Esterhosen vs an Ox Cart

 Esterhuizen made a very nice break and showed a good turn of speed - promising center.
Mvovo is also maturing as a player

Hahaha....he was put into a barn door gap and the Lions loosies were reeling him in. If you want to see a break by a 12 look no further than the young Lions player, who put away had the pace to make it count.  

 Vorster played Esterhuizen the fool to be quite frank, does make one wonder how the JWC 2014 would have gone had Vorster been selected at 12 over Esterhuizen.

 Let me be explicit - the better of the younger 12's is a close call between Vorster and Odendaal.    I tend to think that Vorster is the better of the two.
What is patently clear though is that Esterhuizen is a much better player than Francois Steyn at 12.  He definitely is a better defender and speedier than Fransie.
At this stage our preferred no 12 - based on performances - is De Allende by some considerable distance.

Esterhuizen had another good game.....lovely break that showed good pace....so case closed on the shit about his pace.
Odendaal is a class act, has Bok squad written all over him. Vorster impresses me as well.
Add de Allende to these 3 and we have some quality young centres about to add to incumbent Serfontein.
So much for the crap that we have no centres.
Frans Venter has been good for the Cheetahs at 12.
Now if only our coaches would wake up to Pat Howard and Tyler Fisher we would be even better placed in the centre department.
Mapoe and Mnisi are also playing good rugby. So is Sadie.

 Looks like we have some promising talent at inside center.
as Saffex said, de Allende, Vorster (still a bit raw), Esterhuisen...
And my personal favourite for the RWC, Frans Steyn at 12.

We are so so critical of our players.
Mark my words, had Steyn been a Wallaby or even a Kiwi, we'd all be wishing we had his talent.
He can kick the ball further than just about anyone else, he is a powerhouse on defense on the inside channel and really is a good distributor.

With Habana, JP and Willie as our back three, they will get ample all to run with, with Fransie at 12.
Mind you, de Allende is also playing top rugby at the moment.

And isint it also refreshing to see a few tightheads being unearthed?

Its lovely when a position that lacks depth, all of a sudden has a burst of talent pushing through...
think flyhalf 2 years ago....

Flash you missed the best of the lot in Odendaal at the moment.
Sublime break by the young man this weekend.
Agreed there is far too much negative shit written about our youngsters on here. 
We have a greater depth of class youngsters than I have ever seen.....If only we had the coaches to invest in and direct them

 Had Fransie been a Kiwi or Wallaby he would never gone to France and fulfilled his true potential. Could have become a legend of the game but chose money over glory and he certainly doesn't warrant a plane ticket to the RWC.

I'm with Flash  here....Frans  at 12. Damien at 13. That gives us power, a huge boot and pace. Slide those two in next to Pollard and we have some grit in the inside back positions.

Nope Frans has not done nearly enough to merit a starting spot......am a big fan but he needs to start delivering.

The Super 15 doesn't matter, it has never mattered. Some players like Frans are test players.

 Hmmm have never bought into that....no player takes the field and holds back

 Agree with Moz
Look back to 2007....
Most of our Boks had torrid S14's.
I really believe that if a player is good enough, pick him.... even if he hasnt had a great SXV.

Often a player has a kak SXV due to the franchise systems in place, or a game plan that simply shuts out his natural talent (see Sadie and Serfontein at the Bulls)

Agreed class is permanent form temp.....but Frans is not our best 12 and therefore he would not be my starting 12.

 I do not agree about Francois Steyn at center.   He did well enough in 2007 - but people tend to forget about his defensive flaws then - especially in the final.  He did well enough to justify selection then in the absence of the injured De Villiers.
However, since his return from France in 2012 he was a severe disappointment.   In the tests he played in 2012 he showed zero in performance - slow and tended to crashball with every ball he received.   His kicking game became a joke - in two tests he had to make relieving kicks from within the Springboks 22, the kicks ended up in the 22 rolling on the grass placing the whole Springbok side off-side.
His main problem at that stage was he was grossly over-weight and consequently slowed down and not really match-fit.   That was followed by a disastrous 2013 - in which he was desperately poor in the first four games in Super 15.  He was even fatter than in 2012 and his performance was so unacceptable that his coach said with justification that he is no center at all.   He was dropped from the starting line-up of the Sharks in Super 15 - recalled later because of injuries to Bosman and Jordaan and played in two matches, the second one in which eh himself was injured and never played again in 2013.
Last year White initially used him at 12 - with very poor consequences.  He was by far the worst attacking center and statistically the second worse defending 12 in any SA Super 15 team.   At center he never once made a line break and he beats in the whole Super 15 last year a total of 8 tackles.   His missed tackle ratio - whether playing at center or flyhalf was in excess of 26% - way above what is expected from a center or flyhalf.   As in 2013 his overweight problem resulted in him being slow and as a result he also developed an untreatable knee problem. 
He looked physically much better after returning from Japan - he was back to a more acceptable weight of 106 kgs.   However, there was no indication that the reduction in weight had an impact on his performances - he was desperately poor in the games he played in since his return from Japan.  Even Willem Alberts said the red cards of the Sharks players stemmed from their believe that they are not performing on an acceptable level - and they try to correct that deficiency ending up with red cards.
There are two fallacies here, namely that -
*   because Steyn performed on an acceptable level in 2007 - it does not mean that he is still performing on that level in 2015 and his selection at this stage would have nothing to do with proven performances and everything to do with reputation; and
*   there is zero proof that a player who constantly over a two year period under-performs in Super 15 - will suddenly by a miracle performs well in tests - fact is that such a statement is unproven rubbish.
If a player has an occasional off game  in Super 15 it is understandable - a stream of poor games  over two seasons are just not supportive of any idea that a player will somehow show improvement in tests.   In fact Fransie was sub-par in the 2012 tests as well - so what will make him better this time around?
The story of the big boot is laughable - since when is that a requirement for a center to have?  Sure it may be an asset for a flyhalf - but not really a top requirement for a center.   In any event a big boot without any degree of accuracy is not an asset at all.   Because of inaccuracy and aimlessness Fransie's kicking game virtually all the time favoured the opposition rather than his own team.   His 32 ball possession losses in Super 15 last year - the highest of any backline player in Super 15 last year -  virtually all stemmed from inaccurate kicks.  Beside that most of his kicks at best resulted in possession handovers to the opposing teams.  
Dave is right - his performances over the last three years - whether in tests or on Super 15 level - is not acceptable as a reasonable basis for selection to the Springbok team.   Dreaming about his performances in 2007 as a basis for his selection in 2015 is living on Cloud 9.   In any effect Frans himself said he is not expecting to be selected for the Springbok team and his performances thus far this year was poor enough to rule him out of contention completely. 
All the younger performers are ten times better than Fransie - and that is a fact.   Even Esterhuizen performed better than Steyn in the matches he played   in since Steyn's red card.             
                      

Dave 
Steyn did not perform well enough this year to be considered for Springbok selection - neither did he perform well enough in 2013 - neither did he perform well enough in 2014. A class act he may have been in the past - but his performances since his return from France has not supported his class act status.
I think the biggest mistake Serfontein made in his career was to sign a contract with the Bulls.  No center can retain his individuality in that environment and a traditional crahballer - as required by the Bulls - he is not.  He is a talented player with  a very good skill set - but he is systematically being destroyed by the Bulls.   I think that the best thing he can do is to try and get away from the Bulls to another franchise asap.   He has not shown much in the line of performance this year and that leaves a serious question mark as to his future international career.
The other three youngsters are interesting players for the future - none has shown that they are competitive enough in the De Allende mode at present and it would be interesting to see how their careers develop in future.