A seasoned professional, Francois Hougaard has enjoyed successful spells with a number of clubs and has played at international level with South Africa. He’s currently with Premiership Rugby side Wasps and plays primarily as a scrum-half, but can also be deployed on the wing thanks to his surprising but impressive pace.
Born in Paarl, South Africa in April 1988, Francois Hougaard’s first professional club was Western Province, whom he made his debut for back in 2007. However, his time at the club was brief and a year later he joined the Blue Bulls playing in both the Currie Cup and in the Super Rugby competition.
Francois Hougaard remained with the Bulls until 2015, making over 150 collective appearances and helped them to a Currie Cup win in 2009. He then moved over to England and signed for Worcester Warriors initially on a short-term contact. His impressive performance soon earned him a new deal and he stayed with the Warriors until 2021 before leaving for Premiership rivals Wasps, where he currently plays.
Francois Hougaard’s senior international career began in 2009 – having previously played for South Africa at U20 level – and he made his test debut that year against Italy. He would go on to make 46 appearances for the Springboks and appeared in the 2011 Rugby World Cup. His last match was in 2017 against New Zealand.
Francois Hougaard also plays for the South Africa Sevens and won a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics with the side.
Outside of rugby union, Francois Hougaard is an avid golfer and is considering moving into the sport on a professional basis.
With the Rugby World Cup looming large the selectors are ruminating over how many specialist hookers and halfbacks they need to take. With a limit of only 31 players allowed in the official camps, they can only take 3 of each.
Taking inspiration from Tony Brown’s playbook, this trick play would be a great change-up and offer huge reward by targetting a blind spot in the defence.
South Africa 
Worcester 
Wasps 
Wasps 
Worcester 