Francois Hougaard

Club

Worcester Warriors

Position

Scrum-half

Nationality

South Africa

Date of birth

1988-04-06

Birthplace

Paarl, South Africa

Height

1.81 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in)

Weight

93 kg (205 lb; 14 st 9 lb)

Francois Hougaard (born 6 April 1988) is a professional South African rugby union rugby player. He is currently playing for Worcester Warriors. His primary position is scrum-half, but also can play on the wing.

Club career
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 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.

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.

In February 2016, Hougaard signed a short-term contract with English Premiership club Worcester Warriors for the remainder of the 2015–2016 season. He made his debut for his new side in their match against Sale Sharks, marking the occasion by scoring a try in a 31–23 victory and also put in a man-of-the-match performance in their 15–14 victory over the Newcastle Falcons two weeks later. On 15 March 2016, it was announced that Hougaard signed a permanent contract with the team, but would be allowed to link up with the South African sevens team to participate at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

International career
He 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

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.

Hougaard started all fiv