Libbok was born in Humansdorp. He attended HTS Daniël Pienaar in Uitenhage, and earned his first provincial selection in 2013, representing Eastern Province at the Under-16 Grant Khomo Week, scoring tries in matches against the Blue Bulls[3] and the Golden Lions.[4]
Libbok moved to George for 2014, where he attended Hoërskool Outeniqua. He represented the George-based SWD Eagles at the premier South African high schools rugby union tournament, the Under-18 Craven Week, in both 2014 and 2015. In the first match at the 2015 tournament held in Stellenbosch, Libbok scored two tries, four conversions and one penalty for a personal points haul of 21 points in his side's 31–41 defeat to former side Eastern Province.[5] He followed this up with a try and four conversions against the Golden Lions[6] and a third try and two conversions against KwaZulu-Natal in their final match.[7] He scored a total of 43 points in three matches, making him the top scorer at the competition,[8] while his four tries were the joint-second most in the competition, one behind Western Province's Nico Leonard.[9]
At the conclusion of the tournament, Libbok was included in a South Africa Schools team that played in the 2015 Under-18 International Series on home soil against their counterparts from Wales, France and England. He started on the left wing in their 42–11 victory over Wales in their first match,[10] but dropped to the bench for match against France, not getting any game time in their 12–5 victory.[11] He returned to the starting line-up for their final match against England, helping them to a 23–16 victory to finish the series with a 100% record.[12]
2016–2017: Blue Bulls / South Africa Under-20
After high school, Libbok moved to Pretoria to join the Blue Bulls academy. In March 2016, he was included in a South Africa Under-20 training squad,[13] and made the cut to be named in a reduced provisional squad a week later.[14]
Libbok was also named in the Blue Bulls squad for the 2016 Currie Cup qualification series and he made his first class debut on 8 April 2016, starting as a fullback in their 16–30 defeat to Western Province in Round One of the competition.[15] He also started their match against a Free State XV a week later, scoring his first senior points by slotting a penalty in the 15th minute of the match, and scoring his first try in the final ten minutes which proved decisive as the Blue Bulls won the match 20–17.[16] He also started their next match against Gauteng rivals the Golden Lions[17] and played off the bench in their defeat to the Eastern Province Kings in Port Elizabeth.[18]
On 10 May 2016, Libbok was included in the final South Africa Under-20 squad for the 2016 World Rugby Under 20 Championship tournament to be held in Manchester in England.[19] He started their opening match in Pool C of the tournament in the fly-half position, scoring a try as South Africa came from behind to beat Japan 59–19.[20] He switched positions with fullback Curwin Bosch for their second pool match, a 13–19 defeat to Argentina,[21] but reverted to fly-half as South Africa bounced back to secure a 40-31 bonus-point victory over France in their final pool match, with Libbok scoring his second try of the competition just after the hour mark.[22] The result meant South Africa secured a semi-final place as the best runner-up in the competition, and Libbok started their semi-final match as they faced three-time champions England. The hosts proved too strong for South Africa, knocking them out of the competition with a 39–17 victory,[23] and they also lost the third-place play-off match against Argentina, with the South American side beating South Africa for the second time in the tournament, convincingly winning 49–19[24] to condemn South Africa to fourth place in the competition. Libbok scored his third try of the competition in the defeat, to finish the competition with three tries, the joint-most by a South African player with Zain Davids and Edwill van der Merwe.[25]
