South Sydney coach Michael Maguire is tipping a lot more from his emerging star Adam Reynolds, after the blossoming halfback outshone his predecessor Chris Sandow on Saturday night.

NRL rookie Reynolds has seized the opportunity afforded him by Sandow’s off-season defection to Parramatta, nailing down the Rabbitohs No.7 jersey through the first half of the season.

Souths fans revelled in Reynolds’ success and Sandow’s frustration at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night, when Souths consolidated their top eight position with a 24-6 win over the Eels.

Reynolds set up a try with a perfectly weighted chip kick, landed all four of his kicks at goal, including a couple of belters from the sideline.

But he won the biggest cheer of the night when he pulled off a try-saving tackle on Sandow when the former Souths favourite ran over 80 metres after taking an intercept.

“He’s worked hard, that’s the reasons why he’s pulling off these sorts of plays,” Maguire said.

“I still think there’s plenty of upside in Renno at the moment, he’s learning the game each week.

“To be able to pull off plays like that it’s only going to lift his confidence, so there’s plenty more to come from Adam and we’re looking forward to the next few weeks, seeing a little bit more.”

Reynolds refused to get carried away with the plethora of praise generated by his performances.

“(I’m) Slowly getting more confident, I think I’ve still got a lot to work on,” Reynolds said.

He revealed he had a laugh with Sandow after the game when they spoke about his tackle.

“It’s a bit funny because I got caught by (Brisbane forward) Ben Hannant the other week, so I think I’ve got that tag off my back hopefully,” Reynolds said.

He still has a high regard for Sandow, who he also battled for a position with in the Rabbitohs under-20 team.

“I looked up him to last year as a player, I still look up to him,” Reynolds said.

“He’s a great player, he can just do anything off the top of his head and he’s very creative.”

Enhancing his value to the side, Reynolds has developed into one of the most accurate goalkickers in the competition.

“I do a lot of work on it at training with Kurt Wrigley, our assistant coach,” Reynolds said.

“We always have little contests and he’s a good kicker so he keeps me on my toes at training.

“I don’t want to get beat by him.”