He was previously head coach of the Melbourne Rebels team that compete in the Super Rugby competition.[3] Before moving to Melbourne, Dave became the youngest head coach in Super Rugby history[4] when he was appointed head coach at the Western Force,[5] in Perth and co-head coach of the Perth Spirit in Australia's National Rugby Championship.[6] South African born, Wessels is a naturalised Australian citizen.[7]
He moved to Australia as an assistant coach[11] to the Brumbies under head coach Jake White 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.[12][13] He joined the Western Force as the senior assistant coach for the 2013 Super Rugby season.[10][13] Wessels was appointed, alongside Kevin Foote, as co-head coach of the Perth Spirit winning the inaugural season of Australia's National Rugby Championship in 2014.[6]
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.[5]
Following the Australian Rugby Union's decision to exclude the Force from Super Rugby after the 2017 season,[14] Wessels joined the Melbourne Rebels as head coach in September 2017, signing a two-year deal with the team.[3] He coached the team for three and a half seasons before departing ahead of the Super Rugby Trans-Tasman competition in 2021.[15]
Wessels then returned to Cape Town and was appointed as Head of Rugby[16] for the DHL Stormers,[17] overseeing a very successful period at the club which saw them win the inaugural URC (United Rugby Championship) competition and host the final in back-to-back seasons. He was headhunted for the role at SA Rugby[18] by two-time World Cup winning coach Rassie Erasmus.
Wessels holds various club records, including 'most winning seasons[19][20]' at his previous three clubs (Western Force, Melbourne Rebels and DHL Stormers)