Alandré van Rooyen

Alandré van Rooyen (born 23 August 1996) is a South African rugby union player for the Southern Kings in the Pro14.^[1] His regular position is hooker.

Van Rooyen was born in Port Elizabeth and represented his local Eastern Province province at the 2013 Academy Week and 2014 Craven Week tournaments. Represented Eastern Province at the u18 Provincial Sevens tournament in 2013.

After school, he joined the Pretoria-based Blue Bulls academy. He progressed through the various age-groups, representing them at Under-19 level in 2015 and Under-21 level in 2016 and 2017.

In 2016, he made his first class debut, coming on as a replacement for the Blue Bulls XV against the Sharks XV in the Currie Cup qualification series.^[2] He made two more appearances off the bench — scoring his debut try in the second of those in a 28–23 victory over the SWD Eagles^[3] — before being named in the starting lineup for the first time for their match against the Boland Cavaliers,^[4] and also started their final two matches of the competition.

Van Rooyen once again played for the Blue Bulls XV in 2017, this time in the newly-launched Rugby Challenge competition, making seven appearances.

In August 2017, Van Rooyen returned to his hometown as he was one of several players loaned from the Blue Bulls to the Southern Kings as they looked to build a squad for their inaugural season in the expanded Pro14 competition.^[5] He made his debut in that competition in the team's 30–34 defeat to Welsh side Scarlets,^[6] and also appeared against Edinburgh the following week^[7] and against Munster in their match in George.^[8]

Van Rooyen was also loaned to the Eastern Province Elephants for a part of their 2018 Rugby Challenge campaign, starting their first two matches of the season against Western Province^[9] and SWD Eagles,^[10] scoring a try in each of those matches.