division was contested from 15 July to 14 October 2011. The tournament (known as the Absa Currie Cup First Division for sponsorship reasons) was the second tier of the 73rd season of the Currie Cup, an annual rugby un ...

season. There, he immediately established himself in the first team in both 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

competitions. He was once again called up to the

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 ...

side for their

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 ...

. He played off the bench for the Lions in their first match of the season in an 8–22 loss to the to make his first appearance in the competition after a four-season absence. He was a member of the team that won the

2015 Currie Cup First Division The 2015 Currie Cup First Division was contested from 29 August to 8 October 2015. The tournament (also known as the Absa Currie Cup First Division for sponsorship reasons) was the second tier of South Africa's premier domestic rugby union co ...

. He featured in a total of twelve matches during the

2015 Currie Cup qualification The 2015 Currie Cup qualification tournament was a competition organised by the South African Rugby Union which featured seven teams and was played between 12 June and 25 July 2015. The winner of the tournament would qualify for the 2015 Currie ...

rounds and First Division proper and scored two tries for the side. He also started the final, where he helped the Leopards to a 44–20 victory over the to win the competition for the first time in their history. He was named the Leopards' Player of the Year for 2015, the second time he received this accolade.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kruger, Robert South African rugby union players Living people 1988 births Rugby union players from Johannesburg Golden Lions players Leopards (rugby union) players Lions (United Rugby Championship) players Rugby union flankers Rugby union locks Rugby union number eights Urayasu D-Rocks players Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi players South African expatriate rugby union players in Japan 21st-century South African sportsmen