‘Jan-Hendrik Wessels must be Springboks’ next hooker’

Is Jan-Hendrik Wessels South African rugby’s next great hooker?

According to former Springbok scrum coach and Scotland prop Matt Proudfoot, the 23-year-old utility front-row man from the Bulls should be groomed to wear the Springbok No 2 jumper in future.

Wessels has long been considered something of a rugby prodigy, mainly because of his size and speed, and the fact he can play prop and hooker, and Proudfoot says he’s the man to take over from Bongi Mbonambi and Malcolm Marx when the two Springbok double World Cup winners eventually call it quits.
Mbonambi is already 34 while Marx is 30.

At the last World Cup in France, the Springboks backed flanker Deon Fourie as their third-choice hooker, with Marco van Staden, also a flanker, as a backup.

Other players to have been given a go at hooker at international level in recent times include Johan Grobbelaar, Joseph Dweba and Andre-Hugo Venter.

‘Big and physical’

Wessels, too, won a first Springbok cap last season and while comfortable in the No 1 jersey, Proudfoot says the Bulls man’s future is at hooker.

“I’ve been asked before, and I’d play him at hooker,” Proudfoot, who’s worked with the Boks and England forwards in recent times, told SportsBoom.

“If you look at Bismarck du Plessis and Malcolm Marx, South Africa’s always done well with big, physical hookers.

“With Bongi Mbonambi nearing retirement, no one is really putting up their hand yet. We have enough good props. I’d prepare Wessels as a hooker.”

Also able to play loosehead prop

The Bulls man delivered arguably the best performance of his senior career recently when he helped his team beat Glasgow Warriors at Scotstoun in a URC match at the end of April.

Afterwards teammates referred to him as a new Os du Randt, the former Springbok World Cup-winning loosehead prop from 1995 and 2007.

Bulls boss Jake White also said: “I don’t want to single out any player but he epitomised for me how we can do back-to-back efforts because that is what he did today and his back-to-back efforts were outstanding.”

The good news is Wessels is equally happy at loosehead prop and with Steven Kitshoff being forced into retirement because of injury, the Boks will be looking for new No 1s to back up the likes of Ox Nche and Gerhard Steenekamp.

The Bulls are back in action in the URC this weekend, with Cardiff visiting Loftus on Saturday at 4pm.