Veteran Springbok Cobus Reinach adamant that age is just a number

The 36-year-old earns his first start after coming back from groin surgery and a grade-three MCL tear. Reinach enjoyed 14 minutes off the bench against England two weeks ago, his first outing since facing Glasgow in Stormers colours in April.

"I had to do my joints - that was coming for a year or two - then I hurt my knee against Glasgow, which is unfortunate,” reflected Reinach.

"However, it all comes down to international rugby. You try to be ready; you try to be available to get picked. If you get the opportunity, you want to do a job. All of that is behind me, and now it's time to try and do a job."

Reinach comes from excellent stock. His father, Jaco, held the 400m SA record for 16 years and went on to feature in four Tests for the Boks in 1986, scoring two tries.

The apple hasn't fallen far from the tree and the double World Cup winner is known for his fleet of foot and nose for the try line. In fact, he'll be hunting for a 20th international try this weekend. And who would bet against him reaching that milestone on Saturday?

As such, when it was put to him by the press that he has to work harder to keep his pace, Reinach dismissed age as a factor.

"After this year, [pace] is something I need to work on now, not because of my age, but because of my groin operations and all of that," said the storied scumhalf.

"It takes a while for everything to settle and for me to feel comfortable putting a lot of force into the ground.

"But yeah, I'm feeling comfortable at the moment, and now it's time to build on that. Getting back into it."

Reniach has the extra responsibility of shepherding Bok debutant Vusi Moyo at flyhalf. But with the vastly experienced Reinach on his inside and double World Cup champion Damian de Allende on his outside, Moyo is safe as houses.