VUSI DEBUTS BUT YAQEEN CAN’T BE FAR BEHIND HIM
There has been much focus on Vusi Moyo’s Springbok debut, but at the start of the build-up week to Saturday’s game against Wales came a reminder of just how interesting the flyhalf debate, and how much deeper the pool of players available in that position, could become in the next World Cup cycle.
A mate and I made our way to the Lookout Bar in Glenashley, a suburb not far from where the Boks have spent the week in Umhlanga Rocks, on Monday night. I’m heading into my 11th week of no alcohol - not one drop, I kid you not - so it wasn’t quite the same as the evening spent there on my last rugby trip to Durban, when the gold stuff flowed.
That was the night before the Argentina game, the last weekend of September. Some readers might remember the column - the former Natal lock who spanned different eras, Andre Botha, was in the house that night, along with, from memory, Rob Hankinson and a clutch of other former Natal players who were also former Durban Collegians stalwarts.
We watched the Stormers beat Leinster that night in the first URC game of the recently completed season and the next day we watched Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu tear Argentina apart in what will be remembered as the Sacha test. He racked up a record number of points for the Boks in that game.
On Monday, the bar was much less boisterous, but being teetotal doesn’t dim your appreciation for a special talent. It wasn’t Sacha strutting his stuff at Kings Park this time, but Yaqeen Ahmed showing his ability on the several large television screens dotted around the establishment (that’s not the selling point of The Lookout - as the name implies, it is all about the view).
Vusi Moyo pays tribute to the late Luqobo “Bibo” Makwedini, who he became great friends with through their time at the Junior Boks 💚#SSRugby #NationsChampionship pic.twitter.com/jCJczEcGgO
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) July 16, 2026
Those who watch schoolboy rugby more than I do told me earlier in this year that there was a kid out of Wynberg who had Sacha-type talents. I’m not Markotter, meaning the revered South African talent spotter from the first half of last century, ’Oubaas' Markotter, but it is easy to see similarities between the SA Schools flyhalf circa 2020 and the one from last year.
Apart from his kicking and distribution skills, and his place-kicking, which together with a try contributed 23 points to the Junior Bok victory, Ahmed is a physical and explosive player who keeps the opposing defence in his channel very busy. Or, as was the case on Monday night, he brushes defenders aside to create the go-forward that made the South Africans so hard to contain once they got the bit between their teeth.
Ahmed only turns 20 later this month, whereas Moyo turned 20 last month. So there’s a gap of nearly a year in their ages that may make a difference to the pace of their development now - Moyo is in his second year out of school, whereas Ahmed is in his first - but will mean little later on in their respective careers.
Ahmed will have another crack at playing for the Junior Boks next year if, like Moyo, he doesn’t get a call-up to the Boks before then, while Moyo is set to get the cap on Saturday that will ensure he will go into the next World Cup cycle already a Bok.
With Sacha and Manie Libbok likely to still be around then, and possibly Handre Pollard too (he is only 31), it is reasonable to suggest that the flyhalf outlook for South Africa has never looked as healthy in the 50 years I have been watching rugby in this country as it is right now.
THAT SEMI WAS ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE SA TREND
So some of my colleagues feel the Junior Boks were a bit lucky on Monday night. They were trailing 17-7 when English flanker Seb Kelly was red-carded for a ridiculous head-butt, and it was when England were down to 14 men that the South Africans went on their post-halftime scoring spree to turn what was shaping as a close game into a one-sided affair.
But I’m not so sure it was the red card that set up the Junior Boks. These days the refereeing leniency towards the attacking team means that when the opposition gets hands on ball, they can hang onto it for a long time, but even before the Kelly card, I felt the Junior Boks were doing what the senior team does almost game in and game out - systematically taking control of the physical battle.
There were 41 points scored by the Junior Boks after halftime and the 16-point winning margin wasn’t completely reflective of their second-half domination because they did let England in for some consolation tries.
But it was very much a replica of the game flow we see from the Boks, even last week’s game at Loftus, where it was only late game concentration lapses and poor defending from what by then was an inexperienced team that allowed Scotland to come back and be competitive at the end after they were well out of it at 35-14.
It’s a trend in game flow that we should be getting used to by now. The previous week at Ellis Park, the memory of what happened there against Australia last August prompted me to catch the nervousness running through South African veins following a second-quarter England fightback. But at Loftus, when a colleague told me at halftime that Scotland were going to win, I was much less convinced.
“Nope, Scotland are playing well, but the Bok physicality will eventually take its toll and they will make their statement in the third quarter.”
It did get a bit worse for the Boks when Ben-Jason Dixon was carded not long after halftime. It was not what the Boks needed at that point, and Scotland skipper Sione Tuipulotu was right to feel aggrieved that his team did not capitalise on the chances that they didn’t take. But otherwise, the game stuck with the trend, and if Wales are somehow still in it at halftime at Kings Park, my money says we will see a similar story play out there too.
GILIOMEE LOOKS SPECIAL TOO
It’s a huge pity that Luan Giliomee won’t be playing for the Junior Boks in their World Junior Championship final against France on Saturday. The praise heaped higher up on Ahmed could equally be directed towards the fullback, who made such an impressive URC debut for the Sharks against Munster but is now heading off to the Bulls for the next phase of his career.
Giliomee brings a lot of calm assurance at the back and is a classy attacking player who looks like he has a big future ahead of him. But he won’t be facing France because of the red card he received for his part in one of those in-air collisions that look terrible and are dangerous but sometimes unavoidable and just unlucky for the player who inevitably gets carded.
Ruben van Heerden will make his Springbok debut this weekend.
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) July 16, 2026
He was in the middle of packing for his move to France when he got the call to say he's needed in camp 😅#SSRugby #NationsChampionship pic.twitter.com/2kl9uUOkb2
I would say that about the Giliomee red card - it looked to me from his body position that he was totally committed to fielding the ball that had been kicked onto him and it surely wasn’t his fault that the England player went airborne in his own attempt to win the contestable.
ITALY COACH THE UNLUCKY VICTIM OF THE LAW BEING AN ASS
No sooner had Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus spoken out about the new World Rugby protocols that make it harder for coaches to formalise their communication with referees and also severely restrict their space to question decisions or criticise poor performance, than it bit into the Italian coach Gonzalo Quesada.
Funnily enough, or maybe not so funny, what Quesada said publicly after the game that got him into hot water was exactly what I was thinking during the game. It did feel like the dice was loaded against Italy when it came to the officiating.
What Quesada said in protest was explanatory rather than harshly critical and could be described as answering an honest question with an honest answer.
Quesada was asked about a disallowed try when Tommaso Menoncello was adjudged to have been held up.
“Our try with Menoncello, when the tackler didn’t release him, after the referee told him to release, was a try,” said Quesada.
He also questioned the 20-minute red card shown to lock Niccolo Cannone, which I wouldn’t because it looked a clear red to me, and the reversed yellow to All Black flyhalf Ruben Love, which I would agree with him on as it was just bizarre.
Yet Quesada gets a two-game ban for that. Somehow, it is hard to imagine that if the boot was on the other foot and All Black coach Dave Rennie was the one talking out about the officiating, he would be slapped with a two-match ban. But Quesada coaches Italy, not one of the game’s powerhouses like New Zealand are, so he’s easy to make an example of.
Or am I being overly cynical? If they did sanction Rennie, that would be as ridiculous as the sanction meted out to Quesada. I understand the need to protect referees, but at the same time, placing them above the criticism that is directed at players and coaches creates the wrong dynamic and will do nothing to improve an area of the game that needs improving.
MOYO IS BREAKING NEW GROUND
If Vusi Moyo handles his flyhalf duties at Kings Park on Saturday with the same calm aplomb that he did his first media session as a Springbok player, then South Africans have nothing to worry about as the KES old boy makes his debut in the green and gold.
Of course, his line about how his mother wouldn’t be in Durban because she was already pre-committed to watching his sister play hockey in Nelspruit grabbed the headlines afterwards. But Moyo also appears to have a good head on his shoulders, in line with his performances in the No 10.
No one asked the question, but as has been noted elsewhere, he is also a groundbreaker as the Boks’ first-ever black African flyhalf. Race isn’t something that is often spoken about in the Rassie Erasmus era, but it is nonetheless worth noting as it underlines the progress that has been made. That I initially missed it, and others also missed it, is actually an advertisement for how times have changed.
TIME WILL TELL IF SHARKS NOW HAVE THEIR FLYHALF
Not long after the Moyo press conference, my colleague Brenden Nel and I found ourselves travelling behind a car with a Springbok player’s name emblazoned across it as we drove into Umdloti, where we are staying this week. It was the sponsored vehicle of Jordan Hendrikse. No, Hendrikse is not part of the Bok squad currently, but he has worn the Bok No 10 in this World Cup cycle only for his progress to be blunted by injury and the poor general form of his team, the Sharks.
So here’s an interesting question - where will the Sharks stand on their flyhalf resources now that Moyo has been blooded as a Bok? I’ve always felt that Hendrikse, who is a wonderfully talented player, needs time to bed himself down as the Sharks’ No 10, but he hasn’t always vindicated that faith.
There were calls from people who have worked both in the youth and senior levels of Sharks rugby for Moyo to be tried at flyhalf last season when injuries forced the respective coaches, first John Plumtree and then JP Pietersen, to go deep into their resource base. Eventually, he got his opportunity in the final game of the season and took it with both hands, as indeed he did his cameo appearance for the Boks late in the Gqeberha game against the Barbarians.
After being recognised by Rassie Erasmus, you can bet your last dollar that Moyo will get plenty of game time at the Sharks this season, so in that sense, this off-season has been a gain for the Sharks as they now have two Bok flyhalves on their books.
Is there still a need to look outside of KZN for reinforcement? Well, as 2006 showed when they had Tony Brown helping Butch James, there’s always a place for an overseas journeyman. But he has to have the ability and a standing in the game that makes him respected.
GOOD TO SEE RUBEN’S SHIP FINALLY COME IN
Maybe Ruben van Heerden’s memory is less reliable than his jumping and calling in the lineouts, for he looked a bit bemused when a colleague, Mike Greenaway of IOL, reminded him that when he first arrived at the Sharks as a youngster, he mentioned that he enjoyed reading Shakespeare.
But it is good to see the 28-year-old’s ship finally come in when it comes to being recognised for international honours. He’s come close a couple of times, but on Saturday he will be admitted to the proud group of players who can say that they played lock for South Africa.
Ruben van Heerden will make his Springbok debut this weekend.
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) July 16, 2026
He was in the middle of packing for his move to France when he got the call to say he's needed in camp 😅#SSRugby #NationsChampionship pic.twitter.com/2kl9uUOkb2
Well, hopefully, for he was battling what he described as an intestinal complaint at Wednesday’s press conference. Given the time he has waited for his Bok call, it would be horrible if his ailment became serious enough to rule him out of playing. Thankfully, though, the player was confident he’ll be okay.