Springboks: The three Junior Boks who Rassie Erasmus has invited to train with the Rugby Championship squad
South Africa's player Hassiem Pead scores a try iduring the World Rugby U20 Championship and an inset of Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus.
Rassie Erasmus has explained the reasoning behind inviting three Junior Boks to train with the Springboks ahead of the Rugby Championship.
On Wednesday, the head coach unveiled his 37-man squad to begin preparations for the two Tests against the Wallabies.
Included in his squad announcement was the confirmation that three World Rugby U20 Championship winners would be joining the senior set-up for their two-week conditioning camp in Johannesburg.
Junior Bok trio to train with Springboks
They are Bathobele Hlekani, Cheswill Jooste, and Haashim Pead, who starred for the Junior Boks en route to South Africa’s second U20 title.
The trio are unlikely to get a look into the Bok squad for the Rugby Championship, but Erasmus has explained the thinking behind getting them involved with the senior set-up.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
Last Saturday, South Africa ended a 13-year wait for a second World Rugby U20 Championship, beating New Zealand 23-15 in the final in the Italian city of Rovigo.
It was the first meeting of the two nations in a final since the Junior Springboks’ class of 2012, featuring the likes of future Rugby World Cup winners Handre Pollard, Steven Kitshoff and Pieter-Steph du Toit, ran out 22-16 winners in Cape Town.
The trio invited to train with Erasmus’ men all started the final with forward Hlekani starting on the flank with Pead at scrum and Jooste on the wing.
The Springboks begin their Rugby Championship title defence with back-to-back matches against the Wallabies, who they will host in Johannesburg on Saturday 16 August, and again a week later in Cape Town on 23 August.
From there, the Boks head to New Zealand for back-to-back clashes with the All Blacks before returning home to face Argentina in Durban, concluding the tournament at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham against Los Pumas.
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