Herschel Jantjies

Herschel Jerome Jantjies (born 22 April 1996) is a South African professional rugby union player for the South Africa national team and the in the URC. His regular position is scrum-half.

Rugby career

Jantjies was born in Stellenbosch, where he attended Paul Roos Gymnasium. He represented at Under-16 level in 2012 and at the Craven Week tournaments in 2013 and 2014. He progressed to their Under-19 and Under-21 sides, and made his first class debut in Western Province's match against the in the 2016 Currie Cup qualification series.

He made four appearances as a replacement for Western Province in the 2017 Rugby Challenge, a competition they would go on to win, before reverting to the team for the latter half of the season. At the end of 2017, Jantjies was drafted into the squad of Welsh side on their visit to South Africa during the 2017–18 Pro14 season, and came on as a replacement in their match against the in Bloemfontein.

He played in all nine of their matches in the 2018 Rugby Challenge, scoring his first and second tries in first class rugby in a 23–21 victory over the in their Round Three match. He scored a further try in their match against the as his side progressed to the quarterfinal stage before being eliminated by .

Schoolboy rugby kicked off at his hometown of Kylemore where he attended P.C Petersen Primary from where he graduated to his high schooling career which initially started at Kylemore High School where his excellence was spotted. His constant game-changing performances got the interest from Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch, where he started playing under 14 rugby for the D team. His size counted against him, but once he got game time, he grabbed the opportunity with both hands. At the age of 14, he undertook his first trip overseas where he represented a South African invitational side on a postseason rugby tour to Scotland in the UK. Jantjies' rugby master brain scored his constant features at WP Grant Komo and Craven week and constant 1st team starts for Paul Roos in the South African Premiere Schools league.

Jantjies was included in the ' squad for their final match of the 2018 Super Rugby season against the , and he came on as a second half replacement to make his Super Rugby debut.

International rugby

In July 2019, Jantjies made his debut for in their opening match of the 2019 Rugby Championship against in Johannesburg, scoring twice in a 35–17 win. In their next match against in Wellington, Jantjies scored his side's only try in the 79th minute to help them to a 16–16 draw for a total of 3 tries in his first 2 games.

Jantjies was named in South Africa's squad for the 2019 Rugby World Cup. South Africa went on to win the tournament, defeating England in the final.

Statistics Test match record

Opponent P W D L Try Pts %Won 2 2 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 1 2 10 3 2 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 1 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 5 1 1 3 1 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 1 5 Total 25 17 1 7 6 30 Pld = Games played, W = Games won, D = Games drawn, L = Games lost, Try = Tries scored, Pts = Points scored

International tries