Heinrich Brüssow

Heinrich Wilhelm Brüssow (born 21 July 1986) is a South African former professional rugby union player.

His usual position was as open-side flanker and his most recent club was Northampton Saints in the English Premiership.

Born 21 July 1986 in Bloemfontein, South Africa, Heinrich Brüssow attended Grey College in Bloemfontein where he played in the First XV and was later selected for the Under-18 Free State Craven Week side.

He played for the in domestic South African rugby between 2006 and 2014, for the in Super Rugby between 2007 and 2015 and also represented between 2008 and 2015 and for the South Africa Sevens team in 2006.

Brüssow was part of the Free State Cheetahs squad who shared the Currie Cup glory in 2006 with the Blue Bulls, before playing in the 2007 Currie Cup final against the Golden Lions, scoring a crucial try and helping the team to a 20–18 win.

In 2008 he was voted best open-side flanker in the Super 14 and Currie Cup.

This earned him a call-up to the Springboks squad for the November 2008 tour to the British Isles.

He only played the final 4 minutes in the end-of-tour test against England.

In 2009, Brüssow was again a flanker in the Super 14 competition.

However, selectors excluded him from the Springboks squad.

Soon afterwards he played for the Free State Cheetahs against the British and Irish Lions team; Brüssow was finally called up for Schalk Burger, who failed to recover from an injury for the first test against the Lions.

He received the Man-of-the-Match award in the Springboks' win against the All Blacks on 25 July 2009.

Brüssow once again featured in a Currie Cup final in 2009, but the Free State Cheetahs lost to a hungry Blue Bulls team.

Early March 2010 Brüssow's career took a blow when he injured his cruciate knee-ligament in a Super 14 game against the Hurricanes, which kept him from international rugby till August 2011.

For the Cheetahs in the 2011 super rugby season Brussow was part of the Cheetahs team that finished 11th in the table.

The cheetahs won five and lost eleven games that season which showed that they were not at their best.

However they produced some wonderful wins against the Waratahs and the Brumbies.

In the 2011 tri-nations Brüssow only came in at the third game against eventual champions Australia.

South Africa lost the match 14–9.

South Africa had nothing much to play for in final test against New Zealand but they could certainly spoil the party for the All Blacks.

Brüssow put up a Man-of-the-Match winning performance and South Africa beat the All Blacks by 18–5.

He returned to international competition on 13 August 2011 against Australia: He played for a short stint from the bench where he showed he still had the full ability which made him so popular in 2009.

On 20 August Heinrich Brüssow gave a Man-of-the-Match display of his skills as the Springboks managed to defeat their arch-enemies, the All Blacks in Port Elizabeth.

Brüssow played the first game against Wales which South Africa won 17–16 and against Fiji which the boks also won 49–3.

However against Namibia, Alberts was favoured to Brüssow in the starting line up which meant Brüssow had to drop to the bench.

South Africa won the game and Brüssow restored his place in the starting line up against Samoa which South Africa won to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup.

In the quarter-finals Brussow started against Australia.

South Africa lost the game 11–9 and were knocked out of the competition.

In the summer internationals, Brüssow was shockingly dropped from the team with new South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer preferring Marcell Coetzee.

Even without Brüssow's commitment, South Africa won the series against England with a win in the first test 22–17, second test 36–27 but were held to a draw in the third test 14–14.

In 2013, it was announced that he would play for a team in the Japanese Top League for the 2013–2014 season – later revealed as NTT DoCoMo Red Hurricanes – but he would return to play for the in the 2014 Super Rugby season.

In January 2018, he joined English Premiership side Northampton Saints.

He announced his retirement from all forms of professional rugby on Wednesday 23 October 2019.

Heinrich Brüssow is well known in South Africa because of his immense and unstoppable work at the breakdowns and in the scrums.

He was selected for the South African team due to his excellent work performances.

He was also admired by many when he tried valiantly but was ultimately outfought by New Zealand captain Richie McCaw in all of their duels, one of which South Africa won 18–5.