Louis Koen (rugby union)
South African rugby union footballer

Louis Johannes Koen (born 7 July 1975 in Cape Town, South Africa) is a South-African rugby union player who played for the Springboks, until 2003, when he moved abroad following the World Cup.
Effective at either fly half or full back, his career began with Western Province, before his move to the Lions and later the Bulls. He was part of the Western Province team that won the Currie Cup in 1997, contributing immensely with his accurate goal kicking. It was this dependable boot that led to his recall to the Springbok team in 2003 after a two-year absence, but following a difficult tournament and South Africa's disappointing exit in the quarter-finals, Koen was signed by Narbonne in France. After two years dogged by injury, Koen moved back to Western Province as only the second full-time kicking coach in South Africa. In 2010 he was recalled out of retirement to play one Currie Cup First Division match for the Boland Cavaliers against the Valke.
Career
Provincial
Lions (South Africa) – 28 caps
Western Province (South Africa) – 46 caps
Boland Cavaliers – 1 cap
Super Rugby
Stormers (South Africa) – 12 caps (86 points- 2 tries, 20 conversions, 11 penalty goals, 1 drop goal)
Cats (South Africa) – 28 caps (330 points- 3 tries, 42 conversions, 74 penalty goals, 3 drop goals)
Bulls (South Africa) – 11 caps (139 points- 17 conversions, 28 penalty goals, 7 drop goals)
Club
Stellenbosch
National team
He made his debut for South Africa against Australia on 8 July 2000.
He played four matches in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. During the game between South Africa and Samoa, as Koen prepared to take a conversion, a drunk rugby fan ran onto the field and attempted to tackle Koen, knocking himself out. Koen succeeded with the conversion.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 9, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q3262400. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1975, 2003, 1997 and 2010.
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This entry incorporates text from “Louis Koen (rugby union)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.