In the latest issue of SA Rugby magazine, on sale this week, Cobus Reinach reflects on his hard-fought journey back to the Bok squad and what drives him to continue raising his game.

As we continue to unpack the newest edition of our magazine, another must-read article features the tenacious Reinach, who endured the disappointment of missing out on the Boks’ World Cup squad in 2015, but used this setback to inspire him to even greater heights.

In fact, when asked whether that 2015 omission had negatively influenced his subsequent form or confidence, Reinach emphatically replied: ‘On the contrary, it gave me a lot of fuel especially considering that 2016 looked like the perfect opportunity for me to make my mark in the green and gold because Fourie du Preez had retired after the World Cup.’

New issue: Packed with exclusives 

It didn’t all go quite according to plan, with the speedy scrumhalf suffering a serious knee injury at the start of the next season, but he explains how that also provided him with ‘tremendous clarity’ and reaffirmed his desire to aim to be the ‘best No 9 in the world’.

As Reinach transparently explains, even if he is to fall short of this ambition, just striving for such a lofty goal makes him a better player.

Such a statement has certainly been backed up by action, with the 30-year-old scoring the fastest-ever World Cup hat-trick against Canada, while he has been in sensational form for his English club, the Northampton Saints, ever since returning from the World Cup celebrations.

In this latest issue, you can find out more about Reinach’s compelling reasoning behind specifically joining Northampton, the way he viewed his role as the ‘third-choice’ scrumhalf in the World Cup squad, and how he found a new Bok environment under coach Rassie Erasmus.

*Follow us on our new Instagram journey by clicking here

Photo: EPA/Kim Ludbrook