I'm not of the school that thinks JdV will be back for the RWC. His knee injury was so catastrophic at a very late stage of his career, we need to accept our best centre since readmission is gone. So who is going to play 13 at the RWC?
Looking at yesterday's two games we had most of the 13 candidates playing bar the fragile Jordaan. And one has to conclude the best candidate for 13 is de Allende.....the only trouble being he is also the best 12 candidate by a proverbial mile.
Mapoe and Sadie are two decent journeymen centres. Both scored good tries, both were also exploited in opposition tries. Of the two Mapoe seems to have a bit more chutzpah, but his bag of tricks is not that impressive. S adie seems well rounded without any real spark.
In the other game de Jongh was matched up against JJ. But both of them were pretty much bit players. De Jongh made a nice break early and pulled off a great forcing tackle on Kriel. JJ was a competent link in the Basson try with his pace. But neither had a really convincing game.
Then there is the question of Kriel, perhaps the most mentioned candidate for 13....was there anything we could see that convinces that he is the man for the job? Not really. He did everything well except for two turnovers, without really imposing himself.
As we saw with de Allende last year there is a lot to learn about top level centre play, it could already be too late for Kriel to shift to 13 and fully prepare for the RWC. The prospects of de Allende being the only viable choice at 13 are increasing by the week.
