Christiaan Petrus 'Tiaan' Strauss, (born 28 June 1965) is a former rugby union and rugby league footballer who represented both

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 ...

and Australia at international level in

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 ...

and also played top-level domestic

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

in Australia. He won the

1999 Rugby World Cup The 1999 Rugby World Cup was the fourth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial international rugby union championship. It was principally hosted by Wales, and was won by Australia. This was the first Rugby World Cup to be held in the sport's profess ...

with Australia and the Currie Cup with Western Province.

Biography

Born in the town of

Upington Upington ( Nama: //Khara hais) is a town founded in 1873 and located in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, on the banks of the Orange River. The town was originally called Olijvenhoutsdrift ('Olive wood drift'), due to the abundance of ...

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope ( af, Provinsie Kaap die Goeie Hoop), commonly referred to as the Cape Province ( af, Kaapprovinsie) and colloquially as The Cape ( af, Die Kaap), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequen ...

(now

Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi ...

), Strauss attended the

University of Stellenbosch Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

, where he obtained his law degree in 1990. He made his senior provincial debut for Western Province in 1986 against North Eastern Cape and scored a try on debut. At the end of the 1986 provincial season he formed the Western Province back row with

Gert Smal Gert Petrus Smal (born 27 December 1961, Kimberley, South Africa) is a former South African rugby union player and assistant coach of the South African and Irish national rugby union teams. He is currently the forwards coach at Japanese Top Lea ...

and Deon Lotter, that played a major role in Western Province's

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 ...

victory. Strauss made his test debut for the

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

during the 1992 tour of Britain and France, as Number 8 against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

at the

Stade de Gerland The Stade de Gerland (known for sponsorship reasons as Matmut Stadium de Gerland and otherwise known as Municipal de Gerland or Stade Gerland ) is a stadium in the city of Lyon, France, which serves as home to Top 14 rugby club Lyon OU. It has a ...

in Lyon. He went on to win 15 caps for the Springboks between 1992 and 1994, scoring 4 tries and captaining them on one occasion. He also made a record 156 appearances for Western Province during the team's golden period before he moved to Australia. In Australia he played two seasons of

with the

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League ( NRL), Australasia's premier rugby leagu ...

before switching back to rugby union for New South Wales. He was selected for Australia a total of 11 times, scoring a hat trick against Ireland on his debut. All but two of his caps were from the bench. He did make a capable replacement for Toutai Kefu in the 1999 World Cup Quarter Final in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...

when the former was banned but it turned out to be his last cap. Strauss returned home to South Africa and settled with his family.

Rugby union test history

Honours

*Currie Cup: Winner (with Western Province)

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker ru ...

(shared). Finalist

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

*World Cup: Winner (with

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...

)

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...

References

External links

* http://www.africapewines.com/about.htm
Tiaan Strauss at yesterdaydhero.com.au
* http://www.sporting-heroes.net/rugby-heroes/displayhero.asp?HeroID=2247 * :fr:Tiaan Strauss (in French) * http://www.scrum.com/1200_1205.php?player=10544&includeref=dynamic * https://web.archive.org/web/20131216155221/http://www.genslin.us/bokke/SARugby.html 1965 births Living people Afrikaner people South African people of German descent People from Upington South African rugby union players South Africa international rugby union players South African rugby league players Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks players Australia international rugby union players Rugby union number eights Rugby union players from the Northern Cape Western Province (rugby union) players New South Wales Waratahs players {{SouthAfrica-rugbyunion-bio-stub

Biography

Rugby union test history

Honours

See also

References

External links