Naas Botha Biography

Naas Botha was born on 27 February 1958 in Breyten, in the Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga). He schooled in Pretoria, where he participated in a number of sporting codes including cricket, tennis, athletics and rugby. 

While he was studying at the University of Pretoria, Naas Botha was selected to play for the South African U20 rugby team. At the age of 22 he played his first international rugby match against South America, marking the start of his 12-year international rugby career.

Widely regarded as one of the all-time greats of South African rugby, Naas Botha won 28 caps for the Springboks in his international career stymied by his country’s sporting isolation.

First capped in 1980, the fly-half went on to become the highest points-scorer in South African rugby history with 312 points, a record that stood until 2004. Twenty of those points came in an epic performance against the All Blacks in 1981, a year after he’d masterminded a series win over the 1980 British and Irish Lions. As captain, in 1986, Naas Botha led the Springboks to a 3-1 series victory over the rebel New Zealand Cavaliers – an All Blacks side in all but name.

In between all of this, Naas Botha also joined the NFL football team, Dallas Cowboys in the mid-80s as a specialist kicker before returning to South Africa and playing for the Springboks again.

Naas Botha, a four-time winner of the South African Rugby Player of the Year award, also enjoyed a highly-decorated club and provincial career, winning titles with Northern Transvaal and in Italy with Rovigo.

Few rugby players can boast a career spanning three decades and can claim nine Currie Cup titles, 11 finals and a test career that was only shortened due to the lack of international competition during the peak of his career. A massive 280 career drop goals says much about a player who was loved, hated but always feared by opposition.

Naas Botha retired in 1995. He now works as a rugby commentator but has also tried his hand at coaching having been appointed as head coach of India's men's and women's Test teams in 2019.