Springbok flank Francois Louw has been praised by rugby legend Sir Ian McGeechan for his contribution for Bath over the past two months, and hailed “a Test match animal.”
Rugby365
Louw has quickly become a fan favourite at English club following his arrival after the World Cup, where he was understudy to Heinrich Brüssow.
The 26-year-old was named as captain for the Heineken Cup match against Leinster last weekend, and is the third South African to captain Bath in the past few years. Louw follows in the footsteps of Michael Claassens and Luke Watson to lead Bath, and will skipper the team for the next five weeks in the absence of the injured Stuart Hooper.
While overseas based players has been a contentious area for Springbok coaches to deal with, whoever the new mentor is in 2012 may need to sit up and take note of what Louw is doing at Bath.
McGeechan has heaped praise on the former Stormers loose forwards, who has stood out and quickly become one of the stars of the Bath team.
“Francois is what I would call a Test match animal. There’s a game within such players that’s on a different level and which they can bring out when it matters,” he told the Bath Chronicle.
“I reckon I’m not a bad assessor of players and character, and he was impressive.
“He was coming here because he wanted to create the best rugby environment that he could be a part of and contribute to. Since he’s been back from the World Cup, that’s been very obvious.
“He’s good to bounce ideas off, he works hard and sets a standard. He plays in the back row and my preference is to have a captain in the forwards.
Louw admitted he was slightly surprised after being asked to captain the team he has only just joined, but honoured to be given the nod from McGeechan.
“Of course the captaincy is a great honour, especially at a prestigious club such as Bath with the history that it has,” Louw said.
“To have only been here a short while and have the coaches and management back me is great. My main concern was that the players were going to be happy but I put the feelers out and I’ve got the full backing of everyone, which makes my job a whole lot easier. You can’t have a leader without any followers.
“It’s a new role and a difficult role for me at a difficult time for the team, but on the same hand it’s exciting.”