Manie Libbok

2013–2015: Schoolboy rugby

Libbok was born in Humansdorp. He attended HTS Daniël Pienaar in Uitenhage, and earned his first provincial selection in 2013, representing Eastern Province at the Under-16 Grant Khomo Week, scoring tries in matches against the Blue Bulls^[2] and the Golden Lions.^[3]

He moved to George for 2014, where he attended Hoërskool Outeniqua. He represented the George-based SWD Eagles at the premier South African high schools rugby union tournament, the Under-18 Craven Week, in both 2014 and 2015. In the first match at the 2015 tournament held in Stellenbosch, Libbok scored two tries, four conversions and one penalty for a personal points haul of 21 points in his side's 31–41 defeat to former side Eastern Province.^[4] He followed this up with a try and four conversions against the Golden Lions^[5] and a third try and two conversions against KwaZulu-Natal in their final match.^[6] He scored a total of 43 points in three matches, making him the top scorer at the competition,^[7] while his four tries were the joint-second most in the competition, one behind Western Province's Nico Leonard.^[8]

At the conclusion of the tournament, Libbok was included in a South Africa Schools team that played in the 2015 Under-18 International Series on home soil against their counterparts from Wales, France and England. He started on the left wing in their 42–11 victory over Wales in their first match,^[9] but dropped to the bench for match against France, not getting any game time in their 12–5 victory.^[10] He returned to the starting line-up for their final match against England, helping them to a 23–16 victory to finish the series with a 100% record.^[11]

2016–2017: Blue Bulls / South Africa Under-20

After high school, Libbok moved to Pretoria to join the Blue Bulls academy. In March 2016, he was included in a South Africa Under-20 training squad,^[12] and made the cut to be named in a reduced provisional squad a week later.^[13]

He was also named in the Blue Bulls squad for the 2016 Currie Cup qualification series and he made his first class debut on 8 April 2016, starting as a fullback in their 16–30 defeat to Western Province in Round One of the competition.^[14] He also started their match against a Free State XV a week later, scoring his first senior points by slotting a penalty in the 15th minute of the match, and scoring his first try in the final ten minutes which proved decisive as the Blue Bulls won the match 20–17.^[15] He also started their next match against Gauteng rivals the Golden Lions^[16] and played off the bench in their defeat to the Eastern Province Kings in Port Elizabeth.^[17]

On 10 May 2016, he was included in the final South Africa Under-20 squad for the 2016 World Rugby Under 20 Championship tournament to be held in Manchester in England.^[18] He started their opening match in Pool C of the tournament in the fly-half position, scoring a try as South Africa came from behind to beat Japan 59–19.^[19] He switched positions with fullback Curwin Bosch for their second pool match, a 13–19 defeat to Argentina,^[20] but reverted to fly-half as South Africa bounced back to secure a 40-31 bonus-point victory over France in their final pool match, with Libbok scoring his second try of the competition just after the hour mark.^[21] The result meant South Africa secured a semi-final place as the best runner-up in the competition, and Libbok started their semi-final match as they faced three-time champions England. The hosts proved too strong for South Africa, knocking them out of the competition with a 39–17 victory,^[22] and they also lost the third-place play-off match against Argentina, with the South American side beating South Africa for the second time in the tournament, convincingly winning 49–19^[23] to condemn South Africa to fourth place in the competition. Libbok scored his third try of the competition in the defeat, to finish the competition with three tries, the joint-most by a South African player with Zain Davids and Edwill van der Merwe.^[24]

Libbok returned to domestic action for the Blue Bulls U19 team in the 2016 Under-19 Provincial Championship. He made seven starts in the competition, scoring three tries during the season – one against Leopards U19^[25] and two against Eastern Province U19^[26] – as well as 35 points with the boot through 16 conversions and one penalty. He finished the competition as the Blue Bulls' second-highest points scorer,^[27] and helped them to second place on the log^[28] to secure a semi-final spot, at which stage they lost to Golden Lions U19.^[29] He also made a single start for the Blue Bulls U21 team in the 2016 Under-21 Provincial Championship, scoring a try in a 52–38 victory over Leopards U21.^[30]

In November 2016, he was named in the Bulls Super Rugby team's extended training squad during the team's preparations for the 2017 Super Rugby season.^[31]