Jan Hendrik "Jannie" de Beer (born 22 April 1971) is a South African former rugby union player. He played flyhalf for the South African national team, the Springboks. In all he represented the Springboks in 13 tests, scoring 181 points.^[1][2] He was principally known as a kicking fly-half.^[3]

Born in Welkom, de Beer represented Northern Free State at the 1989 Craven Week tournament. He made his senior provincial debut for the Free State in 1990 as a 19-year-old.^[2][3]

De Beer made his début against the British & Irish Lions in 1997, being brought in for the dropped Henry Honiball whose running game had been contained by the Lions' defence in the first two of the three tests.^[4] He failed however to establish himself properly in the Springbok side.

De Beer is most famous for his world record five drop goals in a single test match, set in the 1999 Rugby World Cup in Paris against England. The Springboks won the match 44-21, knocking England out of the tournament.^[5] However, his attempts to repeat the tactic in the semi-final versus Australia backfired, as despite several attempts he only scored one in the match, and the Australians closed him down.^[6] It proved to be his final appearance for the Springboks.

A professed Christian, de Beer credits his faith in God for his successes. De Beer retired from professional rugby in 2002 due to a knee injury.^[7]

At the end of 2019, de Beer was appointed as the director of rugby at the Windhoek Gymnasium.^[8]

Test history

More information No., Opponents ...

No.	Opponents	Results (SA 1st)	Position	Points	Dates	Venue
1.	British Lions	35–16	Flyhalf	13 (2 conv, 3 pen)	5 July 1997	Ellis Park, Johannesburg
2.	New Zealand	32–35	Flyhalf	22 (2 conv, 4 pen, 2 drop)	19 July 1997	Ellis Park, Johannesburg
3.	Australia	20–32	Flyhalf	10 (1 try, 1 conv, 1 pen)	2 August 1997	Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
4.	New Zealand	35–55	Flyhalf	6 (3 conv)	9 August 1997	Eden Park, Auckland
5.	Australia	61–22	Flyhalf	26 (1 try, 6 conv, 3 pen)	23 August 1997	Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
6.	France	52–10	Replacement		22 November 1997	Parc des Princes, Paris
7.	Scotland	68–10	Flyhalf	2 (1 conv)	6 December 1997	Murrayfield, Edinburgh
8.	Australia	10–9	Flyhalf	5 (1 conv, 1 pen)	14 August 1999	Newlands, Cape Town
9.	Scotland	46–29	Flyhalf	16 (5 conv, 2 pen)	3 October 1999	Murrayfield, Edinburgh
10.	Spain	47–3	Flyhalf	12 (6 conv)	10 October 1999	Murrayfield, Edinburgh
11.	Uruguay	39–3	Flyhalf	14 (4 conv, 2 pen)	15 October 1999	Hampden Park, Glasgow
12.	England	44–21	Flyhalf	34 (2 conv, 5 pen, 5 drop)	24 October 1999	Stade de France, Paris
13.	Australia	21–27	Flyhalf	21 (6 pen, 1 drop)	30 October 1999	Twickenham, London

Close

Legend: pen = penalty (3 pts.); conv = conversion (2 pts.), drop = drop kick (3 pts.).

• List of South Africa national rugby union players – Springbok no. 653