Age, Biography and Wiki

Izak Van Heerden was born on 19 August, 0010 in South Africa, is a South African rugby union player & coach. Discover Izak Van Heerden's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is he in this year and how he spends money? Also learn how he earned most of networth at the age of 63 years old?

Popular As N/A
Occupation N/A
Age 63 years old
Zodiac Sign Leo
Born 19 August 0010
Birthday 19 August
Birthplace N/A
Date of death 1 June, 1973
Died Place N/A
Nationality South Africa

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 19 August. He is a member of famous player with the age 63 years old group.

Izak Van Heerden Height, Weight & Measurements

At 63 years old, Izak Van Heerden height not available right now. We will update Izak Van Heerden's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

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Izak Van Heerden Net Worth

His net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Izak Van Heerden worth at the age of 63 years old? Izak Van Heerden’s income source is mostly from being a successful player. He is from South Africa. We have estimated Izak Van Heerden's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2024 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2024 Under Review
Net Worth in 2023 Pending
Salary in 2023 Under Review
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Timeline

1910

Izak van Heerden (August 1910 – June 1973 ) was a South African rugby union coach, and player, remembered for his successes with the Argentina national team and the Natal Province team for his unconventional, fast-moving style.

His tactical innovations have had lasting influence on the game of rugby.

Van Heerden was born in Utrecht, KwaZulu-Natal, in 1910.

Van Heerden qualified as a teacher in Pietermaritzburg at the Natal University College (now the University of KwaZulu-Natal).

1934

While there he had moderate success playing at loose forward for the University team in 1934.

He then became a school master at Durban High School, where he taught Afrikaans.

He coached the school rugby team with such success that he soon gained wide attention for his skills.

During World War II, Van Heerden served as a gunner in North Africa, where he was taken prisoner at Benghazi along with another well-known Durban High School schoolmaster and rugby coach, Bill Payn.

Van Heerden was interned in prisoner-of-war camps in North Africa and then in Italy.

He escaped from a camp near Rome and evaded capture for nine months in the surrounding hills, until rescued by British forces He returned to teaching and coaching after the War and was appointed coach of the Natal provincial team.

Whatever Van Heerden had lacked in physical prowess in rugby, he made up for by his tactical brilliance.

Van Heerden would frequently turn up to training sessions with Natal straight from school, donning the glasses, tweed jacket, or conservative dark suit and silk bow tie that he wore at school.

This was one of his many foibles, which endeared some people to him, and alienated others.

He was a big, burly man, with a humorous, witty manner, a sharp temper, and a repertoire of ripe language which he used freely in both the classroom and on the rugby field.

He looked every bit the rugby player.

He was a successful coach and trained many prominent players.

Amongst the South African players who passed through his hands were Tommy Bedford, Keith Oxlee, Trix Truter and Snowy Suter.

But Van Heerden's success with Natal was only a foretaste of what was to come.

If Van Heerden was an unsung genius at national level in his homeland, it was Argentina that gave him the chance to flourish, and show exactly what he was capable of.

1953

Several of the strategies he devised during his rise to prominence, when he masterminded Natal's victory over Australia in 1953, have become parts of the modern high-speed, high-intensity game.

Richard Bath describes him as "the thinking man's coach."

1960

Izak van Heerden took leave from his teaching post in Durban, relocated to Argentina, learnt fluent Spanish, and would revolutionise Argentine play in the late 1960s, laying the way open for great players such as Hugo Porta.

Van Heerden virtually invented the "tight loose" form of play, an area in which the Argentines would come to excel, and which would become a hallmark of their playing style.

The Pumas repaid the initial debt, by beating the Junior Springboks at Ellis Park, and emerged as one of the better modern rugby nations, thanks largely to the talents of this Durban schoolmaster.

Van Heerden's fame grew elsewhere as a result, particularly in the British Isles, where reports filtered through about the rugby "guru" with the golden touch.

Tommy Bedford, who captained Natal and the Springboks in the 1960s, recalled that "Izak van Heerden was streets ahead of his time...We had a genius as a coach. He sought players with two great qualities: an ability to think, and the flair to make decisions on the field... His teams played this instinctive, fantastic, expressive brand of rugby...His great philosophy was that the ball was the advantage. He taught us to treat every piece of possession like a nugget, and he would say, no one kicks a nugget away...the most important thing is to keep the ball."

Van Heerden's masterpiece, Thinking Rugby, has become a coaching Bible around the world.

1962

Somehow his growing reputation worked against him in South Africa, and other than one series against the British and Irish Lions in 1962, in which the Lions were comprehensively outplayed (losing 3–0), Van Heerden's massive input was not required.

Possibly The fact that he had never been a Springbok meant that later on, he was passed over as a choice to coach the national side, because it was wrongly assumed that good players and good coaches were one and the same.

After his coaching career, Van Heerden went back to teach at Durban High School, where he was eventually promoted to vice-principal.

1965

Van Heerden's reputation as an innovative coach had spread to Argentina, and he was invited to Buenos Aires to help the Pumas prepare for their first visit to South Africa in 1965.

Despite Argentina faring badly in this tour, it was the start of a long and happy relationship between Van Heerden and the Pumas.

1966

Van Heerden also wrote Coaching, Practising and Training for Tries (Durban: Drakensburg Press, 1966), and Tactical and Attacking Rugby (Wellington: Reed, 1967).

Van Heerden's greatest legacy, perhaps, was to turn the Pumas into a truly respected national side.

Despite the ups-and-downs of the Argentine side, Van Heerden's team are considered a benchmark of what the Pumas are capable of achieving.

Argentina was already the rugby power in South America when Izak van Heerden came along, but he propelled them into a completely different orbit from their neighbours in Chile, Uruguay and elsewhere.

1973

He died suddenly in his office at the school in 1973.

1995

Kitch Christie, who coached the Springboks for the 1995 Rugby World Cup, was quoted as saying Izak van Heerden "was truly light years ahead of the rest."

Christie openly acknowledged Izak van Heerden's influence on him, and to using his thinking as a blueprint for his own team, saying "Most of what you hear the modern coaches saying, and the phrases they use, were first coined by Izak."

2015

More than half a century later, in 2015, twenty-four past and current Puma team members visited Durban High School to honor the coach who had transformed their game.