Nick Mallett is concerned about the lack of hooker cover in the Springboks squad named for the November leg of the Nations Championship.

Malcolm Marx and Jan-Hendrik Wessels were the two names listed as hookers in Rassie Erasmus’ 37-man squad, with the latter seemingly focusing solely on the role after previously doubling up as a loosehead prop. Bulls forward Marco van Staden has been named among the utility forwards for the end-of-year tour, and he is bound to cover the hooker position as he has done previously in Green and Gold and for his club.

Nick Mallett wary of Springboks hooker selections

However, Mallett is skeptical whether there is sufficient cover for the position and predicts that if either Marx or Wessels sustains an injury, the coaching team will call upon another specialist in the role. He believes that Bongi Mbonambi’s move from the Sharks to the Stormers and subsequent inclusion on the bench for the United Rugby Championship clash against Ulster this weekend will be welcomed news to the Bok coaching team.

“From the hooker position, Marco covers that… Bongi is on the bench for the Stormers; that’ll be good news for Rassie,” Mallett said on the Talking Boks podcast.

“He knows if he’s fit enough and if he does well, he’s able to call on him if there are any problems at hooker.”

The former head coach added that considering the depth the Springboks have at loosehead prop in the form of Ox Nche, Ntuthuko Mchunu and Gerhard Steenekamp – with Thomas du Toit also able to switch sides – means that there isn’t much of a need for Wessels to cover that role.

Mallett believes that the 25-year-old Bok has the potential to be as good a hooker as Marx but needs to focus on the role in order to do that.

“I’m very happy to see Jan-Hendrik Wessels being picked as a hooker and not as a hybrid loosehead because we’ve got great looseheads out there,” he said.

“If we are leaving Boan Venter behind, that means that Thuks Mchunu, Steenekamp and Ox Nche – we’ve got three really dynamic looseheads. So just getting him as a scrummaging replica to Marx, and he can be because he’s very quick around the field. He is good over the ball, stealing the ball, and he’s a great ball carrier, and he needs to get more experience at scrimmaging and throwing the ball in.”

Whilst he is confident of Wessels’ potential, Mallett still finds it strange that Erasmus isn’t taking three specialist hookers on tour with him while doing so for the scrum-half.

Jan-Hendrik Wessels’ potential and Rassie Erasmus’ risk

The Springboks rolled the dice at the World Cup by not calling up another hooker when Marx was ruled out for the remainder of the tournament, calling on Handre Pollard instead. The coaching team backed Deon Fourie to provide cover for Mbonambi during the knockout stages and followed the same template during Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, with the oldest Springbok of all time featuring in all three of the latter Tests against New Zealand.

Mallett has also warned Erasmus about the risk he is taking with backing hybrid players to fulfil the hooker role, as it could have a negative impact on some of the Springboks’ strengths. He also predicts that if Mbonambi is fit and one of Wessels or Marx gets injured, the former will be the next cab off the rank.

“Jan-Hendrik could be a remarkable hooker in the same vein as Malcolm Marx. It is strange not having a third hooker,” the former Italy boss continued.

“It’s a specialist position much like scrum-half, and we saw what happened to the Stormers last weekend when three hookers went off. An extraordinary situation where Deon Fourie and the two hookers who were selected were all injured, and suddenly you get uncontested scrums, and you get a lineout that’s very flaky because you’re getting a guy chucking it in who does it perhaps for 10 minutes a week, but it’s not his specialty.

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“When you think about how many penalties we get from our scrummaging, it’ll be damaging to the Springboks if we had to go to uncontested scrums.

“Our driving maul is a very, very strong point in our game, and to get a driving maul going, you need to catch the ball in two hands; your jumper needs it in two hands to deliver it properly to the next player. So you can’t have a shambolic lineup either. So it is a very, very important position. Now, I’m not saying anything about Marco van Staden because I haven’t spent enough time watching him play in that position, but they obviously think he can finish off a game quite easily.

“But my view is if one of those two, Marx or Wessels, gets injured, I can’t see them not ringing in a specialist hooker and going the way we did in 2023 with Deon Fourie. You’ve got a guy in Bongi Mbonambi who’s been there and done it, and if he’s fit enough and strong enough and he’s playing decent rugby, he’d be invaluable. Well, I think he’s going to be invaluable for the Stormers but also for the Boks.”