Jean Devilliers- again the Best inside center in South Africa

Jean Devilliers played like he did in his prime around 2008/2009, against the Blues in todays match.

In addition he has added an extra dimension to his game- which is being able to offload in the tackle to create oppertunities for his outside centre to run into space.

Around 2008, Ma Nonu was quoted as saying that he though the best center in the world was Jean Devilliers.

The New Zealand centres are often good at offloading in the tackle or delaying passes to the last moment to allow support runners to angle off them into space.

This requires a big strong player who has the balance to take contact and skill to offload.

Jean was moved to outside centre last year because of his strong running ability, having played his initial tests on the wing. 

It was thought by many(myself included) that Frans was the better playmaker, 

and this combined with his kicking ability made him the ideal iniside center.

At this stage, if Frans Steyn gets fit before the June Internationals and does not play fullback- Jean must still start in the number 12 position. 

Frans is at 13 for the Sharks so maybe he should stay at 13 for the Boks where he can hog the ball less, - and have the likes of Habana and JP just on his outside screaming for the ball.

Jean has not lost his speed and it is only 2 years to the next world cup so who says he cant make it all the way through. (except for Saffex who wants any younger player like Jaco Taute to crashball because their is no space in the modern game).

The onus is on the likes of Jan Serfontein to win the position, than for Jean to lose it.

Excellent post SB. I have always been confident Jean is not only our best inside centre, but our most consistent back. He has the post graduate skills most other SA centres lack....when he scored his last beautiful try, he drifted brilliantly to the outside before the pass reached him. And his work in bringing up the defence is outstanding, as well as his ability to deal with big loosies. There is no question, if fit, Jean  should and will start at 12, and captain the team.

JDVs been deefensively sound all year, but his attacking play has been avearage. credit to JDV perforamnce yesterday though cos that was class, but IMO both serfontein and ebherson have been equally effective in thier teams perforamnce, unlike JDV, they have produced it more often then not.