Hannes Strydom

Strydom was born on 13 July 1965 in Welkom, in the Free State province of South Africa.^[3][4]

Strydom represented the Eastern Province Schools team at the 1983 and 1984 Craven Week tournaments. In 1986, he made his senior provincial debut for Eastern Province. He also represented Northern Transvaal and from 1993, Transvaal that later became the Golden Lions, where he formed a formidable combination with Kobus Wiese.

In Super Rugby, he represented the Gauteng Lions and with the establishment of the South African franchise system in 1998, the Cats.^[5]

Strydom played his first test match for the Springboks on 3 July 1993 against France at Ellis Park. He toured with the Springboks to Australia and Argentina in 1993, playing in all the test matches during the tours. In 1994 he played only one test match and in 1995 was a member of the World Cup squad and also played in the World Cup final.^[6] Strydom was a member of the 1995 Springboks team that won the world cup that year defeating New Zealand. The famous tournament win was made into the Hollywood film, Invictus, in 2009.^[7]

He continued to represent South Africa during the 1996 and 1997 seasons, including the test series against the 1997 British Lions. Strydom also played in nine tour matches.^[6] In a career spanning 1993 through 1997, he made a total of 21 appearances for the country.^[2]

  World Cup Final

No.	Opposition	Result (SA 1st)	Position	Tries	Date	Venue
1.	France	17–18	Lock		3 Jul 1993	Ellis Park, Johannesburg
2.	Australia	19–12	Lock		31 Jul 1993	Sydney Football Stadium (SFG), Sydney
3.	Australia	20–28	Lock		14 Aug 1993	Ballymore Stadium, Brisbane
4.	Australia	12–19	Lock		21 Aug 1993	Sydney Football Stadium (SFG), Sydney
5.	Argentina	29–26	Lock		6 Nov 1993	Ferro Carril Oeste Stadium, Buenos Aires
6.	Argentina	52–23	Lock		13 Nov 1993	Ferro Carril Oeste Stadium, Buenos Aires
7.	England	15–32	Lock		4 Jun 1994	Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
8.	Australia	27–18	Lock		25 May 1995	Newlands, Cape Town
9.	Canada	20–0	Lock		3 Jun 1995	Boet Erasmus Stadium, Port Elizabeth
10.	France	19–15	Lock		17 Jun 1995	Kings Park, Durban
11.	New Zealand	15–12	Lock		24 Jun 1995	Ellis Park, Johannesburg
12.	Australia	25–19	Replacement		3 Aug 1996	Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein
13.	New Zealand	18–29	Replacement		10 Aug 1996	Newlands, Cape Town
14.	New Zealand	19–23	Lock		17 Aug 1996	Kings Park, Durban
15.	New Zealand	26–33	Lock	1	24 Aug 1996	Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
16.	Wales	37–20	Replacement		15 Dec 1996	Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff
17.	Tonga	74–10	Lock		10 Jun 1997	Newlands, Cape Town
18.	British Lions	16–25	Lock		21 Jun 1997	Newlands, Cape Town
19.	British Lions	15–18	Lock		28 Jun 1997	Kings Park, Durban
20.	British Lions	35–16	Lock		5 Jul 1997	Ellis Park, Johannesburg
21.	Australia	61–22	Lock		23 Aug 1997	Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria

• 1995 World Cup in South Africa : 4 games (Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand).

After his retirement, Strydom went on to become a businessman, owning the 'Pharma Valu' chain of pharmacies based in Pretoria.^[8]

In 2003, he was inducted into the University of Pretoria Sports Hall of Fame.^[9]

He went to school at Pearson High School in Port Elizabeth and the A rugby field is named after him.^[10] He worked as a pharmacist in Pretoria.^[8]

Hannes Strydom died in a traffic collision near EMalahleni, a town in the Mpumalanga province, on 19 November 2023, at the age of 58.^[11][12][2]

• List of South Africa national rugby union players – Springbok no. 586

• Springboks 1996
• Statistics at scrum.com