Captain’s profile: Shaun Reynolds
Goudveld captain Shaun Reynolds has more ‘gold’ in his future as he is set to sign a junior contract with the Golden Lions this week.
The 18-year-old flyhalf, at 1.88m and 93kg, has the size and skill to carve out a professional career for himself, but before then there’s the matter of captaining Goudveld in their FNB Classic Clash against Welkom Gimnasium on Saturday.
A well-rounded No.10, Reynolds is a superb kicker of the ball and puts his support players into space with his crisp distribution. He’s also strong on defence and as skipper, communicates well with his teammates.
Reynolds will sign his Lions contract on Thursday, but despite the special milestone, he remains fully focused on the weekend’s derby.
“Only a few players ever get to experience being a part of a match like the one we’ll be a part of on Saturday,” said Reynolds.
Reynolds is a three-year first XV player and started out at flyhalf in 2011. He switched to inside centre and was named vice-captain last year and reverted to pivot and took over the captaincy this year.
Reynolds has also played provincial age-grade rugby since 2011 and was vice-captain of the Griffons Craven Week team this year.
“I picked up a lot of experience during Craven Week. It was a great learning period and I feel it helped me to grow as a player as well as an individual,” said Reynolds, who was also a member of the 32-man South African Under-17 Sevens squad last year.
Having been a part of a number of provincial and national age-grade squads, Reynolds insists that captaining the first XV is one of the highlights of his budding career.
“It it a great honour and privilege to be captain of Goudveld Hoërskool,” he said, adding: “As captain, I believe to lead by example and inspire the players around me to give their all and do their best because a captain is nothing without the players who support him and play for the same goal.”
Goudveld will be without a number of key players this weekend, but Reynolds believes their depth will serve them well.
“We have a young team and we are missing some key players due to injuries such as Julian Olivier, Eric Herbert and Brandon Muller but the team is still strong and we have good replacements for Saturday,” he said.
“We struggled at the start of the season but are now building well as a team and we have a few wins under our belt.
“They have a good pack of forwards and a running backline but we’re prepared and we’re looking forward to the challenge,” he added.
