Reinach full of praise for rookie Bok flyhalf Ahmed: ‘He’s got a big rugby brain’

The young No 10 will go on his first Springbok tour from next week. Springbok scrumhalf Cobus Reinach is back in the Stormers’ starting lineup for the match against Ulster in the URC this weekend and he’s set to team up with rising star Yaqeen Ahmed, who will take the reins at No 10. Reinach, a veteran of the game at the age of 36, said he was looking forward to striking up a partnership with the rookie flyhalf, who’s just 20 and was called up to the Springbok squad on Wednesday for next month’s Nations Championship tour of Europe. Reinach will start for the Stormers this weekend in place of Haashim Pead, who took charge of the scrumhalf duties against Scarlets last weekend. Ahmed, a former Junior Springboks star who had a taste of the Springbok setup earlier in the season, came off the bench and scored two decisive tries in last week’s win at the Cape Town Stadium. He takes the place of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu this week, with the latter man given a rest. Full of confidence “Yaq (Ahmed) showed his class (against Scarlets). He’s 20, but he has a big rugby brain and rugby blood. He plays some good rugby. Age doesn’t really matter anymore, the boys backed him and he backs himself, so that is good and it came off for him,” said Reinach about Ahmed. The Bok veteran also praised the Stormers’ and SA Rugby’s junior systems, in bringing through young players and making sure that they are ready to play, like current star Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, and others that have risen through the ranks. “It’s awesome to see everyone coming through. It’s credit to the way we do things here, and (the structures) at the Junior Boks and all of that. A lot of pressure has been put on the players to lift their games and they have,” said Reinach. “With Yaq coming through, and Sacha, a lot of the younger guys we have, have come through those systems. They just deal with the pressure and the privilege of playing. It’s for us (senior players) to just help guide them where they need. “A guy like Sacha, you could see two or three years ago when he started playing for the Boks, he was maybe a little bit uncertain, and now he’s not, he’s not the same guy anymore. “He’s very confident in himself in the group setting. You can see the way he plays he’s a confident lad and we all feed off that as well.” Ahmed, just 20, is one of three flyhalves in the Bok squad named Wednesday; the others being Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Manie Libbok, while utility back Luan Giliomee covers flyhalf and fullback and is also new to the Bok setup.