Schalk Burger Brits (born 16 May 1981) is a South African former professional rugby union player who last played for the South Africa national team and the Bulls in Super Rugby. He primarily played as a hooker. He was part of the 2019 Rugby World Cup-winning team. Brits holds the international record for oldest player to win a Rugby World Cup aged 38 years, 170 days in the final against England in 2019 a game in which he didn't play in.^[2]

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (May 2023) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 6,143 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:Schalk Brits]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|fr|Schalk Brits}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Quick Facts Full name, Date of birth ...

Schalk Brits

Full name	Schalk Burger Brits
Date of birth	(1981-05-16) 16 May 1981 (age 42)
Place of birth	Empangeni, South Africa
Height	1.82 m (5 ft 11+1⁄2 in)[1]
Weight	100 kg (220 lb; 15 st 10 lb)
School	Paul Roos Gymnasium
University	Stellenbosch University
Rugby union career
Position(s) Hooker Senior career Years Team Apps (Points) 2002–2003 Western Province 12 (20) 2004–2005 Golden Lions 35 (55) 2005 Cats 11 (0) 2006–2009 Stormers 51 (20) 2006–2009 Western Province 28 (10) 2009–2018 Saracens 216 (185) 2011 → Stormers 1 (0) 2019 Bulls 11 (0) Correct as of 11 July 2019 International career Years Team Apps (Points) 2008–2019 South Africa 15 (15) Correct as of 21 October 2019
Medal record Men's Rugby union Representing  South Africa Rugby World Cup 2015 England Squad 2019 Japan Squad

Close

Brits was born in Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal and attended Paul Roos Gymnasium before going to Stellenbosch University. He married Colinda Wijnants on 29 January 2011 in Greyton, South Africa.

Brits made his international debut against Italy in 2008. He was next called up when he was included in the Springbok squad that toured Ireland, Scotland and England during the 2012 end-of-year rugby union internationals. He came on as a substitute in the match against Scotland to earn his fourth cap.^[9] He earned his fifth cap in their next match, replacing Adriaan Strauss as they beat England 16–15.^[10]

Brits returned to international rugby in 2015, coming on as a substitute in South Africa's 2015 Rugby World Cup warm-up match against Argentina,^[11] and was then included in South Africa's squad that participated at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.^[12] While he didn't feature in their 32–34 loss to Japan in their opening match,^[13] he did play off the bench in their next match against Samoa, scoring a late try in a 34–16 victory.^[14] He was again omitted against Scotland^[15] before another appearance from the bench in a 64–0 victory over the United States.^[16] He didn't feature in their 23–19 win over Wales in the quarter final,^[17] their 18–20 loss to New Zealand in the semi-finals^[18] or the third-place play-off against Argentina, which South Africa won 24–13 to secure the bronze medal in the competition.^[19]

In 2019, Brits was selected to play for South Africa at the 2019 Rugby World Cup, aged 38.^[20] He was named captain in their match against Namibia, playing out of position as an eighth man, and also scored a try in the match.^[21] South Africa went on to win the tournament, defeating England in the final.^[22]

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (October 2023)

• Rugby World Cup
  • Winner: 2019