The center situation

I was very disappointed with the performances of De Allende since his return from injury - the spark was missing.  However in the last 25 minutes of the test on Saturday he was back to the player e was in 2014 and 2015.   There is still some shortcomings - but the way he scored that try was typical of the center he was in the past.     So to my mind the De Allende we got used to is back. 

However there is a problem at outside center and the reality is that neither Jesse Kriel – nor Lionel Mapoe is the answer.   Mapoe now had two games where he showed near to zero – much like the two tests in 2012 when De Jongh was tried out at center.   De Jongh went AWOL during those two tests – Mapoe was AWOL in the last two tests against the Irish.

Jesse Kriel is not the answer either – he was really inconspicuous playing for the Bulls this year  and neither was he last week when he got some playing time.

So where to now?   I think the immediate answer is Francois Venter of the Cheetahs – he had a top class game against the Saxons team on Friday.   Then there is in the background another real prospect – namely Harold Vorster of the Lions.  The latter is injured and s unlikely to have any further rugby this year.  Both Venter and Vorster can cover the 13 position – while the youngster Janse van Rens burg of the Lions can cover the no 12 position.  

My own feeling is that Mapoe may be better on the wing – he is definitely a better wing than JP Pietersen is at this stage.         

 Who are you to say somebody is as thick as a plank?   Do you personally knows De Allende?  

Sorry - but De Allende had a top class performance recording Super Rugby in 2014 and 2015 and you were still sick about Fat Fransie then - now suddenly it is about Vorster - who is a better 13 than 12  and stuck on Janse Van Rensburg who had a few starting games for the Lions purely after failure by Mnisi,   He needs to show a lot more than just playing three or 4 games on Super rugby level. 

Now everbody realise that De Allende has to improve his defense to make him an outright top class center.   I have  gone through his defensive stats in all the tests he played in in 2015.  He made 74 tackles and missed 19 tackles – for a missed tackle ratio of just about 20% - which is more or less 5% too high.   Stupid people think that players miss no tackles – but every player does – and the normally acceptable norm is just about 14-16%.   Of the missed tackles 9 was in 2 games – definitely too high – the other ten misses were in 8 games.  

So is his defense the train smash every ignoramus claim normally  based on one incident in a match?  Definitely not – but there is room for improvement needed.   The problem is that he is using the wrong technique – that is why he missed tackles – but on average his tackles are strong and often enough carry players backwards.   Since it is a technical problem there is no way that the deficiency cannot be overcome and to just distort issues and say he is a useless center based on defense deficiencies is utter BS.           

The total comments on the game is that Le Roux and De Allende flopped as players.   The real flops are all forgiven and those two gets the blame.

There were four tries scored on Saturday by the Boks - so lets evaluate who was involved.  The Combrinck try would never have been scored without the break made by Le Roux.   He made other breaks as well – but with Mvovo they did not bear fruit.  Willie le Roux is by no means flawless – but the hatred of him by some members of the site is virtually unlimited. 

 Then there was the second try – a brilliant effort involving all of Le Roux, Du Toit and  De Allende and finally De Klerk passing the ball to Whiteley who scored a very good try.  No doubt a brilliant effort by Whiteley – but what happened in the two minutes before the try was in fact scored are ignored completely by our expert members.

The Du Toit try – the same scenario happened – but in the lead-up to the try by Du Toit – the key ball carrier again was De Allende.  When the Irish tried to recover the ball meters out  – they were penalized and the kick was taken by De Klerk and the try scored by Du Toit.

The fourth try had even more of the same.   Again the ball was carried by Du Toit and then De Klerk passed to De Allende beating three defenders in he process.

However, the issue of penalty kicks stemming from De Allende ball carries was never  mentioned.  There were in fact three – all resulting from the fact that De Allende carried the ball over the gain line and be tackled by up to three players – leaving the Irish on the back foot.   The first penalty was in the first half – when Jantjies missed the kick at goal.   The second one was the penalty awarded before the Du Toit try.   The third one was the penalty converted by Jantjies in the last minute of the game.

So our local experts ignored the above and moaned about the fact that De Allende missed two tackles during the game – in traffic leading to no real advantage for the Irish.    And the try scored by him is ignored completely and it is made out to be that he beat only one defender.

The obvious answer is sticking with the classy Jessie Kriel. You invest in class, just like we did with de Allende and look what he did against Ireland. You don't just throw the towel in on players who dip in form.

Same applies to Willie, Mike Brown and Ford of England.

Kriel proved last year without a shadow of doubt he is the answer at 13.....only a complete idiot would conclude otherwise and chuck in the towel on him.....naïve, short sighted and stupid.

Kriel was brilliant in the RC, made more clean breaks than any other centre in the WC and has had some good moments for the Bulls in the Super series

Stick with class - its that obvious......powerful at 97kg, faster than any other 13 in the country and has a better step than any other centre in the country.

Ah bullshit you cant be invisible if you are making more clean breaks than any other centre, what utter garbage

He has been good in the Super 18, just like Serfontein has been.

Class is permanent, Kriel is a class act and any coach with clout would invest in de Allende and Kriel as our centre combo.....a combo that looks better equipped than any other test pair in the game.

They proved it in last years RC, there is no greater test.....investment should follow that brilliant start by this pair. Ripping Nonu and Smith to shreds was the measure.

You are lying about their record defensively, but feel free to prove me wrong

de Allende has struggled with form, but bang he is back.....Kriel was never out of form 

Well Moz fact is every centre got to play against weaker sides that the nature of a WC, so being picky is a little short sighted.

More to the point.....beating more defenders than any other centre cannot equate to being invisible

Therefore your take on Kriel and de Allende at the WC is utter rubbish. de Allende beat more defenders than any other centre in the WC

So you are trying to tell me that our centre pair....one with more clean breaks than anu other centre and the other with more defenders beaten than any other centre in the WC - failed in the WC - that has to be the joke of the decade

Sadly its your prejudice that gets the better of you and the stats make a mockery of your takes

Serfontein has been great this Super series one of the best centres in the comp. Kriel has been good. Sadly Serf is out injured with a wrist issue

de Allende showed on Sat what he is worth......the lad is a fighter and it was only a matter of time before he found his spark. Kriel is the same

Mozart has been anti-De Allende since 2014 – when he endlessly punted De Villiers and Fat Fransie as the Springbok center combination.  He then cottoned onto De Allende’s defense and that issue was settled by indisputable proof that Steyn and De Jongh were worse tacklers than De Allende.

However, Mozart is not one to stop his BS ever – he repeats the nonsense time and again.   De Allende had in 2014 and 2015 two sub-standard tests in tackling -  in the two tests he missed –

*   6 out of 21 tackle attempts against the Aussies - not that was also the result of him having to cover for the poor defense of other players – especially our loosies; and

*    3 out of twelve tackle attempts in the test against Argentina in Durban – where the same thing happened.

In the other 8 tests he played in he missed 10 tackles – but the whole distortion went on and on by Mozart – discarding the factual situation completely.

The dumb Mozart said head on head tackles is the problem – but he does not realize that the problem is not head-to head-tackles – but tackles from the side.  Then there was the lie he spread on the Barrett try – blaming De Allende for the try.  Unfortunately he was foolish enough to post the video about the try on the site and was exposed as a liar.   How any tackles have De Allende made taking the ball carrier back meters and resulting in penalties for the Springboks?   That is head-on-head tackles that happen fairly frequently. 

De Allende has a technical problem when players ran to his side and he has to tackle them – but very few serious consequences arise from those cases – since the ball-carrying players basically has to run into traffic to achieve that.

Moz who would be your Bok centre pair given you don't seem to rate anyone in SA? 

I mean hell you find favour in an average player like Crotty of NZ telling us how much better he is than anything we have.....the same Crotty who did zip against Wales in a NZ side that ran rampant