It isn’t easy to make the argument considering the Springboks have the World Player of the year in Malcolm Marx in their stable, but there is a concern that a lack of a genuine back-up hooker could be one of the issues that still needs to be resolved before the World Cup.
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has leaned towards hybrid players - players who can cover more than one position to give him options off the bench, but this raises the question about who will go to the World Cup as the back-up hooker for Marx?
In the last World Cup it was clear - there was Bongi Mbonambi, and when Marx was injured, he stepped up, until being injured in the final.
FOURIE WAS EMERGENCY CALL IN RWC FINAL
But those who will remember that, will also remember that Deon Fourie stepped up, but missed several lineouts in the process as the Springboks struggled to contain the All Blacks in the final and eventually won by a solitary point.
Since then there have been various hookers tried - we have had Marnus van der Merwe, Johan Grobbelaar, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Andre-Hugo Venter. Wessels fits the hybrid role and so does Marco van Staden, another World Cup switch to cover the position for Erasmus if he needs him.
Van Staden has been used exceptionally well by both the Bulls and Boks as a bench player, and can be brought on to cover flank or hooker, same as Fourie.
But Fourie, who is on the bench this weekend, hasn’t played hooker since 2023, and has struggled since with a long term knee injury and bicep tear, getting himself back for an incredible leadership performance for the Stormers when they faced the All Blacks in the tour opener.
WHO IS THE BACK-UP TO MARX?
Still, if you had to ask any Springbok supporter who the back-up is to Marx, it is an open question?
No hooker has been trusted to make the position their own.
Whether that is by design or circumstance can be debated, and there are those who hope that Bongi Mbonambi may make a return, but even that would be short term.
Marx is now 32, and is unlikely to make it to the 2031 Rugby World Cup (although as with Fourie nothing is impossible) and to be honest, this isn’t a new problem. Remember Joseph Dweba against the All Blacks in 2022? There was an experiment that didn’t work either.
It is easy to see why Erasmus has gone for the hybrid option as the back-up hooker. The Boks have several players every week who practice lineouts and even Thomas du Toit takes his turn throwing at the lollipop.
But to have a scrummaging hooker that is a specialist in his position seems increasingly rare in the Bok set-up at the moment. Ideally Grobbelaar would have been the man for the second test, but it was clear when he was released for the Bulls game against the tourists he wasn’t going to play in the first two tests.
VERSATILITY HAS ITS ADVANTAGES
And it is also easy to understand why Erasmus uses this ploy - a grouping of hybrid players who can easily slot in - Wessels, Fourie, Van Staden give him options on the bench that few coaches have, and he can decide where to employ them in a game. With a World Cup squad limited to 33 players, the Boks will be well-off for players who can cover more than one position.
Yet, what happens if Marx suffers a long term injury? Is there not a specialist hooker that can be trusted in the position? Grobbelaar has 8 tests currently under his belt? Van der Merwe has a long term injury but only three tests to his name.
Wessels has 12, Van Staden 32, and Fourie 13. Venter has two.
Erasmus may be correct about “pressing the emergency button” to recall the 39-year old Fourie, but there is a deeper concern about the back-up to Marx, especially if Mbonambi, for some reason, isn’t back in time for 2027. Fourie has a skillset the Boks obviously feel they need for a backs-to-the-wall performance right now. And the loss in the first test has dented their plans for the season.
But the depth chart is only as strong as who will step in if there are two big injuries.
Marx has 87 caps and Mbonambi 81. They have been the rock for the Boks at hooker for several years now, but their back-up isn’t clear.
And even if Mbonambi makes it back, who is there post 2027? Or 2031?
These are questions that still need to be answered, and Fourie’s selection makes it a bit murkier in looking to the future.