Stormers No 10 Yaqeen Ahmed set for Boks call-up

World Champion SA under 20 flyhalf Yaqeen Ahmed, with a fine cameo for the Stormers against the Scarlets in Cape Town on Saturday, should be picked for the Springboks November Nations Championship northern hemisphere three Tests against Italy, France and Ireland.

The Nations Championship finals weekend will complete the 2026 international season. All six matches, three a day (from Friday to Sunday) will only be determined, by way of who plays who, after the final tournament league matches.

The Springboks top the Southern Hemisphere table with three wins from three in July. New Zealand are second with three wins from three starts, but are behind the Boks on points differential.

The tournament finals is the No 1 to No 6 of the northern hemisphere plays No 1 to No 6 of the southern hemisphere over three days at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium.

Sunday’s final, between the two hemisphere’s No 1 league teams, will be preceded by No 4 playing No 4.

Ahmed, who made his Stormers debut against the All Blacks, has represented SA ‘A’ against Zimbabwe earlier in the year.

Injuries to veteran Springboks double World Cup winner Handre Pollard and one Test cap Sharks 20 year-old Vusi Moyo makes Ahmed’s selection more obvious than a shock.

Ahmed, a fine goalkicker, with a monster line-kicking game, has all the pedigree, having played SA under 18, SA under 20 and SA ‘A’, as well as for the Stormers before turning 21.

He scored two late tries on Saturday and produced a thumping relieving touch finder in the final few minutes with the match still in the balance and the Stormers in their own 22.

Ahmed was outstanding the Junior Springboks 2026 World Championship finals win against France.

Ahmed should be joined by SA under 20 2025 captain and World Champion lock Riley Norton, who earlier this season was picked for the Springboks against the Barbarians.

Norton tore his hamstring pre the July Nations Championship and was unavailable for the Springboks for the home Test matches, including Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry.

In my Times Live weekly column, I complimented the URC coaches for being prepared to invest in youth and pick South Africa’s next gen kids. It allows for Boks coach Rassie Erasmus to invest in youth that is getting game time in the URC, Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup.

The Springboks have made winning World Cups look almost routine. The next generation is making one thing clear and that is that South African rugby’s strength is not resting on the shoulders of its veteran champions.

It is being built again, and the United Rugby Championship is where you can see it.

The four South African clubs are backing teenagers and players barely out of their age-grade rugby. They are naming them, trusting them and asking them to deliver in a competition that tests every part of a player’s game.

The Stormers’ selection to face Scarlets was the clearest statement yet. Paul de Villiers captained a team that included four former Junior Springbok captains in De Villiers, Riley Norton, Zachary Porthen and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu. The latter at 24 is the oldest of the quartet.

Markus Muller, still 19, made his first start at inside centre. Haashim Pead got his first start at scrumhalf and was named Player of the Match in the 52-40 win. Olly Reid, another product of the under-20 system, was on the bench and scored a try when introduced in the final quarter of the match.

That is not youth for the sake of a headline. It is a team built around trust. The Stormers have put young players in important positions and placed senior players around them who know what the level demands.

The Sharks have been just as willing to open the door. Eighteen-year-old Zekhethelo Siyaya made his URC debut last season and impressed enough to become one of the club’s most promising young players. Siyaya was outstanding in the Sharks Challenge Cup win against Lyon in Lyon and the most recent win against Cardiff in Cardiff in the URC’s fourth round of matches.

This season, the Sharks’ wider squad blends that emerging talent with Springboks and experienced campaigners, including the remarkable figure of Ma’a Nonu as a mentor to the young backs.

The Bulls have brought under-20 talent into the senior environment too, with Luan Giliomee earning a first start in the Investec Champions Cup this month and entrusted with the starting No 15 jersey against Ulster in the URC, while established Springboks provide the experience around him.

SA under flying winger Cheswill Jooste has been outstanding for the Bulls in the past month. With Cheslin Kolbe likely to miss the first fortnight of November, if not the entire month, because of a broken jaw, it allows for Jooste’s first Boks call-up.

At the Lions, under-20 world champion centre Ethan Adams has been trusted in the senior match-day mix. The four clubs are making different selections, but the direction is the same: the next wave is being given real responsibility.

That is the story behind the back-to-back Junior World Championship titles. South Africa retained the trophy in 2026, having won it in 2025.

Obviously the titles matter, but what matters most is that the under 20 World Champions are being fasttackedf as senior professionals.

The best thing about this generation is that it is not being presented as a distant promise. These players are already in the picture. They are starting, captaining, coming off the bench and competing for places.

None of the four coaches are rushing them and none are pretending that they need to play in under 20 competitions because they are yet to turn 21.

The club coaches are getting that balance right: young players are being trusted, and veterans are still setting the standard.

South African rugby is rightly proud of the back-to-back World Cup-winning Springboks. But the URC is showing that the depth of the game does not start and end with the national team. It runs through the clubs the academies and the Junior Springboks who have learned how to win on the biggest age-grade stage.

The Boks have set the benchmark, and there is a conveyor belt of under 20 World Champion pedigree insistent that they can match this Test benchmark.

Injuries will influence Erasmus’s touring squad for the final four Tests of the season, but injuries or not, he would have looked to young players capable of making the 2027 World Cup, but more obvious to the 2031 World Cup as contenders for selection.