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Harlequins set to lose Wilco Louw to Jake White's Bulls

Wilco Louw during the South African national rugby team training session at Latymer Lower School on October 30, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Steve Haag/Gallo Images)

The Bulls are strengthening their front five with the acquisition of tighthead Wilco Louw, who is set to leave Harlequins next July.

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The Springbok spent a large portion of his youth career playing for the Blue Bulls U19s before returning to Cape Town, his place of birth, to join the Stormers.

He featured 53 times for the men in blue and white but departed his home city in 2020, joining Toulon on a short-term contract before moving to England to sign with Harlequins.

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Of the 44 appearances he made for the London club, Louw’s most memorable game is no doubt the 2021 Premiership final. He started the for Harlequins and scored a try as his side went on to win 40-38 in a thriller against Exeter Chiefs, claiming their first title since 2012.

“I enjoyed my time at Harlequins. It was a completely different challenge, which suited me at that stage of my life,” Louw said in an interview with South African newspaper Rapport.

“Now there is another good opportunity for me at the Bulls. I am excited to join them. I think the Bulls are in a good space. There are incredibly good coaches. I look forward to working with them.”

After reaching the URC final in their maiden season, the Bulls are hoping to do one better this time around. They started the new campaign assuredly, winning three straight, but since then have lost to the Glasgow Warriors and Munster.

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When Louw arrives in Pretoria next summer, he will bring with him test rugby experience, having featured 14 times for the Springboks. He made his first appearance off the bench in a tight loss in 2017 to New Zealand, while his latest showing came against Argentina in 2021.

That international experience he brings will help elevate the Bulls scrum. Louw has reportedly signed a three-year contract with the Pretorians.

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Tom 57 minutes ago
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That 2019 performance was literally the peak in attacking rugby under Eddie. If you thought that was underwhelming, the rest of it was garbage.


I totally get what you're saying and England don't need or have any God given right to the best coaches in the world... But I actually think the coaches we do have are quite poor and for the richest union in the world, that's not good enough. 


England are competitive for sure but with the talent pool up here and the funds available, we should be in the top 3. At the very least we should be winning six nations titles on a semi-regular basis. If Ireland can, England definitely should.


England's attack coach (Richard Wigglesworth) is Borthwick's mate from his playing days at Saracens, who he brought to Leicester with him when he became coach. Wigglesworth was a 9 who had no running or passing game, but was the best box kicker in the business. He has no credentials to be an attack coach and I've seen nothing to prove otherwise. Aside from Marcus Smith’s individual brilliance, our collective attack has looked very uninspiring.

 

England's defence coach (Joe El-Abd) is Borthwick's housemate from uni, who has never been employed as a defence coach before. He's doing the job part time while he's still the head coach of a team in the second division of French rugby who have an awful defensive record. England's defence has gone from being brutally efficient under Felix Jones to as leaky as a colander almost overnight.


If Borthwick brings in a new attack and defence coach then I'll absolutely get behind him but his current coaches seem to be the product of nepotism. He's brought in people he's comfortable with because he lacks confidence as an international head coach and they aren't good enough for international rugby.


England are competitive because they do some things really well, mostly they front up physically, make a lot of big hits, have a solid kicking game, a good lineout, good maul, Marcus Smith and some solid forwards. A lot of what we do well I would ascribe to Borthwick personally. I don't think he's a bad coach, I think he lacks imagination and is overly risk averse. He needs coaches who will bring a point of difference.


I guess my point is, yes England are competitive, but we’re not aiming for competitive and I honestly don't believe this coaching setup has what it takes to make us any better than competitive.


On the plus side it looks like we have an amazing crop of young players coming through. Some of them who won the u20 world cup played for England A against Australia A on the weekend and looked incredible... Check out the highlights on youtube.

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