Former Bok flyhalf takes charge of Springbok Women’s team

Former Springbok flyhalf and SA Rugby’s high-performance manager Louis Koen has been appointed as interim head coach of the Springbok Women’s team for their tour to Spain later this month.

And, Junior Springbok Women’s coach Laurian Johannes-Haupt will take the reins as assistant coach on the trip.

Koen has coached the country’s premier women’s team before on an interim basis when he took a national select XVs side to the UK in 2017 as SA Rugby restarted their Springbok Women’s programme. He has also been working with the squad in recent weeks, which was announced last week.

Johannes-Haupt, a former Springbok Women’s player who featured at the 2010 Rugby World Cup, will coach the team’s forwards. She was one of the beneficiaries of World Rugby’s Coaching Internship Programme at the Rugby World Cup in 2022 and part of the Springbok Women management who travelled to New Zealand.

‘Steady improvement’

The Springbok Women’s team will depart for Europe on 15 March for two Tests in Madrid – against Canada on 25 March and Spain on 1 April – before returning to South Africa.

SA Rugby’s Director of Rugby, Rassie Erasmus, said: “We are very committed to seeing a steady improvement in our women’s performances and getting top-class coaches on board is imperative in achieving that objective.

“But as we’re still in the process of making a permanent appointment, we’ve decided to hand the coaching reins for this tour to two very capable people who are already in our structures.”

Assistance from national coaches

Meanwhile, SA Rugby’s High-Performance Manager for Women’s Rugby, Lynne Cantwell, said that the utilisation of a number of national team coaches in the lead up to the tour was very productive.

“We are grateful to Springbok assistant coaches Mzwandile Stick, Felix Jones, Deon Davids and Daan Human, Junior Bok head coach Bafana Nhleko, as well as Louis, all of whom came to coach in their various fields of expertise,” said Cantwell.

“They found the players, new and old, very responsive and a massive amount of work was done. The players themselves enjoyed this and everyone are looking forward to playing some rugby again and that against two very good teams.”