Already on Springbok boss Rassie Erasmus’ radar, scrumhalf Haashim Pead is using every minute with the Lions to ensure he’s primed to breakthrough at the highest level.
In a wide-ranging interview with RugbyPass, the 20-year-old Capetonian opened up on his Bok ambitions and the daily grind behind his development.
“All you want to do is play rugby,” said Pead, who competes for the Lions No 9 jersey with five-cap Bok Morné van den Berg and the experienced Nico Steyn.
“To get used to those types of games you have to play more and more, and that’s how you get that sharpness.
“It has been quite challenging when you are so young and you don’t get the minutes you want or feel you deserve.”
But, the 2025 U20 World Championship Player of the Tournament has doubled down, using the time to finetune his fundamentals.
“I can’t just not do anything, so after training sessions I would work with Morné van den Berg,” Pead said. “He really helped get my fitness up, my passing sharp, my box-kicking.
“Every day since the beginning of the URC, I’ve been on it. Literally every day to get that extra 10%.”
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Pead still awaits his first start with the Pride in the Vodacom URC, but the Bishops alum acknowledges the adjustments need to make the step up from the bench.
“The physicality, intensity and speed of the game at senior level … everything goes up a whole lot. That is not spoken of enough,” he explained.
“People are like, ‘let’s just throw an 18-year-old into the URC’. Obviously it’s really nice for him to get that exposure but it’s also really difficult to adapt to a completely different game. The Lions have been really good in easing me into that.”
A Bok alignment camp call-up only reinforces the youngster’s belief that anything is possible.
“It opened my eyes that the Springbok dream is not as far away as you think,” he said.
“For me, a big thing was to bring my energy when it comes to attack and you speak to other players and they’re like, ‘yeah, rugby involves attack but it also involves defence. You can’t just give everything on attack and rest on defence’.
Pead added: “I’ve always been big on my fundamentals, the things a scrumhalf should do, and obviously fitness levels. Those are things I have to keep on working on every day.
“I believe if I keep on working on those things then hopefully my opportunity will come soon.”
Photo: Darren Stewart/Gallo Images
The post Pead on the grind to live his Bok dream appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
