South Sydney NRL coach Anthony Seibold has declared Adam Doueihi will remain the Rabbitohs' halfback until Adam Reynolds' return from a knee injury.
The young No.7 was solid in his debut for Souths in Saturday's 18-14 loss to Penrith, steering the team to a 14-0 halftime lead before their second-half collapse.
Doueihi, though, did all that could be asked of a 19-year-old rookie half. He kicked with precision on a number of occasions and also busted through three tackles as he took the ball to the line.
The Rabbitohs' only other serious playmaking option is former NSW State of Origin hooker Robbie Farah, but Seibold says 19-year-old Doueihi is certain to keep his spot until Reynolds' return next month.
"Until Adam Reynolds' comeback, Adam (Doueihi) will be our halfback," Seibold said.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
"He's got the trust of the senior players. He had a really good pre-season and showed in the Charity Shield that he can play this level.
"We had no hesitations in throwing him in after Renno was ruled out for a couple of weeks and I thought he showed some really good signs there.
"He'll learn from that as well. He'll learn about game management at this level. It was a good introduction for him."
A Lebanese World Cup representative, senior Rabbitohs players were impressed with Doueihi's debut and believe his experience under Cedars coach Brad Fittler showed.
"He was great. He fitted in really well with the team throughout pre-season," captain Sam Burgess said.
"He's a pretty chilled-out kid which is good. The pressure doesn't get to him.
"I thought he did a good job and just probably disappointed we couldn't get the win for him on his debut. I thought he probably deserved it tonight."
There were issues for the team, though, as Penrith made their second comeback from 14-0 down in as many weeks.
Souths dropped the ball three times on the last tackle as they blew their lead, and gave away 10 penalties in the stop-start loss.
"The first half, in particular, to keep Penrith to zero for 40 minutes was a realy good effort. But we didn't build enough pressure in the second half," Seibold said.
"We've got some young players out there and some experienced players out there, so we should have handled it better. It's hard to take that one."
