Biggar calls the Springboks depth chart the envy of the world, one shirt excepted. A former Springboks head coach asked the same question on Sunday.
“Wrap Malcolm Marx in cotton wool until the opening game of the World Cup in Australia and build strength around it.”
Dan Biggar, 112 caps for Wales, said it on Biggar Thinking on Sunday 13 September, the day after the series ended 3-1. He had just gone through the Springboks squad shirt by shirt and found cover everywhere, until he got to hooker.
The man who covers Marx turns 40 on Friday 25 September, two days before Perth. The 25-year-old Rassie Erasmus calls the long-term answer made one Test squad out of four. The hooker who played in Buenos Aires made none. The 2023 World Cup final hooker has not played since his knee, then his back.
Cotton wool, or a plan? Who wears 16 in Perth: Deon Fourie at 40, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, or Johan Grobbelaar? Say so in the comments, then read on.
Springboks hooker cover, Test by Test: three of four went to a 39-year-old flanker
“Malcolm Marx is the best hooker in the world by a country mile. If he gets injured or if he has to miss a period of time… you’ve got Deon Fourie who’s, you know, certainly not a spring chicken… They’ve lost, you know, Bongi Mbonambi who potentially could come back into the squad but hasn’t played for a while.”
Marx was the site’s player of the series after starting it with a 6.5 and a seat on the bench. “By a country mile” is Biggar’s opinion. The minutes are the record.
| Test | Marx | Who covered him |
|---|---|---|
| Ellis Park, 22 August | Started | Jan-Hendrik Wessels, the 16, on by the 70th minute |
| Cape Town, 29 August | Bench, on for Fourie on 35 | Deon Fourie started |
| Soweto, 5 September | Started, off on 70 | Fourie, moved across from flank |
| Baltimore, 12 September | Started, off on 49 | Fourie |
Source: WeTalkRugby player ratings for all four Tests.
Three Tests out of four, the man who took over was a 39-year-old flanker. In the Springboks player ratings from Baltimore, two throws were lost on 59 and 67 after Fourie came on. New Zealand scored from neither.
Read also: what the Springboks scrum asks of its hooker, according to Kieran Read.
Deon Fourie turns 40 next Friday, and he said in April what his game is not
None of this is a criticism of Fourie. He started in Cape Town after the front-row switch an hour before kick-off, at 39 years and 338 days, past Victor Matfield’s age record by more than a year.
In Soweto he came on at flank, moved to hooker on 70 to hold a 12-point lead, and the lineout did not lose a throw with him at it.
He told SA Rugby magazine on Saturday where the birthday will be spent.
“I’ll be in Australia, I think it’s on the Friday. Luckily it’s an off day for us as well, because we’re only playing on the Sunday.”
And where his head is: “I’m playing game by game, waiting for the moment to get on the field.”
Gavin Rich, the rugby writer who was at every match of the tour, put the other side of it on Brenden Nel’s Talking Boks on Sunday, sitting next to Nick Mallett, Springboks head coach from 1997 to 2000.
“I can only see that as a stop-gap measure at the moment. I can’t see it as sustainable going forward.”
Which is what Fourie himself told his club coach in April, when he stood himself down from the Stormers bench against Glasgow so that JJ Kotzé could take the bench hooker’s place. John Dobson told Planet Rugby what was said.
“Deon came in and said, ‘This is not my game. In the interest of the team, I don’t think I should play this game. I think it’s a very high set-piece game. I think JJ’s throwing is in a better space than mine. I’ll get it right.'”
A 40-year-old who knows exactly what he is for is worth having. He is not a plan.
Nick Mallett wants to know what happened to Jan-Hendrik Wessels
Mallett has picked Springboks squads. He asked the question the selection has been avoiding since Ellis Park.
“I’m not sure why they’ve stopped investing time in young Jan-Hendrik Wessels. He’s the guy for me who is the closest to Marx in terms of physicality… if he concentrated on being a hooker, I think he’d be a very good bomb squad guy coming off the bench…”
Wessels is 25, listed at 1.93 metres and 120 kilograms, and capped since 2024. He wore 16 at Ellis Park and was stripped by Ardie Savea on 70 in the sequence that put New Zealand back on the front foot.
He was not in the 23 again. The two hooker places in Cape Town, Soweto and Baltimore went to Marx and Fourie.
The coach agrees with the former coach on the name. Erasmus said so in Cape Town week, before Fourie had played a minute.
“Jan-Hendrik Wessels is going to develop into a specialist reserve hooker… We’re building him up slowly. He’s getting game time and he’s getting practice time.”
Nel had the same answer from him directly: “He went on about Jan-Hendrik Wessels being the guy that they want to shift to eventually.”
The name is settled. The word slowly is the argument, and so is which Tests the building happens in.
Two more names, and neither was picked
Nel’s other point was about the hooker who did not make any of the four squads.
“You’ve got to feel for Johan Grobbelaar… In the Test against Argentina he had a great game. And at no point have we really been explained what exactly he’s doing wrong… I’m not sure what he’s going to do to convince the selectors. But it does seem Jan-Hendrik is there.”
Grobbelaar is 28. He played in Buenos Aires on 8 August and was then left out of all four New Zealand Tests.
Bongi Mbonambi, 35, started the 2023 World Cup final. Erasmus, in the same Cape Town press conference: “Bongi had a knee [injury] and then it’s a lower-back thing.” And the condition: “Bongi has to play some proper matches now and get it under his belt before we can again look at him.”
Three weeks on, there is no return date. Trevor Nyakane watched the Baltimore Test alongside him, he told For The Love Of Rugby SA.
What cotton wool would actually cost
Perth is Sunday 27 September. The Nations Championship follows in November. The World Cup opens for South Africa against Italy at Adelaide Oval on Sunday 3 October next year, just over a year away.
Biggar’s line is a joke with a serious half. The serious half is that Erasmus left a fly-half with two World Cup medals unused for the whole series and nobody noticed, because Handré Pollard has cover. Marx has a 39-year-old flanker.
Cotton wool fixes nothing. The bench hooker’s jersey does. Give it to Wessels in Perth and in November, and let the slowly happen in Test minutes rather than in training. Keep Fourie for what he showed in Soweto, two positions and a lead to hold.
The alternative is the one Biggar described: the best hooker in the world covered by a 40-year-old for another year, and everybody hoping.
Your turn
Two ways to see the 16 shirt. One: Fourie has earned Perth, covers two positions, and a 40-year-old on a Test bench is a story to enjoy while it lasts. Two: every Test Fourie sits at 16 is a Test Wessels does not, and the World Cup is just over a year away. Fourie or Wessels for Perth?
Frequently asked
Who is the Springboks backup hooker to Malcolm Marx? Deon Fourie covered him in three of the four Tests against New Zealand and started in Cape Town. Jan-Hendrik Wessels was the 16 at Ellis Park. Rassie Erasmus says Wessels will “develop into a specialist reserve hooker”.
How old is Deon Fourie? He was born on 25 September 1986 and turns 40 on Friday 25 September 2026, two days before the Perth Test. He became the oldest player ever to appear for the Springboks in Cape Town, at 39 years and 338 days.
When is Bongi Mbonambi back for the Springboks? No date has been given. Erasmus said in late August that Mbonambi had a knee injury and then a lower-back problem, and must play “some proper matches” before he is considered again.
