{"id":47614,"date":"2026-01-16T16:12:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T16:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=47614"},"modified":"2026-01-16T16:12:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T16:12:36","slug":"stormers-john-dobson-zachary-porthen-young-player-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/01\/16\/stormers-john-dobson-zachary-porthen-young-player-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Dobbo sings Porthen&#8217;s praise after SA Rugby nomination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>&#8216;I can\u2019t think of a tighthead playing in South Africa with his general movement&#8230; I think he\u2019s going to be in the national mix for a very long time.&#8217;<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Stormers boss John Dobson believes 21-year-old tighthead prop Zachary Porthen is certainly deserving of his SA Rugby Young Player of the Year nomination.<\/p>\n<p>The director of rugby praised his union\u2019s 2024\/25 U21 captain and current senior team player, who made his Test debut last November, becoming South Africa\u2019s youngest-ever Springbok prop. He earned Test caps against Japan, Italy and Wales during South Africa\u2019s end-of-year tour, proving solid in the scrums and general play.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-exceptional-general-play\">\u2018Exceptional\u2019 general play<\/h2>\n<p>The latter was where Dobson\u2019s praise was focused, as the former Junior Springbok captain initially had to improve his set-piece play.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe definitely deserves the nomination,\u201d the Stormers boss said. \u201cI\u2019m quite pleased because if you look at the last three [Stormers] U21 captains, from Sacha [Feinberg-Mngomezulu], to Paul de Villiers, to Zach \u2013 it\u2019s magic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis general game has always been exceptional. We selected a 20-year-old tighthead against Benetton who had two international looseheads, and he got a scrum penalty, in April last year. Tightheads are meant to come in at 25, 26. The fact that he is doing it at U21 is great.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ | SA Rugby Player of the Year awards: All the nominees<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-porthen-improves-his-scrum-performance\">Porthen improves his scrum performance<\/h3>\n<p>Dobson said the Stormers needed Porthen to up his scrum strength, and the youngster did this through help from scrum coaches Brok Harris (Stormers) and Daan Human (Springboks). Furthermore, experience would only make him stronger in the set-piece.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the work he has done\u2026 is exceptional. If he can tick the scrum power, which he has clearly done now, he is a special player. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wouldn\u2019t like do a ranking order of our tightheads now with the way he\u2019s playing. He got scrum penalties last week. He\u2019s also a leader as well. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t think of a tighthead playing in South Africa now with his general movement. The way he tackles and carries\u2026 I think he\u2019s going to be in the national mix for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Dobbo #sings #Porthens #praise #Rugby #nomination<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;I can\u2019t think of a tighthead playing in South Africa with his general movement&#8230; I think he\u2019s going to be&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47616,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47614\/revisions\/47616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}