The Lions have secured another coup by retaining the services of World Junior Player of the Year Haashim Pead.
Pead, who was player of the tournament at the Junior World Championship last year and a key part of the Junior Boks’ victory at the tournament, is widely seen as a future Springbok and was invited to train with the Springboks last year.
He recently scored the winning try in the derby against the Hollywoodbets Sharks as a substitute and has now signed on until the end of the 2028 season for the Lions.
Pead joins fellow Junior Bok Batho Hlekani in being secured as part of the Lions’ future and is another part of a successful retention strategy by the Joburg side that has seen them retain talents such as Springboks Quan Horn, Morne van den Berg and Ruan Venter, as well as rising stars RF Schoeman and SJ Kotze.
They also beat out other unions to sign Boan Venter from Edinburgh when the Springbok loosehead prop wanted to return home.