Youngster Ethan Hooker’s stocks have dramatically been on the rise since he burst onto the senior scene for a troubled Sharks side last season where he well and truly grabbed his chance.
The backline starlet rose through the junior ranks in Durban with flying colours, even captaining the U21 side, before being elevated to the first team in 2023. It was then that his tireless work-rate and team-first mentality showed in heaps as he became an important cog in the side that went on to win the Challenge Cup.
The 21-year-old’s exploits in the black of the Sharks earned him a Springboks call-up earlier this year but this was an alignment selection as Hooker is yet to represent his country – something that is beginning to feel more and more inevitable.
Changing positions
The return of Andre Esterhuizen and the rise of another youth star, Jurenzo Julius, has seen the bulky figure of Hooker move from 12 to the left wing where he has thrived. The Shark offers a powerhouse option out wide, while he is a brilliant defender and provides strong links to those around him.
The move bore fruit at the first time of asking with the starlet scoring in the Currie Cup final, ultimately powering the Sharks to victory. The success, despite a change of position, did not surprise Hooker’s former coach Njabulo Zulu of Westville Boys High School who even tried the star in the back-row.
“When he was in his Grade 11 year, I played him as an eight because we had Mambo Mkhize, who was also an upcoming 12 in the country and was doing good things. I wanted both of them in the team and I moved Ethan to eight,” Zulu told.
“The reason I moved him to eight was because I thought I could get away with it because of his physicality. We only played one game, against DHS, and Covid hit. The planning was that he would scrum as an eight and would go onto the wider channels; so, he’d still be a centre but scrum as an eight.
“Him saying he doesn’t mind playing wing is because he’s very much a team man.”
He is a 12
While Zulu did move him around the team and even considering the recent success at wing, Hooker’s ex-coach still sees the Shark’s home in the midfield.
“I also see him as a centre; for me he’s got all the qualities of a Springbok centre,” Zulu said. “He’s big, he can carry, but more than anything else, his defence… Since he was young, all he ever did was smash people.
“And he’s a twelve’s 12; he does the things that people don’t want to do. He’ll run into the wall, he’ll carry for the team, he can take contact, go forward in contact and my favourite part about his game is that he loves to defend.”
