Hannes Strydom Biography

Hannes Strydom represented Eastern Province Schools at the 1983 and 1984 Craven Week. 

In 1986 he made his senior provincial debut for Eastern Province. Later he represented Northern Transvaal and then he made the best move of his career, when in 1993, a large group of players left Northern Transvaal to seek greener pastures south of the Jukskei. Among these players that joined Hannes Strydom, were Uli Schmidt, Phillip Schutte, Gavin Johnson, Johan Roux, Charles Rossouw, Heinrich Rogers, Rudolph Straeuli and later on Gerbrand Grobler. 

But the ace up Luyt’s sleeve was the recruitment of the Pretoria Harlequins coach, Kitch Christie. Kitch soon brought discipline to the Transvaal team and brought Schmidt with him. Both would be key to Transvaal’s success in 1993. 

That is also the year that Hannes Strydom made his Test debut for the Springboks against France at Ellis Park on 3 July 1993, a game that the Boks narrowly lost 17-18. 

Furthermore, Hannes Strydom toured with the Springboks to Australia and Argentina the same year and played in all the test matches on tour. 

Pienaar’s Transvaal men were flying high and they continued that form into 1994. 

They handed Northern Transvaal their biggest loss in a Currie Cup game, winning 57–13. That team went on to win another four trophies in 1994 namely the M-Net Night Series, the Percy Frames trophy, the Lion Cup and again, the Currie Cup. 

Hannes Strydom was also part of this Transvaal team as they scored a record 56 points in the final, a record that still stands while they managed to secure eight trophies in two years. He only played in one test match in 1994. 

That team also formed the core of the Springbok team that would go on to win the Rugby World Cup, because by then Kitch Christie was entrusted with leading the team to glory. Together with his teammates like Chris Rossouw, Balie Swart, Kobus Wiese, Francois Pienaar, Hennie le Roux and Japie Mulder, Hannes Strydom also played in that final.

Together with Kobus Wiese and Balie Swart, the threesome excelled at singing the national anthem Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika.

He continued to represent South Africa during the 1996 and 1997 seasons, including the test series against the 1997 British & Irish Lions. 

All in all Hannes Strydom played 21 tests between 1993 and 1997 and he was captain of the Lions team that hoisted the Currie Cup trophy in 1999.

As bitter as his test debut defeat against France was in 1993, the Springboks' 61-22 demolition of the Wallabies at Loftus in his final test four years later was as sweet. 

Hannes Strydom is a qualified pharmacist and has a group of three pharmacies under the name of Pharma Valu in Pretoria. He also has his own range of vitamins called Health and Wellness and another range called HNS, which includes the unique slimming products called HNS New Me and HNS New Man.