Jan-Hendrik Wessels is eager to get stuck into Saracens in Pretoria, as the young hooker continues to hone his craft and clock more game time for the Vodacom Bulls, reports DEVIN HERMANUS.
Jake White’s troops will kick off their second campaign in the Champions Cup against the three-time winners from England at Loftus Versfeld.
The Herd boast an impressive five victories in seven outings in 2023-24, and have won all three of their home matches so far this season. However, Saracens, the defending Premiership champions, arrived in the Republic after five wins in eight games, and are perennially mentioned among the European cup title favourites.
Wessels has featured off the bench behind Springbok rake Akker van der Merwe in three successive matches in the Vodacom URC, and the 22-year-old is relishing the opportunity to test himself against one of the world’s best clubs.
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“It’s a massive game,” he told reporters in a Bulls conference on Thursday. “If you look at the England internationals that are playing for them, and if you look at their record in the past, they’ve always been in and around the final rounds of the Premiership as well as the Champions Cup.
“They’re one of the best teams and we need to prepare well to play Test match rugby, and you want to measure yourself against the best teams and players.
“You can’t slack and really have to be up for the game, and we’ve been talking about it as a Test game. It’s the closest you’ll come to international rugby at provincial level.”
Wessels, who made the switch to hooker from loosehead prop after joining the Bulls straight from school, acknowledged the benefits to his game playing alongside the retired Bok juggernaut Bismarck du Plessis, while is up to the challenge of wrestling Van der Merwe and Johan Grobbelaar for the Bulls No 2 jersey.
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“Healthy competition is always good in a squad, I think if you get comfortable in your spot you’re not always going to get the best out of yourself,” the former SA Schools star said.
“I’ve learnt a lot from Akker, Grobbies and Bismarck. Moving into a new position and having senior players in the role that have walked around the block and have been overseas, they can teach you. It’s an honour to work with quality hookers, and you need to up your game to get a chance on the weekend.
“I’ve come a long way with my throw-ins and scrumming, but working over the ball is a big improvement I can make. Looking at hookers at the World Cup, a big part of their game was slowing the ball down.”
Wessels added: “As a 20-year-old hooker, you also need to start backing yourself and even if you miss a throw, you need to keep your head on your shoulders, look up and fix the next job.
“The big thing is about not holding [tackle] bags – you need to play rugby. You need to get game time under the belt and in my first year [as a professional] I got a whole competition in.
“In my second year I played a few URC games and a good balance of U20 [matches]. In my third year I played senior Currie Cup instead of U21s, and played Junior Boks as well. I’ve grown a lot as a player and become better every year.”
Photo: Lee Warren/Gallo Images