Willem de Waal (born 17 February 1978 in

Paarl Paarl (; ; derived from ''parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a city with 294,457 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the largest city in the Boland, Western Cape, Cape Winelands. Due to the growth of the Mbekweni ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

) 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 is currently playing for Benetton Treviso in the Pro14 competition. He plays in the position of fly-half. Like Joost van der Westhuizen at scrum-half, de Waal is unusually big for a fly-half.

Career

De Waal played rugby for

Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch University (SU) (, ) 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 university in Sub-Sahara ...

before making his provincial debut with the Leopards in 2002. He then moved to the

Free State Cheetahs The Free State Cheetahs (), formerly known as Orange Free State (), currently named the Toyota Free State Cheetahs due to sponsorship reasons, are a South African rugby union team that participates in the annual Currie Cup tournament. They are ...

in 2004 where he would experience his greatest success so far. In each of his four seasons at the club, the Cheetahs made it to 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 ...

, winning twice and sharing one. De Waal has also played at

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 ...

level, making his debut with the Bulls in 2004 before joining the

Cats The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

in 2005. When the competition expanded to 14 teams in

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, the Cats split into two separate franchises – the Lions and the

Cheetahs The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat and the fastest land animal. It has a tawny to creamy white or pale buff fur that is marked with evenly spaced, solid black spots. The head is small and rounded, with a short snout and blac ...

, which de Waal joined. On 24 July 2007, it was announced that de Waal signed a two-year deal with French Second Division club RC Narbonne. He returned to

after one season and secured a spot in the 2009

Stormers The Stormers (known for sponsorship reasons as the DHL Stormers) and the academic team DHL Stormers is a South African professional rugby union team based in Cape Town in the Western Cape that competes in the United Rugby Championship, a tra ...

squad, his fourth different super rugby team. He also played in the Currie Cup for Western Province that same season.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:De Waal, Willem 1978 births Living people Afrikaner people South African rugby union players Rugby union fly-halves Stormers players Western Province (rugby union) players Cheetahs (rugby union) players Free State Cheetahs players Bulls (rugby union) players Lions (United Rugby Championship) players South African people of Dutch descent Rugby union players from Paarl Stellenbosch University alumni Benetton Rugby players South African expatriate rugby union players in Italy RC Narbonne players South African expatriate rugby union players in France