John Dobson has extolled the game-changing ability of 19-year-old scrumhalf Imad Khan, who is in line to make his DHL Stormers debut against the Glasgow Warriors on Sunday.
Khan, a 2022 U20 Six Nations Summer Series winner with the Junior Springboks, comes onto the replacements bench for the Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash at Scotstoun Stadium.
He has a natural flair for the attack that is perfectly suited to the Stormers’ style of play, and could become a contender for the No 9 jersey on his first tour in the absence of injured Springbok halfback Herschel Jantjies and Godlen Masimla.
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Khan first caught the eye of Dobson as a fleet-footed Bishops prodigy, as well as for WP juniors and the UCT Ikeys before shooting the lights out for the SA U20s.
Addressing his selection of Khan in Glasgow, where fellow Diocesan College alum Suleiman Hartzenberg – also 19 – starts on the wing, the Stormers coach told media: “They’re Bishops boys, so obviously they deserve to be fast-tracked and advanced!
“To my mind, Imad Khan is going to be a star of SA rugby. I know I say this quite often but I watched him play at school and after school. I watched him change games for UCT in the Varsity Cup.
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“I don’t think I’ve seen a scrumhalf of his ability – especially an ability to change a game – for a long time.
“We’ve just got a chance to have a look at him and it is a bit like the deep end. And as much as I want consistency, where I can I want to give someone like him experience.
“Herschel has a reasonably long-term injury, Godlen hasn’t got a long-term arrangement with us, so Imad has got to come through at some stage so I thought this was a good opportunity to get him on tour, make him feel a sense of belonging, because he has been in a few setups this year … the WP U20, SA U20 and UCT Varsity Cup setups.
“So it’s important on a trip like this to get him really inculcated in how we work.”
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Hartzenberg, shifting seamlessly between outside centre and wing in his maiden URC campaign, has scored three tries in seven matches, and moves out wide following the derby win over the Lions on New Year’s Eve.
On his positional switch this week, Dobson explained: “Suleiman is already proving himself; what we thought would be a bit useful is that centre is a bit tough and we want to give him a bit more space.
“We know their threat at 13, so we thought rather Dan du Plessis, without Ruhan Nel there; a physical, defensive 13 in the channel where Glasgow will challenge us.
“We always wanted Suleiman’s first season to be based on the wing but obviously with injuries we’ve had to move him in a bit earlier.”
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