Future Boks? Haashim Pead and Jaco Williams lead Junior Boks' U20 charge

The Springboks' youth setup has displayed incredible potential during these recent matches, as they continue the trend of South African dominance in the sport.

Their senior men's side won the World Cup for the fourth time in their history when they beat the All Blacks by a point in Paris in 2023, becoming the most successful nation in the game.

In the age grade sides, however, South Africa have not been quite so successful, last winning the competition in 2012 – 13 years ago. They will take huge confidence from beating last year‘s champions, England, at the Stadio Mario Battaglini in Italy by 25 points.

Haashim Pead - Future Springbok?

Their dominance in this year's competition has been helped, not least, by their talismanic scrum-half, Haashim Pead. The 20-year-old has caught the attention of the rugby world thanks to his record-breaking exploits in the group stages.

The hot prospect has, so far, broken the former World Rugby Player of the Year, Antoine Dupont's record for the amount of metres made in just three matches. He also now holds the record for the most try involvements at this stage of the competition.

Noting the young player's stats, OptaJonny, the official X page for Stats Perform's rugby coverage, has laid down the incredible records that he has already set in the competition.

Posting the information online, OptaJonny said: "Haashim Pead has gained 232 metres from his 15 carries in the 2025 #WorldRugbyU20s, the most by a scrum-half in the pool stages of the competition since Opta have recorded this data – the only other #9 to make 200+ was Antoine Dupont in 2016 (227)."

They then added: "Haashim Pead has also been directly involved in eight tries (scored 5, assisted 3), the most of any player in that time, overtaking the previous record of 7, which was jointly held by New Zealand duo Braydon Ennor (2017) and Jason Emery (2012)."

The Golden Lions back-line prospect is being heavily guarded by his club in these early progression years, but the global explosion of this talent doesn't appear far off.

Jaco Williams - The next Springbok star winger?

Next up, a score that has gone viral showing Pead's teammate, Jaco Williams, scoring an almost length-of-the-field try, leading to some pretty exciting comparisons with certain members of the existing Springboks senior squad.

At just 19 years old, the Sharks player was looking deadly against Scotland on Wednesday. In a video shared on X, the young winger was seen tearing through the opposition defence from just inside his own 22-metre line, before chipping the ball on from the halfway line. Using his electric pace, Williams gassed past the trailing Scottish defence to score arguably the greatest try of the tournament so far.

His career is only just getting underway, and it's very easy to treat his growth with unchecked hyperbole, but the future really does look bright for this young man. Speaking about initially breaking through to the Sharks team, Williams spoke last year saying: "Playing in the Currie Cup was a dream, and it came true, and it's been amazing so far."

Despite his achievements, his feet appear to still be very firmly stuck to the ground, with the Glenwood youngster focusing more on team achievements than his own.

"I'm a player who really plays for the team and not just for myself," he said in late 2024. "Scoring the try really brings confidence in the team and brings confidence in myself as well."

Now for the semi-finals

The World Rugby U20 Championship continues on Monday, 14 July, when the Junior Boks face Argentina in the semi-finals of the competition, while France take on New Zealand.