By CHRIS RATTUE
Loosehead prop
Height: 1.84m
Weight: 115kg
NPC team: Otago
Super 12: Highlanders
Super 12 games: 79
Test debut: 1998
Test caps: 28
Shapes as the fourth man among the props, especially for the big games, unless injuries strike. But then again, who knows when it comes to the front row.
Hoeft is Otago's last surviving World Cup
member from the much vaunted front row including Kees Meeuws and Anton Oliver, which flew into a storm of controversy with their larger-than-life images stuck on the side of the team's plane at the 1999 tournament.
It was a doomed venture, which began with the artists getting the front row the wrong way around, and ended in ridicule as the supposedly cocky All Blacks flopped.
It was hardly the players' fault, of course, and it would be hard to think of a player less interested in limelight chasing than Hoeft, whose career began with lowly Thames Valley.
Hoeft is probably lucky even to be on the inside of the aeroplane this time - it's hard to see much difference in his game from that of North Harbour loosehead Tony Woodcock, for instance.
Scrummaging is his strong suit, but he is not a prominent ball runner and does not have a Somerville/Hewett-like workrate.
But Hoeft's experience may have swayed the decision. Through a career hampered by injuries he has retained a reputation as a great bloke to have on board, who will put the team first. That's not always the case with battling veterans.
Hoeft didn't play a test last year and this season had the sort of comeback you have when you're not having a comeback. He was unused off the bench against England, had a nondescript game against Wales, and was done in by a calf injury in the Tri Nations - twice withdrawing after selection against South Africa.
All in all, a much quieter cup entrance for Hoeft this time.
