Jan-Hendrik Wessels career profile: quick facts
- Full name: Jan-Hendrik Wessels
- Position: Front row. SA Rugby says he plays prop and hooker equally well, and named him as one of two hookers in its touring squad on 28 October 2026
- Home town: Bloemfontein, according to SA Rugby
- Franchise: Bulls, United Rugby Championship
- Springbok caps: 16, with 10 points from two tries (SA Rugby’s France team sheet, 9 November 2026)
- Test debut: against Portugal in Bloemfontein, 20 July 2024, starting at loosehead prop
- School and junior sides: Grey College; SA Schools, SA Under-18 and the Junior Springboks
Who is Jan-Hendrik Wessels?
Most front-rowers spend a career mastering one number. Jan-Hendrik Wessels has spent his learning two. SA Rugby describes a forward who can play prop and hooker equally well, which makes him something rare in the most specialised corner of the pack: one bench seat that covers two jobs. He scored on his Test debut in his home town, and on Friday night in Paris he scored again, finishing the lineout drive that brought the Springboks their first try. This is how a Bloemfontein schoolboy became one of Rassie Erasmus’s most useful pieces.
Early life and background: Bloemfontein and Grey College
Wessels grew up in Bloemfontein, and SA Rugby calls him a product of its Elite Player Development pathway. Erasmus has said the system spotted him early. “We earmarked Jan-Hendrik Wessels from our Elite Player Development (EPD) system from under 15 level, when he was playing prop then,” the Bok coach said in 2024, as reported by SuperSport.
His school was Grey College, where, OFM reported, he had played alongside André-Hugo Venter since the two were 11-year-olds at Grey Primary. He was not always a front-rower. A coach who worked with him at school and then at the Bulls told The Citizen that Wessels played lock as a youngster and was moved to prop at under-16 level, once it was clear he would not grow to two metres. SuperSport recalls him alternating between prop and lock at Grey.
The junior jerseys followed. SA Rugby lists the SA Under-18s and the Junior Springboks on his record, and OFM adds the SA Schools side. SA Rugby also says he was picked for the SA ‘A’ team about two years before his Test debut, but missed its tour through injury.
There was a detour on the way. SuperSport’s Brenden Nel reported in 2024 that the French club Clermont had run a recruitment drive aimed at Grey College’s best players, and that Wessels went to France as a teenager before coming home. South African rugby nearly lost him, the feature argued.
Franchise career: the Bulls
Wessels joined the Bulls after school. By December 2020 he was on their bench, at No 17, when they beat the Cheetahs 40-13 in a Currie Cup match at Loftus Versfeld, SA Rugby Magazine’s report shows.
The early years were not smooth. Before his Test call-up in 2024, The Citizen noted, he had at times not made the Bulls’ first-choice 23. What kept him in the conversation was the thing that still defines him. In 2024 the Bulls mostly used him at hooker and the Boks mostly at prop, TimesLIVE reported.
He was frank about the workload. “I have to work hard at both positions by trying to be a good hooker and good prop,” he said in October 2024, the week the Bulls played the Scarlets in Wales. That match cost him. He rolled an ankle in a narrow defeat and had to withdraw from the Springboks’ November tour of Europe, OFM and The Mercury reported. Erasmus needed two Bulls team-mates, Johan Grobbelaar and Wilco Louw, to fill the gap, and our Wilco Louw profile tells what that call-up meant for him.
The 2024/25 season showed what Wessels could add from the bench. By April 2025 he had four tries in 12 appearances, five of them starts, SABC Sport counted, and he had been called to a Springbok alignment camp in March. He summed up his role in shirt numbers: “Whether I’m wearing jersey 1 or 17, or 2 or 16, my goal is the same,” he said, which was to give his best for the team.
He is still a Bulls front-rower, now under coach Johan Ackermann. For the franchise’s last home URC match of 2026, against the Scarlets at Loftus Versfeld on 31 October, the Bulls named him at hooker in an all-new front row between Alu Tshakweni and Khutha Mchunu.
International career
A try on debut, at home, in 2024
The call came in the middle of 2024. Erasmus picked him to start at loosehead prop against Portugal in Bloemfontein on Saturday 20 July, with his school friend Venter on the bench, OFM reported. Also among the replacements that day, at No 22, was Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu. Wessels marked the occasion with a try, and South Africa won 64-21.
“It was a surprise and dream come true when I was first selected for the squad, but to get the opportunity to play against Portugal, and now to tour with the team to Australia has made me even hungrier to be part of this special environment,” he told SA Rugby ten days later, by which time he was in the 33-man Rugby Championship squad.
By September he had the No 16 jersey, the replacement hooker’s number, for the Test against Argentina in Santiago del Estero, and Planet Rugby noted that he had featured for the Boks at hooker as well as at prop. The ankle injury then ended his Test year early.
A second Test try, 2025
His second Test try came in Gqeberha on Saturday 12 July 2025. Off the bench, he scored in the second half of a 45-0 win over Italy that completed a 2-0 series, OFM and the Sowetan reported.
2026: a regular in the 23
This has been the year he became a regular in Erasmus’s match-day squads. Rugby365 reported that in the July Tests of the Nations Championship he covered loosehead against England, moved between loosehead and hooker against Scotland and came off the bench against Wales in Durban. South Africa won all three and finished top of the Southern Series, by SA Rugby’s account.
In August he played in Buenos Aires, then wore 16 for the opening Test of the series against New Zealand in Johannesburg. South Africa went on to be crowned the inaugural Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry champions, SA Rugby says. In September he was back in the No 1 jersey, named at loosehead prop for the one-off Test against Australia in Perth, Business Day reported.
SA Rugby’s touring squad for Italy, France and Ireland, announced on 28 October, carried only two hookers: Malcolm Marx and Wessels. He sat on the bench in Turin, and SA Rugby’s caps column for him moved from 15 before that Test to 16 before the next.
Playing style
Start with the size. The Citizen and The Mercury both list him at 1.93m and 120kg, big for a hooker and tall for a prop. The reason Erasmus keeps picking him, though, is range. When Wessels withdrew in 2024, OFM pointed out that he had given the Boks the luxury of one player covering prop and hooker, and that replacing him took two players. On a bench with only eight seats, that is a real advantage.
As a prop, he told Planet Rugby in 2024, the priorities are the scrum and the loose play; at hooker he must scrum from a different spot and throw in well at the lineout. SABC Sport’s report in April 2025 picked out precise throws to all areas of the lineout against Bayonne, and a counter-attack that set up a try for the Bulls centre David Kriel.
In plain language: he can start at prop, finish at hooker, throw to a lineout and carry with power for a big man. That flexibility is why Erasmus has kept finding him a place.
Honours and records
- Try on Test debut, against Portugal in Bloemfontein, 20 July 2024
- Played in the 2026 series against New Zealand, which South Africa won to become the inaugural Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry champions
- Played in the July 2026 Tests as South Africa topped the Nations Championship Southern Series
- SA Schools, SA Under-18 and Junior Springbok honours; picked for SA ‘A’ (missed the tour through injury)
Where he is now: as at 14 November 2026
He is a Bulls player and one of the two hookers on the Springboks’ European tour. SA Rugby named him at No 16 for the France Test (our Springbok team v France report has the full 23), and our France v Springboks preview set out what the Boks were facing at the Stade de France.
His record by SA Rugby’s latest published count, from 9 November and so before Paris, is 16 caps and 10 points from two tries. Next on SA Rugby’s schedule is Ireland on 21 November, before the finals weekend in London from 27 to 29 November.
Frequently asked questions
What position does Jan-Hendrik Wessels play?
He is a front-rower who plays prop and hooker. SA Rugby says he plays both equally well, and named him as one of two hookers in its Nations Championship squad in October 2026. He made his Test debut at loosehead prop.
Which team does Jan-Hendrik Wessels play for?
The Bulls, in the United Rugby Championship. He joined them after school, and they named him at hooker for their home match against the Scarlets on 31 October 2026.
How many caps does Jan-Hendrik Wessels have?
SA Rugby’s France team sheet, released on 9 November 2026, gave him 16 Test caps and 10 points from two tries. That figure was published before the Test in Paris.
When did Jan-Hendrik Wessels make his Springbok debut?
On Saturday 20 July 2024, against Portugal in Bloemfontein, his home town. He started at loosehead prop, scored a try, and South Africa won 64-21.
Where is Jan-Hendrik Wessels from?
Bloemfontein. SA Rugby says he hails from the city, and he went to school at Grey College, where he played lock and prop before settling in the front row.