Birthday Tribute | Ox Nché | 23 July 2026 | Sharks · Springboks · Rugby
There are props who scrummage, and props who dominate. And then there are those who force the sport itself to reconsider what the position can be. Ox Nché belongs firmly in the second category. Born on 23 July 1995, in Thaba Nchu, he turns 31 today.
THABA NCHU, A SCHOOL NOT ON THE MAP, AND A PROVINCE THAT NOTICED
Retshegofaditswe Nché grew up in Thaba Nchu, a small Free State town outside Bloemfontein, in a province that treats rugby as inheritance. He attended HTS Louis Botha, a school rugby writers have since described as one of the less established rugby institutions in a city thick with famous ones — no factory pipeline, just a school that happened to produce a Springbok.
He starred for Free State at Under-16 and Under-18 level and represented South African Schools in 2012 and 2013, playing against England, France, and Wales while still a teenager. The nickname “Ox” came from teammates who watched him carry ball and man through contact alike, and comparisons to Free State legend Os du Randt followed him from that point.
After school Ox Nché enrolled at the University of the Free State, studying Geography and Statistics while playing Varsity Cup rugby for the UFS Shimlas. The performances that got him noticed by a franchise happened there, not on an academy field.
A VARSITY CUP TITLE, A CURRIE CUP AWARD, TWO YEARS APART
Nché’s form for Shimlas helped the side win their first Varsity Cup title in 2015. The Cheetahs handed him a professional contract off the back of it, and he made his Super Rugby debut in 2016 — the same year he was named Currie Cup Player of the Year, still a year short of his 21st birthday. In 2017 he played 13 of the Cheetahs’ 15 Super Rugby matches, taking his total appearances in the competition to 25 before the union departed for the Pro14. Later that year he was called into the South Africa ‘A’ squad to face the French Barbarians.
THREE YEARS BETWEEN CAPS
Nché earned his first Springbok cap in June 2018, starting against Wales in Washington D.C. under new coach Rassie Erasmus. It would be his only cap for three years. South Africa won the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan without him in the squad, and Ox Nché spent that stretch rebuilding his case in Free State colours rather than green ones. His move to the Sharks in 2020, meant to put him back in the frame, was cut short almost immediately when Covid-19 reduced that season to just seven matches.
A SECOND CAP, THEN A LIONS TEST
In July 2021 Ox Nché finally added to his solitary cap, starting against Georgia. Weeks later he was named in South Africa’s 46-man squad for the series against the British & Irish Lions and handed the number one jersey for the first Test at Cape Town Stadium — his second Test start, on the sport’s biggest domestic stage. South Africa lost that opening Test 22-17, but Nché’s scrum performance against a heavyweight Lions front row confirmed what four years of provincial form had already argued. He didn’t feature in the remaining two Tests of a series South Africa lost 2-1, but the door back into the squad was open for good.
A WORLD CUP, TWO RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIPS, AND A FIRST FOR PROPS
Ox Nché was part of the Springbok squad that won the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France, playing his part in the semi-final win over England before coming off the bench in the final for Steven Kitschoff. He has started consistently since, helping South Africa win back-to-back Rugby Championship titles in 2024 and 2025 — the union’s first successful defence of the trophy.
By the end of the 2025 season he was ranked the number one player in the United Rugby Championship’s Top 100, and in November 2025 he became the first prop in the history of the World Rugby Awards to be nominated for Player of the Year, named alongside teammates Pieter-Steph du Toit and Malcolm Marx and France wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey.
He was also named in World Rugby’s Team of the Year for 2025. Marx won the individual award on 22 November, becoming the first hooker to do so since Keith Wood in 2001 — but Nché’s nomination had already rewritten what the game believed a front-rower could be recognised for.
BACK FROM ANOTHER KNEE, EYES ON THE ALL BLACKS
Nché’s 2026 season has followed the pattern of the two before it — disrupted by injury, then answered by a return. He went off with a knee and ankle injury during South Africa’s November 2025 win over Japan at Wembley, ending his year early, then came back for the Springboks’ first three fixtures of the 2026 international season against the Barbarians, England, and Scotland.
Eight minutes into the win over England at Ellis Park on 4 July, moments after a barnstorming carry that set up Cheslin Kolbe’s try, he went down with another knee injury and had to be helped off.
The injury ruled him out of the Tests against Scotland, Wales, and Argentina, but Erasmus has since confirmed Ox Nché is on track to be fit for the Rugby Championship series against the All Blacks in August, the biggest fixture block of the Springboks’ year. Off the field, he serves as a brand ambassador for South African food venture The Braai Republic and speaks openly about his Christian faith.
Turning 31 mid-recovery, he’s working toward the same thing that’s defined every stage of his career since Thaba Nchu: being ready when South Africa needs him.
Happy 31st Birthday, Ox. From all of us at Just Plain Sport — enjoy the cake, you’ve earned every slice of it. Heal up fast.
📸 Images via SA Rugby / Getty Images
