New England Free Jacks signed Namibian international Wian Conradie for the 2021 Major League Rugby season. The 26-year-old flanker/No.8 is 6’1″ (1.85m) and 231 lbs (105 kg).
Wian was originally signed by the Dallas Jackals for 2021, but became a free agent signing by the Free Jacks after the Jackals postponed entry to the league until 2022.
Wian was born in Windhoek, Namibia, and played youth hockey, cricket, and rugby before concentrating on the latter. He attended Windhoek High School where he played No.8 for one of the best teams in Namibia. The team won three consecutive rugby championships and helped in four of the seven consecutive Metropolitan Boards U19 Super League Championships. In 2011 he played for the country on the Namibia Academy team and the following year represented Namibia in the U18 Craven Week in South Africa, as well as in the U19 Confederation of African Rugby tournament.
His national age-grade experience continued in 2013, helping the U19 team qualify for the Junior Rugby World Cup in Nelspruit, South Africa, and also playing in the U20 Junior World Rugby Trophy in Temuco, Chile.
Following his high school graduation, he attended the University of Johannesburg in Gauteng, South Africa from 2014-2019 earning a Bachelor’s Degree in B-tech Quantity Surveying. He played rugby on the university’s U20 and U21 rugby teams and represented Namibia on the U20 team at the Junior World Rugby Trophy in Hong Kong. he also played for the university team all four years of the FNB Varsity Cup tournament, a competition that featured eight South African universities.
Wian made his Namibia National Team debut against Kenya at Windhoek on August 8, 2015, and was one of four under 21-year-old players selected for the 2015 Rugby World Cup in London, England where he played in two matches against Georgia and Argentina. In 2016 and in 2017 he competed in the World Rugby Nations Cup in Bucharest, Romania, and in Montevideo, Uruguay, respectively. In 2017, he also played in the Africa Gold Cup 2017 in Winghoek, Namibia, and helped Namibia to win gold.
He helped Namibia qualify for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan by winning the Africa Cup. In 2019 he represented North-West University in South Africa at the FNB Varsity Cup, as well as playing for Namibia at the 2019 Nations Cup in Montevideo, Uruguay. He was then selected for the 2019 Rugby World Cup and played in two matches against Italy and South Africa. The latter was his 19th cap on September 28, 2019. He was also selected to start in the team’s final match against Canada, but the match in Kamaishi, Japan was canceled due to the destruction of Typhoon Hagibis.
Following the Rugby World Cup, Wian was signed in November 2019 to play with the Doncaster Knights for the 2019-2020 season, but the season ended prematurely due to COVID -19.
Other Articles
DJCoil Rugby articles by Doug Coil are also available on Facebook. Other Social Media sites to follow or subscribe include Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube for interviews.
