In another example of some innovative thinking from Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus, it was recently confirmed that three young stars had been called up to train with the senior team after their heroics at the U20 World Championship.
Bathobele Hlekani, Cheswill Jooste and Haashim Pead all earned the opportunity to train with the Springbok group during their two-week conditioning camp in Johannesburg, which began on Sunday 27 July.
It’s something that has understandably excited the South African rugby community, and a clip recently posted by SuperSport shows the three young talents getting stuck into some gym work.
In the recent U20 tournament, Hlekani impressed with his powerful performances at blindside flank, Pead set the tournament alight as the standout scrumhalf, while outside back Cheswill Jooste was a constant attacking threat.
Special opportunity with the Springboks
Speaking about the young guns invited to train with the squad for the next two weeks, Erasmus said: “We are tremendously proud of the Junior Springboks for winning the World Rugby U20 Championship and we were thrilled to see the talent coming through the junior ranks, so we opted to invite three of them to join us to expose them to our structures and the standards required at top international level.
“We believe this camp will benefit them significantly, and we are excited to see how they slot in and train with us.
“Unfortunately, we had to limit the size of the squad to ensure maximum outputs and more individual attention at our training sessions, so although more players could have been invited, we could only select three.”
What are your thoughts on these call-ups?
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