VIDEO: Johan Ackermann confirms Rassie is spot on with U20 trio
VIDEO: Bulls coach Johan Ackermann has shared some insights into the talent of the Junior Boks and especially the three young invitees to the Rugby Championship squad.
Ackermann’s advisory role with South Africa’s Under-20s has come to a triumphant end, as he moves on to his new task of coaching the Bulls.
On Wednesday, Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus announced a strong 37-man squad for the first two Tests in the Rugby Championship against Australia, featuring 24 World Cup-winners and five players who made their Test debuts during their successful Incoming Series.
The Springbok coach also invited three Young Guns, who were members of the triumphant Junior Springbok World Rugby U20 Championship squad – Bathobele Hlekani, Cheswill Jooste, and Haashim Pead – to train with the group during their two-week conditioning camp in Johannesburg starting on Sunday, July 27, to introduce them to the Springbok culture.
The former Lions coach, who also coached Gloucester and two Japanese sides (Red Hurricanes & D-Rocks) over the past seven years, was brought into the Junior Bok setup late last year as a coaching consultant.
Initially, the deal was for Ackermann to help out for the duration of the World Championship, but SA Rugby was reportedly so impressed by him that they asked him to consider staying on.
Then the offer from the Bulls landed on his desk, and the lure of coaching one of the country’s top franchises was something the former Northern Transvaal lock could not miss out on.
Kevin Foote, head coach of the Junior Boks, spoke highly about Ackermann’s contributions and wished him on his new journey at the Bulls.
“I can’t speak more highly about Johan Ackermann. He is a brilliant coach. He coaches so well technically, but he is also a cultural coach. He’s so good for our environment, he knows when to smile, sometimes he’s dancing, sometimes he’s serious,” said Foote.
“He gets the balance right and I think the fitness and love he showed to our forward pack in particular, and brought these guys up with Mushie (Junior Bok forwards coach Lumumba Currie) was fantastic.
Facing the media for the first time in a Bulls jersey after his appointment became official, Ackermann was asked what he thought of the three youngsters whom Erasmus invited.
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“Chessie [Cheswill Jooste] is a special player. He is extremely fast and he is tough, hey. If he needs to run through a guy, he will do it, even though he hasn’t got the size, he will just take him on.
“And therefore he is not afraid on defence. If you give him space, he is gone. He’s got tremendous feet and speed,” he stated.
On Pead, Ackermann said the scrumhalf was a special kid with a great head on his shoulders.
“Haashim Pead is an outstanding nine and one of our leaders. He brought a lot of calmness, he doesn’t get fazed, and his demeanour is relaxed.
“His strengths are his ability to see space and to break. He had two or three great individual moments, where he turned the tide by sniping around the breakdown and making big line breaks.
“He also makes good support runs and gets a lot of assists. His box kicking is good.
“As everybody knows it but he is in a purple patch at the moment.t. He broke Dupont’s running metres record at a U20 World Championship from a nine, which shows his quality.”
232 – 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). Future. pic.twitter.com/h4iSNuAi1H
— OptaJonny (@OptaJonny) July 10, 2025
Speaking about Hlekani, Ackerman again sang his praises, just like everyone else who saw the big flanker run, bump and even step.
“Batho is a big, big man. He is strong, a good ball carrier, and physical. I used him a lot for the mauls, and we got him jumping because when I got here, he didn’t jump in the line-outs,” Ackermann explained.
“So they only used him to run, but now he can jump, so they can use him there, which is great.
“On a one-on-one tackle, he can hit you. Probably his biggest work-on is that he sometimes tends to think he can keep everybody up because he is strong, and then he loses metres.”
“So maybe just that tackle fight, and then as you saw in the Final, we kept him on for 80 minutes because then he really upped his work-rate. In the semifinal, we took him off because he dropped a bit.
“If he can keep his work rate up, he has all the attributes to be a very good flanker.”
Bathobele Hlekani in that 4 jersey was incredible for the Junior Boks in their #WorldRugbyU20s win over Fiji 💪 pic.twitter.com/hQYsDrjaHl
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) June 30, 2024
