CJ van der Linde
Encyclopedia
CJ van der Linde is a South African rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 footballer. His usual position is prop. He played for Leinster Rugby
Leinster Rugby
Leinster Rugby, usually referred to simply as Leinster, is an Irish professional rugby union team based in Dublin, representing the Irish province of Leinster, that competes in the RaboDirect Pro 12 and also competes in the Heineken Cup...

 in the international Magners League from 2008–10, and currently plays for the Stormers.

He made his debut for the Springboks as a 22 year-old on November 16, 2002 in match against Scotland
Scotland national rugby union team
The Scotland national rugby union team represent Scotland in international rugby union. Rugby union in Scotland is administered by the Scottish Rugby Union. The Scotland rugby union team is currently ranked eighth in the IRB World Rankings as of 19 September 2011...

 at Murrayfield
Murrayfield Stadium
Murrayfield Stadium is a sports stadium located in the west end of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Its all-seater capacity was recently reduced from 67,800 to 67,130 to incorporate the largest permanent "big screen" in the country though it still remains the largest stadium in Scotland and one...

, which South Africa lost 21 to six. He earned another cap for South Africa that year, playing England
England national rugby union team
The England national rugby union team represents England in rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Wales. They have won this championship on 26 occasions, 12 times winning the Grand Slam, making them the most successful team in...

 at Twickenham
Twickenham Stadium
Twickenham Stadium is a stadium located in Twickenham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is the largest rugby union stadium in the United Kingdom and has recently been enlarged to seat 82,000...

.

He next played for the Springboks in 2004, against Ireland
Ireland national rugby union team
The Ireland national rugby union team represents the island of Ireland in rugby union. The team competes annually in the Six Nations Championship and every four years in the Rugby World Cup, where they reached the quarter-final stage in all but two competitions The Ireland national rugby union...

 in a two test series in South Africa. He then played against the Pacific Islands team
Pacific Islanders rugby union team
The Pacific Islanders rugby union team is an international rugby union team, started in 2004, that represents Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. While Niue and the Cook Islands are not members of the Pacific Tri-Nations competition, they did supply players to the squad for the Pacific Islanders' tour in 2004...

 in Gosford. He was subsequently named in the Springboks' 2004 Tri Nations Series
2004 Tri Nations Series
The 2004 Tri Nations Series, an annual rugby union competition between the national teams of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, was the ninth in the series. The competition is organised by SANZAR, a consortium of the three countries' rugby union federations...

 squad, and played in three matches during the series. He then earned another five caps for South Africa during the end-of-year Northern Hemisphere tests.

He played 11 times for the Springboks in 2005 including mid-year matches against France
France national rugby union team
The France national rugby union team represents France in rugby union. They compete annually against England, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales in the Six Nations Championship. They have won the championship outright sixteen times, shared it a further eight times, and have completed nine grand slams...

 and in the 2005 Tri Nations Series
2005 Tri Nations Series
-Round Two:-Round Three:-Round Four:-Round Five:-Round Six:-External links:* at Rugby.com.aurugby union schedule for 2005...

. After playing for the Springboks in the 2006 mid-year rugby tests he was named in the 2006 Tri Nations Series
2006 Tri Nations Series
-Week 2:-Week 3:-Week 4:* All Blacks retain Bledisloe Cup-Week 5:-Week 6:-Week 7:-Week 8:-Week 9:-External links:* * *...

 squad.

On November 26, 2006, he scored his first try in international play against England at Twickenham. The play started near the England's five-meter line as van der Linde received a skip pass from South African fly-half André Pretorius
André Pretorius
André Pretorius is a South African rugby union footballer. His usual position is at fly-half, where he is currently under contract at the Lions. He has been capped by his country's national side, the Springboks and was a member of the 2007 Rugby World Cup squad that was crowned world champions...

 and broke an attempted tackle from England's Josh Lewsey.

Van der Linde signed a 3 year contract with Leinster in Autumn 2008, with the Irish province supplying him with a rented bungalow in Glendalough. Unfortunately, Van der Linde was sidelined for most his time with Leinster due to a recurrent big toe problem, though this didn't discourage rumours of his adventurous dancefloor antics in Dublin's budding nightclubs.

He is one of the strongest members of the Springbok side, being able to bench press 200 kg. Van der Linde also possesses a great pace, having scored 2 tries from the half line in the 2007 Super 14.

CJ Van der Linde made his debut for the Stormers in Saturday's Neo Africa Tri series match against the Sharks at Newlands in Cape Town. Van der Linde joined the Stormers this season after plying his trade in Ireland for the past few years.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK