Wes Goosen looks like a man in a hurry with a rugby ball in hand, but the Hurricanes speedster has taken a methodical approach to reaching his goals.
The 22-year-old’s story begins in South Africa where he was born in East London, a port city where the Indian Ocean meets the Buffalo River.
Goosen’s parents upped sticks and emigrated to New Zealand in search of a more secure upbringing for their two sons and eventually settled in Wellington.
“We moved to Auckland when I was four, four and a half, then down to Wellington five years later,” Wes told C60 ahead of the start of the 2018 Investec Super Rugby season.
“Most of my family are still there [in South Africa]. I have a big bunch in Pretoria and another big lot in East London as well. There’s only my close family here and one cousin and the rest are in South Africa.”
Although his surname is correctly pronounced Hoi-Sin, with a heavy emphasis on the H, Wes prefers people in New Zealand to go with a regulation ‘G’ for Goosen rather than tie themselves in knots trying to perfect the Afrikaans accent.
The Goosen family quickly settled into New Zealand life, holidaying at Matarangi Beach in the Coromandel, but have not lost touch with their South African roots, traveling back to Pretoria periodically to visit family.
For Wes, the trips to his homeland have become more frequent as his rugby career has blossomed.
He grew up in the Wellington suburb of Ngaio, attending Rarora Intermediate School before enrolling at Wellington College where his sporting goals began to take shape thanks to his first XV coach.
“I had an amazing coach at College in Mr Sharland, Greg Sharland,” Goosen said. “He was probably the one who set me on the path to setting goals and he really gave me a good platform to build the basics that I need here [at the Hurricanes].
“He helped set goals for me to reach step by step, [New Zealand] schoolboys, ITM Cup, Super [Rugby], he hammered the basics and how important that was.”
Goosen set about ticking off his teacher’s list, reaching the New Zealand Secondary Schools in 2013, the Wellington Lions a year later, and the Hurricanes in 2016.
“I have been lucky. My first year here [at the Canes] the boys won the Super title, the Lions won [the Mitre 10 Cup Championship] last year and OBU [Premier club side Old Boys University] have been outstanding too.”
In fact, Goosen has become something of a lucky charm since he scored a try for the Hurricanes with his first touch of the ball in Super Rugby in 2016.
“I can’t forget it. It still gives me shivers watching it,” he said of fielding a Beauden Barrett cross kick against the Reds in 2016 then racing 25 metres to the try line at Westpac Stadium.
It was the first of nine tries in 13 games for the Hurricanes and the wider rugby public’s first glance of the centre or wing’s lightning pace honed in training Wellington’s annual secondary schools athletics championships, the McEvedy Shield.