For years the fortunes of the Dud’s have gone hand in hand, one the supposed best center in the world, the other the World Player of the Year, as if that was actually true. But of late I’ve noticed a breaking of the cosmic bond. The majority now feel Dud Allende must go.
But the Duds are much like the judges in Judge Dread, hard to demote. And truth to tell Dud Allende is probably a better player today than 5 years ago. He tractors on so to speak. It’s genius really Dud has discovered if you stand still and don’t move you can’t be put down…and then you can shuffle a few steps.
The only trouble is it all happens so slowly there is no threat. A few always saw this, but now it is the majority view.
Dud Toit by contrast is still golden….er blonde. He can’t tackle in space, he can’t fetch, if you ever see him beating a tackle buy a lottery ticket. But we still hear about a big engine. It might be more pc to talk about a big battery. And more apt, he does seem like the Energizer Bunny, popping up all the time. But unfortunately accomplishing little.
The risks are big as we saw in the Welsh semi where his inability to read the play and lack of explosiveness were the key in a botched blind side defense. But he does no harm and perhaps he might do something the Stephosi might bleat. He is so humble.
Sure he seems like a nice bloke. But he is our primary forward runner and he can neither beat a tackle nor offload. That passivity has consequences. And the joint passivity of both Duds is only survivable because we get scrum penalties and we can score maul tries.
So to me there is no Dudvergence. They both fulfill their roles very imperfectly. The scary thing is, a nation which has always produced great blind side flanks has groomed no replacement. So at this stage, we have few options. Not so with Dud Allende where a seasoned alternative has proven his worth and is waiting in the wings
