Wessels set for a decade of dominance

Jan-Hendrik Wessels is the greatest example of how to manage a supreme talent, when it comes to front rowers and hookers.

Since his marauding days at Grey College, Wessels was earmarked as special, a Springbok certainty and a player who, fitness permitting, will dominate as a loosehead prop or hooker for the next decade.

Wessels was the player of the match for the Bulls against Glasgow Warriors in the United Rugby Championship and his contribution, as the starting loosehead prop, was characterised by a powerful set piece presence and an immense defensive effort, with his chase back and tryline tackle on a right-winger, a throwback to when South Africa’s player of the century, Frik du Preez, would lead the Bulls and Bok cavalry with his athleticism as a lock, and could play just about anywhere.

Wessels turns 24 on  May 8 and his introduction to the front row club has been brilliantly managed at the Bulls and equally so in his brief international introduction last season. He played three Test matches in 2024 and averaged 36 minutes a Test. 

It is at the Bulls that director of rugby Jake White and his coaches have provided Wessels with near-perfect grooming as a front rower who doubles as a hooker.

Not a young man's paradise

With players of Wessels’ pedigree and talent, the temptation would always be to motivate starting him against the Grizzlies of the front row as a case of “good enough is old enough” but those who rule the alleys of the dark arts will tell you it is not a young man’s paradise.

Wessels, 6ft 4 and 120kg, will only get stronger in the next five years and he may even get a bit heavier, but it is the technical introduction he has enjoyed at the Bulls in playing hooker and loosehead prop that cannot be overstated.

In total, Wessels has started just 13 of his 44 matches for the Bulls, but his game time has been expertly managed and increased with greater playing experience. In his professional debut season, in 2021/22, he featured as a substitute hooker in five matches and averaged 15 minutes a game.

The next season he started in two of 14 matches, and the game time average increased to 25 minutes. The two starts were significant, as they were at Glasgow and against Munster in Limerick. In all 14 matches, Wessels played hooker, as he did in his first five matches in the first season.

In the 2023/24 season, Wessels started six from 13 matches, and he was again used primarily as a hooker (11 times) and on two occasions as a loosehead prop. His game time also increased to 30 minutes.

First Test cap

He would also get his first Test cap in 2024 and start two of the three Tests as a loosehead prop and play against Argentina as a reserve hooker.

His Bok game time average was 36 minutes, which mirrored his game time for the Bulls, where he started four of his 10 matches and played exclusively as a hooker.

It was his selection for the Boks as loosehead that saw a shift in how White viewed Wessels, and this season he has alternated between loosehead prop and hooker, starting seven of 15 matches, with 10 of the 15 appearances in the No 1 jersey.

His game time, after his big performance in Glasgow, averages 40 minutes, and his versatility is such that it is secondary whether he wears a 1, 2, 16 or 17. The Boks, in the past decade, have been blessed with front row talent, on the loosehead, at hooker and on the tighthead.

Just when one thought, how could anyone step in for the retired Steven Kitshoff, along came Ox Nche, and now there is Jan-Hendrik Wessels; the player of Friday night in Glasgow and a player who is going to make a big international statement this year.