Wilco 'The Fridge' Louw has the ability to derail Leinster's URC title dream

Extra.ie​

20 hours ago

Apparently the only thing more destructive than Wilco Louw's scrummaging is his handshake.
The giant Bulls tighthead is renowned for putting the squeeze on opposition props and it's the same story when he extends one of his giant mitts to greet someone.
Frans Ludeke, one of his former coaches, once joked that he'd rather greet Louw with a kiss rather than a handshake, such is the power of the man. Pic: PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty Images
The 30-year-old clearly makes a strong impression on people. It's been the same story on the pitch where the South African frontrower is winning rave reviews.
It's not just Louw's scrummaging which is earning plaudits, the Bulls prop is very much a modern frontrow forward and offers plenty around the pitch. Many former coaches have been left stunned by this 21-stone prop's athleticism and ability get around the park.
He shares Andrew Porter's stamina on the pitch, too. Louw regularly gets through 60 or 70-minute shifts on the URC beat when it's traditional for tightheads to get called ashore after 50 minutes at the coalface.
Louw's performances have been so good this season that many fans and commentators back in his native land feel that he should have been recently crowned South Africa's United Rugby Championship Player of the Season, and not Stormers star Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu. Wilco Louw. Pic: Gordon Arons/Jake White, his head coach at the Bulls, felt Louw would have been a worthy recipient. 'I'm obviously biased, but I just think that what he's done for our team just by putting him there has allowed us to play the way we do,' he said recently.
'When did you ever get a tighthead prop who's been nominated for a prize in South Africa. I genuinely hope that he wins it because everyone spoke about what the premium is on tightheads.'
And Louw has been demonstrating his value all season. The Bulls scrum have statistically the strongest scrum in the URC this term. Worryingly for Leinster, Louw and his comrades have won a whopping 46 scrum penalties in the league this far. Leinster are going to feel the heat in Croker, that's for sure.
He has been brutally effective in a Bulls side which will feature in a third URC final when they face down Leinster in Croke Park on Saturday evening.
White's side are quietly confident they can storm Dublin and seal victory, especially with such a powerful scrummaging weapon.
No doubt, Leo Cullen and his players have already poured over footage of the Bulls' semi-final win against the Sharks last weekend. The home pack destroyed their South African counterparts at scrum time, with Louw lording it in his battle with Springbok loosehead Ox Nche, widely regarded as one of the premier set-piece technicians in the game.
Porter, who will be packing down against a player known as the 'The Fridge', is about to face a fierce scrummaging challenge.
Louw is being widely touted as one of the best tightheads on the globe at the moment, and rightly so.
Amazingly, he has not featured for the Springboks in almost four years, playing the last of his 14 Tests in 2021.
The presence of Frans Malherbe and Vincent Koch, a pair of world-leading tighthead props, has been one reason, while Louw's nomadic career perhaps didn't help his international prospects either.
A shy character who grew up on the family farm in Wolseley, a small town about 130km from Cape Town, Louw rose through the ranks and quickly caught the eye of the Bulls before a stint with the Stormers. There followed stints with Toulon and a three-year stay with Harlequins, where he won rave reviews in a powerful frontrow alongside Joe Marler, before returning to the Bulls in 2023.
And Louw has been a smash hit since he came back to Pretoria. His appetite for scrummaging has been noted by coaches and teammates.
'I don't think that you are going to get a game where you are going to get as tough opposition as you will get from Wilco on a Tuesday or Thursday scrumming session,' White noted recently.'The one thing that amazes me about Wilco, often players who are good at that, don't do it often. They like to let other players go in at scrum time. He doesn't miss a scrum. You actually have to physically say 'you have to swap'. He will stay there the whole session because that obviously is what he wants to get better at and pride himself on.'We say it and it is not nice to single out a player, but since he has arrived, the mere fact that our scrum has improved is because of the effort he puts in at scrum time.'
Uncompromising forward play has always been part of the DNA of the Bulls. The Loftus Versfeld crowd enjoy a big scrum as much as an 80-metre counter attack.
Louw's international exile will surely come to an end soon. Indeed, he was recently named in an extended training squad by South Africa boss Rassie Erasmus.
Now aged 30, he is the prime age for a tighthead, a position where players tend to get better with age. Louw is in the form of his life and will back himself to make the Springboks No3 jersey his won ahead of the 2027 World Cup, especially with Malherbe and Koch nearing the end of their distinguished careers.
The big question is whether Porter and Co will be able to contain Louw at GAA HQ?
When it comes to the scrum. The Leinster loosehead has fallen on the wrong side of referees in the past. The World Cup quarter-final defeat by the All Blacks immediately springs to mind and if referee Andrea Piardi feels Louw has got the edge in this area then the Bulls will have a strong foothold in this final.
As the Springboks demonstrated at the past two World Cups, a dominant scrum can get you a long way in knockout rugby.
This Bulls behemoth will take some stopping this weekend.