Ivan van Rooyen
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| Born | 7 May 1982 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| University | University of Johannesburg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ivan van Rooyen (born 1981/82) is a South African professional rugby union football coach. He was short-term head coach of the Lions team that played in the Super Rugby competition.[1] He is also the coach of the Golden Lions team that competes in the Currie Cup.[2][3] Later he was made permanent head coach of Lions, he remains head coach as of 2022. The Lions now compete in the United Rugby Championship.
Cash van Rooyen climbed through the coaching ranks at the Lions Rugby Union; based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He started at the union in 2009 as a sport scientist and became Performance Excellence Manager in 2018. He became permanent head coach in 2019.[4]
Rumours circulated in February 2023 that van Rooyen's contract was up for renewal. Despite achieving a win rate of less than 40%, his contract was expected to be "more lucrative than John Dobson",[5] who won the United Rugby Championship in the 2021/22 season with the DHL Stormers.[6] In the same season the Emirates Lions failed to make the playoffs, finishing 12th out of the 16 team competition.[7]
Mzwake Nkosi took over his Currie Cup duties from 2024, whereby Nkosi was able to achieve a Runner-Up finish for the Fidelity ADT Lions. However, in the middle of the 2025 season, van Rooyen can back and replaced Mzwake Nkosi to achieve a runner up finish, loosing to the Suzuki Griquas.
