A look at Yaqeen Ahmed's performance v The All Blacks

Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour kicked off in Cape Town where the Stormers faced the All Blacks for the first time in 30 years. It was a much tighter affair than expected but New Zealand emerged victorious winning the game 38 to 21.

144 capped Beauden Barret came up against a rising start Yaqeen Ahmed. The 20-year-old showed signs of nerves in the beginning, which is expected when playing against the All Blacks, but Ahmed came into the game as time went on. He managed to play a full game with no replacement for him on the bench which shows that John Dobson believes in him.

He made a silly loose pass in the early stages of the game but made up for it when he tracked back to make try saving tackle.

The Stormers forwards tried to make it as easy as possible for him, by relieving the pressure by winning the set-pieces. Unfortunately, Imad Khan sustained an early injury, and the 26-year-old made way for experienced halfback Dewaldt Duvenage. The 38-year-old gave the young fly-half good clean ball and helped navigate the game.

On the stroke of half time Ahmed tried a drop goal but missed as the Stormers went into the break trailing 14 points to 7. Despite the miss he converted both conversions and made 5 kicks from hand including 1 cross kick pass which almost led to a try, but Senatla could not gather it.

The young man ran good support lines too, keeping the ball alive for the Stormers. He beat 2 defenders and made 1 solid break, which almost looked like a moment of magic but was stopped in his tracks by the New Zealand defence.

Defensively he achieved a 67% tackle success rate which can certainly be improved but not too bad against a physical New Zealand side.

Overall, we would rate his performance a 7 out of 10.