Birthday Tribute | 19 October 2026 | Toyota Cheetahs · Springboks · Rugby
Most scrumhalves at 35 are weighing up a coaching badge or a seat in a studio. Faf De Klerk signed a two-year contract in Bloemfontein instead, and has told anyone who asked that he is going after a place in the Springbok squad for Australia 2027.
He was born on 19 October 1991 in Nelspruit, now Mbombela, and turns 35 today — sixty Tests, two World Cup winner’s medals and a decade abroad behind him, with no intention of stopping.
BERGLAND, WATERKLOOF AND THE YEARS AT NUMBER 10
The Lowveld made him. Faf de Klerk started at Laerskool Bergland in Nelspruit before the move to Pretoria took him to Hoërskool Waterkloof, where he spent much of his school rugby at flyhalf rather than scrumhalf.
That matters more than it sounds. The time at 10 built the kicking game that would later run Test matches from the base of a ruck — the long left boot, the box kick, the willingness to take the decision himself rather than pass it on.
He wore Blue Bulls colours at Grant Khomo Week in 2007 and Under-18 Academy Week in 2009, but no senior contract came from Loftus. Two more seasons in the Golden Lions youth structures, in 2010 and 2011, brought him no closer to first-team rugby.
“This guy has the biggest heart and dishes out the hardest tackles, pound for pound, of any rugby player! Happy Birthday, Faf!” – 🎙️Jay
THE PUMAS GAMBLE THAT PUT HIM BACK ON THE MAP
In 2012 he went home. The Pumas, based in Nelspruit, gave him what Pretoria and Johannesburg would not — a senior jersey and Currie Cup rugby every week. He made 56 appearances for them.
Johan Ackermann’s Lions took him on loan in 2014, and he made his Super Rugby debut in a 21-20 win over the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein, the city he now calls home. The loan became permanent. Over four seasons he played 65 times for the Lions for 72 points and became one of the drivers of the Ackermann era that carried the franchise from near-liquidation to the 2016 Super Rugby final.
Allister Coetzee picked him as the only uncapped man in the starting XV against Ireland at Newlands on 11 June 2016. South Africa lost that opener 26-20, but Faf de Klerk started all three Tests of a series the Boks won 2-1.
THE 18 MONTHS WHEN THE GREEN AND GOLD WAS SHUT
Signing for Sale Sharks in 2017 cost him the Springboks. Under the selection policy of the day, overseas-based players needed 30 caps to stay eligible, and he was nowhere near that number. He went to Manchester knowing the jersey was gone.
What he did with that exile is the point. He made 103 appearances for Sale for 241 points, was named the club’s Player of the Year and the fans’ choice after his first season, and forced his way into the Premiership Team of the Year. He has since called the England move a blessing in disguise.
The policy was scrapped in 2018 and Rassie Erasmus recalled him after 18 months away. He scored a try on his return, in the 42-39 comeback win over England in Johannesburg that June.
2019: FIVE STARTS, 360 MINUTES, ONE WEBB ELLIS CUP
He was the first-choice nine through the 2019 Rugby Championship, South Africa’s first title in a decade, and then through the World Cup in Japan.
He started all five of his matches at that tournament and played 360 minutes of it, including 76 against England in a final won 32-12. His try in the quarter-final demolition of the hosts in Tokyo was the most clinical piece of scrumhalf sniping of the tournament.
What followed in the changing room — the blond hair, the flag-printed briefs, the handshake with royalty — travelled further than any of his rugby, and introduced him to a global audience that had not been watching Super Rugby in 2016.
BACK-TO-BACK, AND A LIONS SERIES IN BETWEEN
The 2021 British and Irish Lions tour was the hardest rugby of his life and some of his most valuable. He scored in the first Test in Cape Town, a 22-17 defeat, started the second as the Boks levelled the series, and finished on the right side of a 2-1 result.
Two years later he started the 2023 World Cup final at Stade de France, a 12-11 win over New Zealand that made South Africa the first team to win four titles. He featured in six matches across that tournament.
His 60th and most recent Test cap came against Georgia in July 2025, in Nelspruit, in the town he was born in. Sixty caps, 50 Test points, two World Cups, one Rugby Championship, one Lions series.
STILL GOING: BLOEMFONTEIN, AND AUSTRALIA 2027
After a decade away with Sale and the Yokohama Canon Eagles, he signed a two-year deal with the Toyota Cheetahs that brought him home from June 2026. The union called him a player who changes the tempo of a game. He has already started their EPCR Challenge Cup opener away at Bayonne this month.
He was back in a Springbok squad within days of landing, came off the bench against the Barbarians in Gqeberha and scored in an 80-31 win. “It was an amazing feeling getting that call-up again,” he told IOL. He was then left out of the Nations Championship squad while Erasmus examined younger nines — a call the coach was careful to frame as a look at depth rather than a closed door.
De Klerk has ruled out retirement entirely. Off the field, he and Miné, married since 2022, have two daughters, Remi-Ré and Yuke, who was born in November 2025.
Happy 35th Birthday, Faf. From all of us at Just Plain Sport — the tackles still land the way they landed in Yokohama, and every nine in the country knows it. 🎂🏉
