David Wessels (born 1983), is a South African-Australian professional

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

football coach. He is currently General Manager of High Performance at

SA Rugby The South African Rugby Union (SARU) is the governing body for rugby union in South Africa and is affiliated to World Rugby. It was established in 1992 as the South African Rugby Football Union, from the merger of the South African Rugby Board ...

. He was previously head coach of the

Melbourne Rebels The Melbourne Rebels were an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria that competed in the Super Rugby competition. The Rebels made their debut in SANZAAR, SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. T ...

team that compete in the

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

competition. Before moving to Melbourne, Dave became the youngest head coach in Super Rugby history when he was appointed head coach at the

Western Force The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby, Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competitio ...

, in Perth and co-head coach of the

Perth Spirit The Perth Spirit is a former rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, that played in the National Rugby Championship (NRC) from 2014 to 2017, winning the competition in 2016. The team was formed in 2007 to compete in the Australian Ru ...

in Australia's

National Rugby Championship The National Rugby Championship, known as NRC, was an Australian rugby union competition. It was contested by eight teams, seven from Australia and one from Fiji. The tournament ran from 2014 until 2019 before being disbanded in 2020 following t ...

. South African born, Wessels is a naturalised Australian citizen. Wessels was born in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, he then moved to Johannesburg where he attended

St Stithians College St Stithians College (colloquially known as Saints) is a Private school, private Methodist school situated in the suburb of Lyme Park, Gauteng, Lyme Park in the border of Sandton and Randburg in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Founded in ...

before enrolling at

Cape Town University The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest university in South Afri ...

where he completed a Masters in Information Technology. He was a defensive consultant under Rassie Erasmus to the

team the

Stormers The Stormers (known for sponsorship reasons as the DHL Stormers) and the academic team DHL Stormers is a South African professional rugby union team based in Cape Town in the Western Cape that competes in the United Rugby Championship, a tra ...

in 2008 and 2009, before being appointed as an assistant coach at UCT (Ikeys) in the

Varsity Cup Varsity Cup is the collective name for four South African rugby union competitions involving the top rugby playing universities in the country. It was launched in 2008, with eight teams participating in the Varsity Cup competition and each unive ...

from 2009 to 2011. He moved to Australia as an assistant coach to the

Brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005 to 2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the feral horses which inh ...

under head coach

Jake White Jacob Charles White (born 13 December 1963 as Jacob Westerduin) is a professional rugby union coach and former coach of the South African national team – the ''Springboks'' – whom he coached to victory in 2007 Rugby World Cup and the 2004 ...

in 2012, and had a significant influence on the rejuvenated Brumbies with the team conceding the fewest points in the Australian Conference and the second least in the Super Rugby competition. He joined the

as the senior assistant coach for the

2013 Super Rugby season The 2013 Super Rugby season was the third season of the new 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition involving teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The tournament was won by the Chiefs, who defeated the Canberra-based Brumbi ...

. Wessels was appointed, alongside Kevin Foote, as co-head coach of the

winning the inaugural season of Australia's

in 2014. Wessels became the caretaker head coach of the Western Force for the last three games of 2016, before being appointed as head coach for the

2017 Super Rugby season The 2017 Super Rugby season was the 22nd season of Super Rugby, an annual rugby union competition organised by SANZAAR between teams from Argentina, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. It was the second season featuring an expanded ...

. Following the

Australian Rugby Union Rugby Australia Ltd, previously named Australian Rugby Union Limited and Australian Rugby Football Union Limited, is an Australian company operating the premier rugby union competition in Australia and teams. It has its origins in 1949. It is a ...

's decision to exclude the Force from Super Rugby after the 2017 season, Wessels joined the

as head coach in September 2017, signing a two-year deal with the team. He coached the team for three and a half seasons before departing ahead of the

Super Rugby Trans-Tasman Super Rugby Trans-Tasman (known as Harvey Norman Super Rugby Trans-Tasman in Australia and Sky (New Zealand), Sky Super Rugby Trans-Tasman in New Zealand) was a professional men's rugby union club competition in Australia and New Zealand. It fea ...

competition in 2021. Wessels then returned to Cape Town and was appointed as Head of Rugby for the DHL Stormers, overseeing a very successful period at the club which saw them win the inaugural URC (

United Rugby Championship The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

) competition and host the final in back-to-back seasons. He was headhunted for the role at SA Rugby by two-time World Cup winning coach

Rassie Erasmus Johan "Rassie" Erasmus (born 5 November 1972) is a South African rugby union coach and former player. He is the current head coach of the Springboks, the South African national team, currently in his second stint in charge of the team. Erasmus ...

. Wessels holds various club records, including 'most winning seasons' at his previous three clubs (Western Force, Melbourne Rebels and DHL Stormers)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wessels, David Living people South African rugby union coaches Australian rugby union coaches 1982 births Western Force coaches Melbourne Rebels coaches Alumni of St Stithians College