Junior Springboks star Bathobebele Hlekani will swap South African United Rugby Championship (URC) teams after the Currie Cup season, Planet Rugby has learnt.
The talented forward was a standout performer for the South Africa U20s team that ended a 13-year wait for a second World Rugby U20 Championship title, defeating New Zealand 23-15 in the final of the 2025 edition in the Italian city of Rovigo on Saturday.
He also shone for the Sharks in the Currie Cup as the Durbanites clinched the title last year, their first since 2018.
Batho Hlekani makes shock URC move
The powerhouse forward, who hails from Zwide – the same township in the Eastern Cape as Siya Kolisi – is viewed as one of the brightest prospects in South African rugby right now, highlighted by the fact that he and fellow Junior Boks, Cheswill Jooste and Haashim Pead, were invited to train with Rassie Erasmus’ squad ahead of the Rugby Championship.
The 20-year-old back-five forward is currently contracted to the Sharks, but Planet Rugby understands that he will be leaving Durban after the 2025 Currie Cup campaign to join the Lions ahead of the 2025/26 URC season.
Hlekani’s move to Johannesburg bucks the trend of talented stars leaving the Lions to join the Sharks, with Jordan Hendrikse, Vincent and Manu Tshituka all doing the opposite in recent seasons, with Springboks winger Edwill van der Merwe also heading to Durban.
🇿🇦 Sharks’ Batho Hlekani, who makes this break, is an unbelievable talent.
The Baby Boks are full of future stars.pic.twitter.com/infp2UiJ0e
— RugbyInsideLine (@RugbyInsideLine) July 14, 2025
The U20 star signing for the Lions is another huge coup for the Joburgers, who have heavily invested in youth going forward, with Junior Boks scrum-half Pead understood to have signed through to 2028.
This, after landing the signature of highly sought-after schoolboy talent Ethan Adams as well as fellow Grey College stars Sherwin Buys and David Hayidakis.
Hlekani is a graduate of Graeme College and has enjoyed a remarkable rise from the township of Zwide, where he initially attended Ndzondelelo High School.
He shot onto the radar of the SA Rugby junior structures in 2023 with his performances for Eastern Province’s U18 during Craven Week, which earned him a call-up to the SA Schools and SA U18 teams.
Hlekani is set to be confirmed as the fifth senior squad signing for the Lions ahead of the new season, with lock Dylan Sjoblom, fly-half Chris Smith and wingers Eduan Keyter and Angelo Davids joining from the Griquas, Oyonnax, Sharks and Stormers, respectively.
High praise from Ackermann
New Bulls head coach Johan Ackermann, who worked as a consultant to the Junior Boks during their U20 Championship campaign, spoke highly of the Hlekani after his invitation to train with the Springboks.
“Batho is a big, big man,” he told reporters.
“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, 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 semi-final, 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.”