Midfield beast has surely earned his Bok call-up with this epic display
With every week that passes in the United Rugby Championship, Lions centre Henco van Wyk is looking more and more like the real deal.
The 21-year-old put in a rock solid defensive display against Cardiff last weekend, tackling anything that moved in blue on the Cardiff Arms Park pitch, and he only added to his game a week later in Scotland against Edinburgh.
The centre has already shown that he is nothing short of a brick wall in defence, but he showed against Edinburgh on Friday that he is a pretty intimidating prospect with ball in hand, scoring a try that perfectly exhibited his strength. Even on the ground after being tackled he was able to pop back to his feet to wrestle through the next tackle and power his way to the line, as his side went on to win 22-19.
This might have been the game where South Africa head coach Jacques Nienaber really took notice of van Wyk, who surely took one massive stride into the Springboks squad for the northern hemisphere tour with this game.
TAS Analytics have shared some footage of his game, and it was certainly Springboks-worthy. Take a look:
This is what TAS Analytics wrote on YouTube: “Same old same old, another week where Henco van Wyk shows he is made for international rugby. The Lions were massive underdogs but yet again they showed they have a quality defence and the heart behind it all is Henco. This game he was able to show his all round game. Where to start? Again, Henco’s defence was the main talking point and it started with that amazing cover tackle he made on Darcy Graham, where he chased him down and timed his dive to perfection and used his momentum to force him to the touch line. There is not a lot of players who can do what Henco did there, that was just amazing work rate and world class tackling technique.
“Then there was his attack, that try he scored was just magic. The Lions were going nowhere and he got the ball in his hand, he almost got a linebreak but got tackled, he then lets go off the ball in an instant, and picks it up and Edinburgh just couldn’t get him to the ground. He showed his rugby IQ as well as explosiveness and speed. Then he also had another amazing run at the end of the game where he got a linebreak and showed amazing speed again. He also threw an amazing pass. I can’t say this enough, Henco is the best player I have ever scouted. It’s refreshing to see his finally getting rewarded for his hard work, there is no player who has worked harder than him this last few years and he had to wait a long time for his chance and now he’s taking it with both hands. He has shown again that he is the perfect replacement for Lukhanyo Am at the end of the your tour. He is destined to be a Springbok and I’m sure Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber will make the logical decision to include him in the squad.
“Weapon X is here to stay…”
