Nkosi at 13?

So, we all know that Nkosi should be playing, he is probably a bit slower than Mapimpi, but he is such a powerful runner. 

I just watched some of his touches and offloads in the tackle against Canada and can't help and think that he would be better off moving to 13. 

For me Am has some silky hands, not to fast or ever appear to come at pace a break the line, but tends to drift wide and get subtle soft passes away. 

Where as Nkosi seem to be solid defender, hard runner and reminds me a bit of a younger Ma'u nano with a mix of Conrad smith. 

We really need to start bolstering out 13 stocks given that we now only have Am and if fit Kriel for the boks, but none of the other Pro 14 or Super rugby SA players are standing up. 

What do you guys think?

I have thought about Nkosi at outside centre as he has the power to bust tackles to breach the first line of defe nce.

Gelant could also be a very good outside centre, as his passing game is very good- better than most SA centres anyway. 

According to THIS SITE Nkosi is the fastest player at the RWC with Kolbe in second place.

I know you posted it, that's how I knew about it. I couldn't find your thread...I was in a hurry...I found your article instead.  I thought most on here would kn ow, so I didn't give you credit for the find...my apologies, it was rude of me...didn't mean any harm.

You better be sorry Draad, this is not the first time. 

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It's worth a shot, ain't got nothing to lose, as it stands the current pairing are not going anywhere.

This is the same trap of old: We have an exciting and physical runner on the wings, lets put him among the centres. It seldom works out because the nuances of the position are dramatically different to wing. One of Nkosi's greatest weaknesses is reading play on defence. It is nothing more than suicide to place him in the most defensively demanding position on the field, where he will be marshalling the edge on his own. The best 13 in South Africa from this standpoint is Mapoe. He is also a very clever playmaker, the only other 13 I would seriously consider over Am - another gaff from Rassie. Nkosi is a wing, and should be left to develop the remainder of his game there. He has taken good strides since the start of the season, lets not set him up for failure. I would rather include distributors at centre than flat track runners. This is one of the greatest failings of our game: Attacking rugby means running, not passing. We lag behind the better teams in this regard. 

Lizatjie

What gaffe of Erasmus dim fool?  Erasmus never even said anything about Nkosi at 13.   And what you refer has always flopped in the backline.   However, "I would rather include distributors at centre than flat track runners." and you talk about Steyn??????????

What about defense stooge?   Mapoe failed badly on test level in defense.   

Happy Idiots Day to you. LMAO   

Duplication

Definitely try Nkosi at 13. Am is pretty toothless. It's a no brainer. 

I agree that Mopoe is one of the biggest players to have lost out on a spot and probably should have been in the squad. 

Although, if you look at his age of 29, there is not much left in the tank. 

I wouldn't necessarily throw Nkosi into the deep end, but the All Blacks seem to get it right when they blood players into new positions. Although they are patient and help the player develop. Something that we have been lacking in SA because we have the believe that we an endless conveyer belt of players. 

Nonu and Umanga are players that moved successfully to 13 and then 12 over their career. Both of them became world class players but they all started on the wing. 

Then Jean De Villiers and Fourie were successful converts, although De Villiers was always a 12. Whereas Fourie was actually a 15 when he first burst onto the scene. 

So I do believe that we can work within the next World Cup cycle to make players more versatile so that they can switch between positions which will give us a much stronger squad in general. 

Exactly right king corn. 

Definitely try Nkosi at 13. Am is pretty toothless. It's a no brainer

He looked pretty good for the Sharks th e past two seasons and lets face it, anyone outside Duh Allende is gonna struggle on offence. 

Don't talk nonsense X. Allende is not getting the credit he deserves at 12.

The player to takeover at 12 at this point in time doesn't exist. 

Frans looks to sluggish to me. We shall see. 

Faf, Pollard, Willemse, Nkosi

Kolbe, Willie, Galant

Or...

Faf, Jantjies, Pollard, Nkosi

Kolbe, Willemse, Galant

Mapimpi is just a finisher, nothing more. So it seems.

How's the weight these days?

Not exactly elephantine, but I think I can give Dave a run for his money...thanks for asking.

Yeah, I think we need to focus on players that are under 26 that can can make the next World Cup, not saying we should throw some of the experience away for players in their early 30s but lets face it. It will be very unlikely that they will be there

Tom Brady 

Nobody can experiment with a positional shift in the WC,   It could happen in the SR next year when a lot of SA players are going to play Club rugby in the NH,   Erasmus in fact used that approach in the case of Du Toit and Mostert in the number 7 position and he end result was that Du Toit passed the test and Mostert did not.     

I do not think that Steyn has any real future in the Springboks even if he plays for an SA  franchise in Super Rugby and it seems as if there will be a lot of new players coming into the set-up in preparation for the 2023 WC where there will be  large crop of players around 29 to 30 year olds from the present squad but also a new crop of youngsters coming through,    .