Full name John-Ben Kotze Name Johnny Kotze School Diocesan College Years Team Weight 89 kg | 2012–14 Western Province Height 1.85 m Playing position Role Rugby union player | |
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Born 24 January 1993 (age 31)
Carletonville, South Africa ( 1993-01-24 ) School(s) attended Bishops College, Cape Town Current club Western Province / Stormers | ||
Johnny Kotze Rugby Highlights
John-Ben Kôtze (born (1993-01-24)24 January 1993 in Carletonville, South Africa) is a South African rugby union player, currently playing with the Bulls in Super Rugby and the Blue Bulls in the domestic Currie Cup. His regular position is centre, but he is also comfortable at wing.
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School
Kôtze attended Bishops College in Cape Town and played for their first XV in 2010 and 2011, where he played alongside Dillyn Leyds in 2010 and Tim Swiel in both 2010 and 2011.
2012–13
Kôtze's first provincial involvement came in 2012, when he was included in the Western Province U19 squad that participated in the 2012 Under-19 Provincial Championship. He also made a single appearance for the Western Province U21s in the same season. He made ten appearances for Western Province U21 in the 2013 Under-21 Provincial Championship, scoring a brace of tries in his first start at this level in their final match of the regular season against the Sharks U21. They topped the log to qualify for the semi-finals and Kôtze started both the semi-final win against the Golden Lions U21 and the final against the Blue Bulls, where he helped his side to a 30–23 victory over the Blue Bulls U21.
2014–
The following year, he was a member of the Maties side that played in the 2014 Varsity Cup. He played in the first four of Maties' matches in this competition, scoring two tries. He then moved to the Western Province squad that participated in the 2014 Vodacom Cup, where he made his first class debut by starting their 16–8 victory in the opening round of the competition. Kôtze also scored his first career try in Round Five of the competition, a 65–29 victory over Kenyan invitational side Simba XV, eventually making a total of 6 starts.
He was a key figure for the Western Province U21 side that participated in the 2014 Under-21 Provincial Championship, starting eleven of their fourteen matches during the competition, including their semi-final victory over Free State U21 – during which he scored one of seven tries during the season to help Western Province to a 41–17 victory – and the final, where they lost 10–20 to the Blue Bulls U21s.
In 2015, Kôtze was named in the wider training group of Super Rugby side the Stormers. He was included in their final squad for the season and was included in the starting line-up for their season-opening match against the Bulls. He played the entire 80 minutes of the match as the Stormers started their season in fine form by running out 29–17 winners in the match in Pretoria.