Francois Hougaard

Francois Hougaard

Personal information
Born	(1988-04-06) 6 April 1988 Paarl, South Africa
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	94 kg (14 st 11 lb)
School(s) attended	Paul Roos Gymnasium, Stellenbosch
Club information
Playing position	Scrum-half / Winger
Current club	S.A. Sevens
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Pts)†
2007	Western Province	3	(0)
2008–15	Bulls	88	(130)
2008–15	Blue Bulls	48	(80)
Representative team(s)‡
2008	S.A. Under-20	3	(0)
2009	Kings	1	(0)
2009–14	South Africa (test)	35	(25)
2009–10	South Africa (tour)	3	(0)
2015–	S.A. Sevens		()
* Senior club appearances and points correct as of 17 October 2015. † Appearances (Points). ‡ Representative team caps and points correct as of 17 October 2015.

Francois Hougaard (born 6 April 1988) in Paarl, is a professional South African rugby union rugby player. His primary position is scrumhalf, but he can also play on the wing. He played for Western Province in 2007 before joining the Blue Bulls; he spent eight seasons at the Pretoria-based team, representing them in the Currie Cup as well as playing Super Rugby for the Bulls.

He also represented South Africa between 2009 and 2014 and joined the South African Sevens team in 2015.

His first tour with the Springboks was to France, Italy, Ireland and England in late 2009 where he played in one test against Italy on 21 November 2009 and two touring matches. Hougaard helped his team to win both the Currie Cup in 2009, and the Super Rugby title in 2010, scoring tries in both finals.

2009

He scored a try in the Currie Cup final win 36-24 against the Free State Cheetahs (3rd min) following a superb crosskick from Fourie du Preez for his first final at 21 (the youngest player in the starting line) wearing the number 14 jersey.

2011

In the 2011 Super Rugby season, he showed great promise, adapting to his self-proclaimed preferred position of scrum half in the absence of Fourie Du Preez, very well, and as a result, landed a position in the Springbok World Cup Squad for the 2011 tournament. At school he played for Paul Roos Gymnasium.

2011 Rugby World Cup

Hougaard was selected and joined off the bench for South Africa's opening match scoring in the 65th minute in a 17-16 win over Wales. He was however dropped for the second game against Fiji which South Africa won 49-3 but started against Namibia in which he scored two tries and came off the bench against Samoa. South Africa was however knocked out of the cup, losing 11-9 to Australia. Hougaard came on in the 50th minute during that match.

2012 mid-year tests

Hougaard started all five games at scrum half against England and Argentina and scored one try against England. However, he was moved to the wing and his place at scrum half taken by the talented Ruan Pienaar in the first Championship Test against Australia on 8 September 2012.

External links

• Francois Hougaard from SARugby
• ESPN Profile