Brendan Venter (born 29 December 1969) is a South African rugby union coach and former player.
He was sent off in the 1999 Rugby World Cup for stamping against Uruguay in the pool stages, and was replaced by Pieter Muller for the rest of the tournament.
In 2001 Venter moved to the United Kingdom with his wife and two children to coach and play for London Irish.
On 13 May 2010 Venter was charged with misconduct by the RFU for allegedly pushing a Leicester Tigers supporter who had asked him to sit down as he was blocking the view of the paying fans as well as making inappropriate comments and gestures to spectators.
In December 2010, Venter was warned by the ERC after giving a bizarre post-match interview following the Saracens defeat to Racing Métro 92 in the Heineken Cup.
Venter gave extremely short answers to every question posed to him, and afterwards admitted that he was inspired from a comedy sketch from the film Mike Bassett: England Manager which he had recently watched.
Saracens went on to win their first Premiership title at the end of that season and Venter was credited with setting the blueprint which facilitated this success.
[4][5] In June 2013, he was appointed the Director of Rugby at the Sharks, effective from the start of the 2013 Currie Cup Premier Division season.
[8] In January 2017 it was announced that Venter had been appointed defence coach of Italy until the end of the 2019 Rugby World Cup.