Mostly we are struggling for centres

The team is coming together quite nicely, particularly in the pack. But at centre,without Jean who probably has just one international season left in his battered body....we have nobody.  Which is very concerning. Teams very rarely lose close games, when they have a dominating centre combination. Our 2004 and 98 TN titles were based on rock solid centre play. We lost the RWC99 semi to Oz because Horan was the outstanding player on the park. Centres win matches....so our lack of candidates worries me

Some say Fransie.....but I have yet to see a convincing performance from him at 12. Not fast enough off the mark and slow thinking, Fransie is too deep in his career to really surprise us now. His defence, while powerful, is also prone to big lapses, like the miss on Tait which could have cost us in the RWC07 final.

Taute is no 13, based on form to date. It's not his disastrous miss of Dagg that worries me, it's his feel for the position. that said, our defence was much improved on Saturday. But there are no answers here.

Jordaan had a brilliant S15 final, but was outplayed by de Jongh a few weeks back. While de Jongh seems to have long periods of not really performing interspersed with some outstanding games. I rate both these players but we need much more consistency for them to be clear options.

None of these options are totally without merit, but none are a proven answer. Let's hope some of the U20s come through next year.

I think Frans(a fit Frans) and Jordaan will be our future centres. Frans has an offloading game, which will be great if he can put Jordaan into space.

Taute, I see him as our future 15.He has been solid(bar the miss on DAGG)on defence. Hasnt been put into the postition to do much on attack.

Heyneke sees him as a 15 so he will be used there in teh future.

Heyneke has said that Dejong will get his chance against scotland. Scotlands centres arent very good, so he should be ok. It will be difficult to rate him properly after this game. I dont rate Dejong's passing and vision, but he can improve in this aspect.

He also hinted that he might play Taute and Dejong at 12 and 13 which I think is a bad Idea as both are inexperienced at test level. ( he feels devilliers needs a rest)

I hope that he plays Taute at 15 and lets Dejong play with Devilliers as I dont trust Dejong without experience next to him

i do tend to agree that frans and jordaan to me has the right dynamic to be a world class center pairing. that being said franna should not be used a as a bathering ram and he should be used as per his RWC 11 role. he has the ablity to have amazing depth and width on his passes but he needs to given free reigh to play his style of play. he as always been a play it as you see it type of player.

What crap, we are fine at centre once we discard the washed up Jean. Frans, along with JP were our best backs under Meyer this year.

Taute has been good at 13, Meyer has just said he thought Taute had his best game for the Boks at 13 against Ireland. I disagree, his best game was against Oz, but he was good against Ireland.

We have plenty of young talent coming through at centre and I'd love to see JP given a run there. According to Meyer, JP remains a serious contender for 13, but after they lost Habana on the wing, he changed his mind on this, for this tour.

We have some class young centres coming through in Whitehead, Frans Venter, Jan Serfontein, Jordaan, JJ Engelbrecht, JP du Plessis and Pat Howard..........all these players have the ability to play test rugby

the idea of jp at 13 can work but do you really want to convert a player that is one of the best wingers in the world to a centre ??? jp on the wing offers so much that i wont take that risk. we have a lot of line running 13's in SA we dont have that creative middle link at 12 with great passing speed and widtth on his passed to create space. i do think the junior players are more dynamic but then again the like of serfontein and co commited rugby hari kari and signed to the bulls

Saffex

I differ completely from Mozart on the issue of De Jongh outplaying Jordaan in the CC Final - granted he scored one try - the third one he scored this year - in that game.   For the rest for a full year now he was harmless in attacking ability and Mozart cottoned on to that one try to justify the selection of De Jongh.    Oher than that in the final Jordaan made a variety of line breaks that De Jongh did not make at all.  Out-played - seriously an over-statement.

As to you center identification I believe that you have some good potential centers there.   However, all of them would have to prove there real value in the forthcoming Super Series and then we will have greater clarity on the issue.   However, there is really a requirement for Francois Steyn to proe himself in Super 15 - he was really very average in the tests this year - he can never be an automatiic choice.   Pietersen can never be considered at center - the experiment with him there by the Sharks failed and he was really not even remotely satisfactory in that position.   We cannot move one of the best wings in the world to center - and let him have average performances there.

I don't think Taute would play at Super 15 as a center and he will concentrate on his performance as a full back.  So he is also out of the picture.    Engelbrecht was so poor in the CC games he played in  resulting in rumours that  he would be loaned to the Queens. 

That leaves us with Venter, Serfontein and Whitehead as further candidates for the 12 position and Jordaan, Du Plessis and Howard as potential no 13's.  i want to add to that list De Allende as well in either the 12 or 13 positions - more likely at 12.

Hope the above gets enough playing time in Super 15.   Venter and Jordaan are the only ones that would get ample playing opportunities - they will be the frontline selections of the Bulls and Sharks.   Whitehead would almost certainly have to make way for F Steyn and Serfonetein is unlikely to be played at all - the Bulls are liable to destroy his playing career as well.   De Allende would probably be played at 12 and would also get more playing time there - especially to relieve the pressure on De Villiers.   Du Plessis and Howard would have to compete for playing time against De Jongh.

My guess  is that the most likely center combinations for the 2013 tests will be the following:-

  *    12    -    Francois Steyn, De Allende

  *    13    -    Jordaan, Howard 

As already stated I can be wrong - much will depend on Super 15 performances next year.    

 I have to agree with clever mike about  De Jongh, He had a couple of good breaks but nothing spectacular. Jordaan has gone a bit quite but then he is only 20 and has made a great impact. I hate it when people latch on to indidual play and not look at the players entire performance. I can't recall de Jongh punching lines in defence and setting his outside backs away to score tries. 

The biggest problem I see is the gap between experience players and a lot of quality youngsters who are still 3 years away from being the best in the world. 

I agree that we need a center combination. Teams with great center combinations does well when they play together at club and provincial level. We really need to sort out our provincial teams and ensure that we have a decent center combinations playing.

The only worthwile center combination that I can see is that of Frans and Jordaan but that depends on how Plumtree plays them and then there is always injury.

We are better placed than I can ever recall regarding young centres, locks, loosies and props coming through.