Cameron Hanekom on the charge for the Boks

Cameron Hanekom is showing the form that won him a Test debut in 2024 before injury cut short his year.

Hanekom was the big individual winner for the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld in their 54-19 drubbing of Zebre in the United Rugby Championship.

Hanekom, who made his Test debut against Wales in Cardiff in 2024, missed selection for the Springboks in 2025 because of injury.

The hamstring tear was so severe, requiring surgery, and the recovery was lengthy.

Hanekom missed the first 12 rounds of this season’s URC, and the Bulls four Group matches in the Investec Champions Cup.

He started the Investec Champions Cup last 16 play-off against Glasgow and has started the last three matches for the Bulls in the URC.

His game time has increased very quickly with each match.

Bulls coach Johan Ackermann introduced Hanekom in Round 13, where he played the final 28 minutes. The increase then have been the last 31 minutes, the first 50 minutes, a full 80 minutes in his fourth match back, another start with 73 minutes and a big shift as a starter in his most recent match against Zebre.

He has started four of the six matches he has played this season, but he is perfectly positioned to be at the top of his game in six weeks when the national squad get together for a season that will include a non-Test match against the famed Barbarians and 13 Test matches.

Hanekom, one of the schoolboy starts to emerge from Paarl Boys High, has played 47 matches for the Bulls, with 37 of those performances coming in the URC, two in the EPCR Challenge Cup and eight in the Investec Champions Cup.

He has played 95 percent of his matches at No 8 but national coach Rassie Erasmus believes he is skilled and talented enough to be as influential as a flanker.

Hanekom aside, scrumhalf Embrose Papier is back in Erasmus’s thinking after an eight year absence.

Erasmus, in 2018, picked Papier for his first Test appearance, but the Bulls scrumhalf has not played Test rugby since 2018.

On Saturday, against Zebre, he surpassed the iconic (late) Joost van der Westhuizen as the Bulls most capped scrumhalf, with 170 appearances.

“They’ve (Springboks coaches) chatted to him about some of things he needs to improve on. That’s good news for us because it means they’re looking at him. He just has to keep on performing for us. The rest is out of his control.”

The Bulls, with 54 points, have qualified for the play-offs. They are currently in fourth position and if they get the five points against Benetton in Round 18, they will finish fourth. This is assuming Leinster will win their final league match to finish above the Bulls.

The Stormers, will finish in the top three, but Saturday’s results mean the Lions would have to rely on other results going their way should they fail to get a point against Munster at Thomond Park in Limerick.

The Lions started Round 17 in third place, but finished it in sixth place.