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Francois Louw denied swansong as flanker calls time on career
By Online Editors
Springbok star Francois Louw said goodbye to the game on Saturday. Louw, 35, was part of Rassie Erasmus’ 2019 World Cup-winning squad and he announced his retirement from Test rugby soon after the tournament.
Earlier this year, Louw revealed that the 2019/2020 season was also going to be his last for English club Bath.
“Today [Saturday] marks my final day as a pro rugby player,” Louw said on social media.
“No final swansong game or fairytale farewell but that is not what I will remember. I have the memories of this adventure with me forever & I will look back everyday with my heart full & content. Thank you for being part of that.”
Louw has 76 international caps for South Africa under his belt. The Bath flank has made 134 starts in 140 appearances with the club.
By the time of his Springbok debut Louw had already racked up 50 appearances for Western Province as well as forming part of the Stormers’ highly-successful back row trio alongside Schalk Burger and Duane Vermeulen.
Having started in their Super 14 Final defeat to the Bulls in Soweto in 2010, Louw was rewarded with a call-up to the South Africa squad for their June Tests. He debuted against Wales in Cardiff before scoring his first Test try in a rout against France at Newlands, his home ground in Cape Town.
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Latest Comments
Larry Brown was 63 when he won the NBA, and Phil Jackson was 64.
I guess my general feeling in rugby is that most coaches seem to decline quite a bit when they hit 60, and to be coaching at the top level when you’re 65 or older is extremely rare. Maybe in american sports people have another 5 years, but that doesn’t seem like a massive difference.
Either way, I’m going to stick with my verdict that appointing Les Kiss at age 60 would be ok as a short term deal - but appointing him at 63 and expecting him to last 4 years would be foolish.
Go to commentsWe come off a loss and a big one to Moana Pasifika and 2 years in a row losing to the Drua. The motivation to reverse that is huge. This competition has been unpredictable. I believe the return of inform players like Antonio Shalfoon , Christian Lio-Willie will make a huge difference.Tom Christie, who played so well in his 2 starts and Corrie Kellow will be raring to go. We missed David Havili, the form second five and captain last week, he thankfully will be back soon. But Codie Taylor is a great choice to captain in the mean time in David’s absence.
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