New Vodacom Bulls upstart Cameron Hanekom may be a newbie to Vodacom United Rugby Championship rugby, but the former Boishaai forward is already being touted for bigger things.
After scoring two tries in the demolition of Scarlets on Sunday, Hanekom has likely cemented his place in the touring squad for the next four weeks as the Bulls leave on Tuesday for some tough games abroad.
They start this weekend with a massive challenge against Ulster on their new artificial pitch, which will be unveiled for the game, and the Bulls are already looking forward to unleashing some of their new acquisitions on the tour.
But right now the talk is about Hanekom, who got some high praise from coach Jake White on his performance against Scarlets.
“He is phenomenal, first game of the URC and he was man of the match - he looked like he was a seasoned pro,” White smiled.
“It is not easy to come into a first game like that, but I rate him very highly. He has a great feel for the game, he has speed, and he put on some size during the off-season.
“He comes from a great pedigree, his background was at Paarl Boys’ High and he was in the under-20 squad and did very well and if he wasn’t the best under-20 player he would have been nominated as one of the best players in his age-group.
“It’s early days, but it is nice that you get a young forward coming through. We know what bonuses we got with Canan (Moodie) coming through in his first rookie year and with Cameron in the forward pack coming through and will do well for us in the future.”
Hanekom has a lot of competition with the likes of Marcell Coetzee, Elrigh Louw, Nizaam Carr, Cyle Brink, Jannes Kirsten and Springbok Marco van Staden to compete with, but the challenge will be a massive one for one of the rising stars of SA Rugby.
BUILDING BLOCKS
White was also massively impressed with his side’s first outing - other than one pre-season game against the Lions - of the season.
“We’ve worked hard on our skill level, we’ve worked hard on getting guys together in terms of continuity. The effort was good in the first game. We were tired and if we were tired, then Scarlets had to be exhausted at altitude and in 32-degree heat.
"One has to be happy with that. You will always find a couple of things we need to work on. I must say I’m really happy with the hit-out. It’s a nice building block to build on for the rest of the tour.”
The Bulls face Ulster on Sunday before games against Zebre Parma, Cardiff and Edinburgh on their tour.