From schoolboys to Springboks in a year: Ahmed and Muller

The most compelling thing about Yaqeen Ahmed and Markus Muller is not that they are young. It is that South African rugby has not waited for them to grow older before asking them to play senior rugby, for the Stormers and Springboks.

A year after leaving school, both are Springboks. Ahmed, 20, came through Wynberg Boys’ High. Muller, 19, matriculated at Paarl Gimnasium. They have moved from schoolboy rugby to the national team seamlessly.

The Springboks’ 37-man squad for the November Nations Championship includes six uncapped players. Ahmed and Muller are among them. Injuries have opened doors, but neither has walked through based on sympathy or a lack of senior options. They are there because they are particularly good.

I called Muller’s rise in March. On my Keo.co.za blog on 3 March 2026, I wrote that he would play for the Springboks before the end of the year. It was a judgement on a player whose rugby intelligence, physical presence and instinct for the try had separated him from the ordinary as a schoolboy.

At Paarl Gim, Muller scored more than 50 tries across his Grade 11 and 12 seasons for school, Western Province and SA under-18s. In one school match in 2025, he scored 43 points.

Muller, who can play No 12 and No 13, could even develop as a hybrid loose-forward. He runs great support lines, brings others into the game and has never hesitated to join the forwards at a maul. He is physically compact and tough and his pace is very underrated.

I made the same call on Ahmed in August. On 5 August, on Keo.co.za, I wrote that he would be a Springbok in 2026. He had just earned his Stormers debut against the All Blacks – an enormous first assignment for a young flyhalf – and he did not look like a schoolboy grateful to be playing the All Blacks. He was composed and played with authority.

Ahmed’s long kicking game gives him command of territory and his goal-kicking accuracy guided the SA under 20s to the World Championship title in 2026. Ahmed scored 11 points and Muller scored the only try for the Junior Boks in the 16-5 win against France in the final.

Ahmed has played for the South African under-18, under-20 and senior A sides.

There is a difference between fast-tracking a youngster and throwing him in. The Stormers have put both players into a senior environment, alongside experienced players, and let performance do the talking. Erasmus has done the same at the national level whenever picking young talent. He has always surrounded the selection with experience.

Erasmus may not play either in the three Tests, but selecting them to tour promises they are good enough to be Springboks.

That distinction matters because Erasmus is building towards Australia in 2027, where South Africa will attempt a third successive World Cup title, and putting in place a parallel succession plan for the 2031 World Cup in the United States.

The best way to prepare for both World Cup tournaments is not to keep promising young players waiting for their time to come. It is to expose them now, teach them the demands, and see how they respond.

Ahmed and Muller are not selected because 2031 is far away. They are selected because they are good enough now, and because the experience they gain can serve both World Cup cycles. Injuries to senior players have created opportunity and the quality of the youngsters has made the opportunity worthwhile.

Their stories also say something about the health of the South African game. School rugby, provincial pathways, Junior Springbok success and the willingness of the URC clubs to trust young players have connected into a working route to the top. The best schoolboy talent is being prepared – and not protected – from the demands of professional rugby.

Muller’s selection vindicates the March prediction and Ahmed’s confirms the August one. The dates matter because the calls were made when each player was still being judged on what he could become.