Jan van der Merwe (born 31 August 1995 in Pretoria, South Africa) is a South African rugby union player who most recently played for the . His regular position is hooker.
Despite never earning a provincial call-up at high school level, Van der Merwe joined the Blue Bulls Academy after finishing high school and represented the side in the 2014 Under-19 Provincial Championship, starting eight matches and making three substitute appearances as they reached the final of the competition, where they were defeated 26âÂÂ33 by .
He made his first class debut for the on 6 March 2015, coming on as a late replacement in their 2015 Vodacom Cup match against the in Kempton Park, helping them to a 37âÂÂ13 victory.
He also played for in the 2015 Varsity Cup competition, starting their match against and playing off the bench on two occasions.
Despite initially not being named in a 37-man training squad for the South Africa national under-20 rugby union team, he did feature for them in a friendly match against a Varsity Cup Dream Team in April 2015. He came on as a first-half replacement and scored a try just after half-time in a 31âÂÂ24 victory. He was also included in the squad that embarked on a two-match tour of Argentina. He came on as a replacement in their 25âÂÂ22 victory over Argentina and started their second tour match a few days later, in which he scored two first-half tries in a 39âÂÂ28 victory.
Upon the team's return, he was named in the final squad for the 2015 World Rugby Under 20 Championship. He started their opening match in Pool B of the competition and got South Africa's first points in the competition by scoring a try in a 33âÂÂ5 win against hosts Italy. He played off the bench in their remaining two group stage fixtures, a 40âÂÂ8 win against Samoa and a 46âÂÂ13 win over Australia to help South Africa finish top of Pool B to qualify for the semi-finals with the best record pool stage of all the teams in the competition. Van der Merwe came on as a replacement in their semi-final match against England, but could not prevent them losing 20âÂÂ28 to be eliminated from the competition by England for the second year in succession. He started their third-place play-off match against France, helping South Africa to a 31âÂÂ18 win to secure third place in the competition.