LA Giltinis signed Hanco Germishuys for the 2022 Major League Rugby season after a trade with Rugby New York. The 25-year-old back-row is 6’2″, and 230 lbs.
Hanco played 940 minutes in 13 matches, 11 as a starter, scoring 5 tries in 2021. He did not have much of a break after the season ended before returning to USA National Team duty.
Hanco joined New York before week three in 2020 and placed one match as a reserve before starting the final two matches of the truncated season.
Hanco played 301 minutes in five matches for the Raptors in 2019. He carried 69 times for 525 meters, made 54 tackles, and had 3 lineout takes with one steal. He also had 2 linebreaks, 8 tackle breaks, and made 2 offloads.
Hanco was born in Kimberly, Northern Cape, South Africa, and attended Newton School. He began playing rugby at a young age and moved to Omaha, Nebraska with his father in 2004. There he attended Westside High School.
Hanco progressed rapidly through the USA Rugby age-grade pathway. He was captain of the Under-18s for Team USA at the Youth Olympics, played for the Under-18s since age 14 for four consecutive years, and the Under-20s in both 2015 and 2016. He was a four-year high school Aall-American.
During the 2014-15 season, he attended Gloucester Academy, played for four weeks in 2015 with the Sharks Academy, and spent the 2015-16 season with the Glendale Raptors in winning the Pacific Rugby Premiership Championship.
In 2016 he played for the Denver Stampede, making nine appearances and scoring six tries. In 2017, it was on to the Austin Huns, where the team won the USA Club Rugby Division 1 National Championship. In 2018 he played with Austin Elite Rugby in the inaugural Major League Rugby season. He made five appearances due to his National team commitment while scoring six tries.
Hanco also played in the Americas Pacific Challenge in 2016, 2017, and 2018 for the USA Selects. He also played in the 2019 Pacific Nations Cup. On February 27, 2016, he made his debut for the Eagles (No. 489) against Brazil and his last match was on October 13, 2019, against Tonga at the 2019 Rugby World Cup. He has 27 caps, started 21 times, and has scored 14 tries.
In 2019, Hanco returned to Glendale, and in 2020 joined Rugby United New York. He looks forward to continuing to be an impact player during his third season with Rugby New York in 2022.
LA Giltinis Comments
LA adds another weapon to the Giltinis’ pack with the South African-born Germishuys renowned for his influential ball-carrying!
For the Giltinis, it is an upbeat sign of how magnetic the club has become in the wake of the historic Championship triumph in season one.
“Everything the Giltinis have put in place for players off the field is very professional. On the field, you can see the players are playing for each other and having fun,” Germishuys said.
“The Giltinis were looking for another backrower and I put my hand up.
“To win a Championship in year one as a club was amazing. The Giltinis boomed into the finals, they got more and more fans behind them and I had people, not even from LA, coming up to me and telling me how good it was for rugby in the US.”
Germishuys was a key member of the abrasive Rugby United New York effort in May when an 18-16 upset was pulled off against the Giltinis in New York.
He has been playing in the MLR since its birth in 2018 so is in a good position to comment on the competition’s growth.
“It’s very exciting to see the MLR skyrocketing in standard and a big part of that is American players now playing and learning beside the international players being brought in,” Germishuys said.
“Learning from some senior internationals and a backrower as head coach (Stephen Hoiles) is one of the appeals of the Giltinis because it will help me grow my game.”
Germishuys has played the bulk of his rugby as an openside flanker but is versatile coverage at blindside flanker and No.8.
Hoiles is enthusiastic about everything that Germishuys can offer the second-season club.
“Hanco is a great pick-up for us. He’s versatile with his ball-running, his tackling, and being good over the ball,” Hoiles said.
“He has a lot of experience and has proved himself one of MLR’s better performers.”
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