The Damian De Allende Enigma

Lets just say that even Jan Simpletein is much better on attack than what we saw today from this cart horse.
Delande had two excellent seasons for the Stormers but has now been out of form for 3 seasons- and need s to rethink his game, or even consider another sport. 
We need a new inside centre fast, and have limited options. We know what we have in Francious Venter, and unfortunately, it is not much. He is a specialist so at least he might not be a total liability. 
I think Pollard should move to 12 and get some game time outside Jantjies. This will give use more kicking options.Delande's kick was the stupidest kick of the game. All he needed to do was run and pass- but it was tragic. The passing down the backline was a comedy of errors. It looked like they players have never met each before the game.

The part of that I’d dispute is that Allende had two excellent seasons.....at the start of Super Rugby 2015 he had a few games where he took the tackle and offloaded, playing a bit like SBW. By the time the tests came round he evolved into tractoring.....and his defence has always been abysmal He also seems really stupid unfortunately.

The writing has been on the wall for Allende for two years now, but somehow he is always defended by a large body of fans. He had one somewhat decent test - his first against the All Blacks. Nothing since then.

 Problem is our centers have been subjected to poor flyhalf play and a game plan which destroyed backline play.     

 That'll the truth Paki. SBW is also way less effective these  days.

The oaks still can't see the wood from the trees.Explain who NO Bok backline player ever really shapes up when playing under Coeztee - no not one. Indeed no Stormers backline ever shaped under Coetzee.The wee abs backline would fail dismally if playing under such silly coach. Ireland backline would be mediocre etc etc.You can complain  all you want about the players, but you could have our best backline players in the team and it would still be poor although not as poor as we saw yesterday.Allende DID have some good performances but look at him now. 
The simple fact is the coaching system in South Africa is poor. Ackermann and his team though took unknown no hopers and turned them into a competitive force.  They were the exceptions.
Why can players look really good when playing under Ackermann and useless when playing for Coetzee.

As Alistair rightly said the Irish outsmarted us. We have been outsmarted for a long time and given the quotas and problems of players going overseas etc etc its left Bok rugby in a shambles.
The BIG mistake was also firing Jake White after his winning the World Cup and replacing him with that complete buffoon Pieter de Villiers - that action sums it all up and set us back completely.
Until MERIT AND PROFESSIONALISM BECOME TOP PRIORITIES BOK RUGBY WILL GO NOWHERE APART FROM SOME  OCCASIONAL SUCCESSES. Not good enough when you consider the many decades of Bok dominance up until the time of the isolation.
There is nothing much to give one hope. Will even a rugby genius like Rassie be able to right the ship given the politics at play!

Problem is our centers have been subjected to poor flyhalf play and a game plan which destroyed backline play.  
Mike, De Allende is dumb muscle. That stupid late charge against the All Blacks and now the ridiculous sacrifice of an overlap with a kick against the Irish being the two most recent examples. Who would coach a center to kick when he has an overlap outside him? No one. You're looking at a player who can't read a situation and correctly exercise even the most basic options (school boy stuff), yet somehow he's being chosen to play at the highest echelon of the game? He doesn't belong there. He is a lead-footed liability, p lain and simple. 

 Serfontein was worst in the last tests against the Aussies and the AB's - and both were playing outside Jantjies    So why blame De Allende.  Yes he may be dumb muscle - but so is Francois Steyn and most of the other present centers.
 

Stop already. Frans was not playing yesterday, even though he features prominently in all your match reports. Why not just take your medicine and admit the Allende sceptics are right.

“Why not just take your medicine ..........” He hates the taste of Brooklax.

 Mosart
Please read carefully - I refer t centers playing at present - in other words also their past records.   I wrote something already condemning De Allende - sop what else is new.   
Ceradunce 
I do not take brooklax = you do - but with all the shit strapping you few brain cells how is it to be administered.  

I really feel for De Allende. I had so much hope for him. He clearly is lacking game time and should have not been included in the BOKS squad during the championship. I agree that all back line players fail under coetzee. Under white when Coetzee joined the team. We from the most exciting in 2004 and poor in 2005. It took Eddie Jones to get the BOKS to function. Frans Steyn and Butch James was a revelation. Fast forward to the Stormers and we had the best back line when Rassie was coaching and even Graham Henry took note. The AC took over and it all imploded.

Delande is out of form and the backline is totally dysfunctional with or without him. The coaching is not up to scratch - but Delande was extremely poor.

 Jesse Kriel, Serfontain, Rensburg, and Mapoe are your best centres imo. I rate De Allende. But he has been stifled by poor attacking structures imo.

Jesse Kriel is not a centre....he tries to flank his opponent as his first instinct.....like in school boy rugby. Allende is desperately slow off the mark and he is a very insecure tackler. Stepfontein comes off his outside foot in every run....so he is easily herded into the turnover zone. We really don’t have a centre at the moment.

Jessie Kriel should be playing fullback or wing. Meyer converted him into a centre- which was a total disaster.
Having him on the wing- would give an extra fullback. 
Perhaps put Geland on one wing, and Kriel on the other wing with Coetzee at 15. 

Didn’t Jesse Kriel play centre in the u20 RWC and was then converted to fullback by the Bulls where he did great and was then drafted into the Bok side where HM had him back at 13.

 Faark Cera, who can keep up with players being played out of position?

Thing is Draad, sometimes they work. Many many moons ago, Jake White decided to play a flanker out of position at no 2. That flanker was James Dalton. He also took a young tighthead and played him out of position at no 2. That tighthead was John Smit. Someone also moved a 13 to fullback. The centre was Percy Montgomery.

 Habana started out as a scrummie and then played 13 before settling at wing.Deon Fourie was a hooker that played very well at openside. The thing is, player should be tried and tested in that position and only after it was a proven success in first class, should such a player be tried there in a test match. In South Africa we do it the other way around.

Fury was a fullback....and then he was a fullback playing centre.

 Yeah but at least in Habana's case he played scrummie at school. Never at senior level. He did play at 13 though at senior rugby. In fact right up and until his test debut when Jake played him on the wing.
I can also remember Fourie being a fullback initially.

 Cera, Jake started Jean on the wing too.  I always thought it was the Bulls and Meyer who made him a wing. He played 13 at the Lions?

 @Draad, didn't Jean play 13 for Jakes juniors? I seem to remember that his wingers were Clyde Rathbone and Ashwin Willemse. Having said that, Jake did play him on the wing, though.
I actually had a look for a tweet earlier but I only have my tweets and not Bryan's replies. We had a similar argument a few years ago and I tweeted him and asked him about the positions he played and he replied that he played scrumhalf at school and 13 at CC level for the Lions. IIRC he signed for the Bulls towards the end of the season, for the following season, and then went onto the EOYT where Jake played him at the wing and that was the start of his career as a winger, so to speak.
"He made his Currie Cup debut for the Golden Lions in 2004, doing well enough to be voted the country's most promising player that year. That November, he made his Test debut against England at Twickenham aged 21. Though the game was lost 32–16, Habana came on as a reserve to score a try with his first touch of the ball against the then World Cup holders. The following week Habana was moved into the starting line-up, where he contributed two tries to the 45–10 win over Scotland at Murrayfield.
The next week, he was selected in the same position, on the left wing, in that year's final match against Argentina in Buenos Aires."
I just had a look Habana's debut test line-up where Jean did in fact start on the wing. Habana obviously replaced him when he came on. So, by the look of things, Habana ended Jean's spot on the left wing under Jake. 
Loose-head PropOs du RandtCheetahs3249 Hooker (C)John SmitSharks2636 Tight-head PropEddie AndrewsWP2710 LockBakkies BothaBlue Bulls2519 LockVictor MatfieldBlue Bulls2731 FlankSchalk (jnr) BurgerWP2113 FlankAJ VenterSharks3122 EighthmanJoe van NiekerkWP2429 ScrumhalfFourie du PreezBlue Bulls2210 FlyhalfJaco van der WesthuyzenNEC2619 Left WingJean de VilliersWP237 Inside CentreDe Wet BarryWP2630 Outside CentreMarius JoubertWP2523 Right WingBreyton PaulseWP2850 Full BackPercy MontgomeryNewport30591 conversion, 3 penaltiesReserveCJ van der LindeCheetahs2410 ReserveDanie RossouwBlue Bulls264 ReserveBryan HabanaLions2101 tryReserveJaque FourieLions215 
Habana's first test in the starting XV:
PositionPlayerProvinceAgePrev TestsScoringLoose-head PropGürthro SteenkampCheetahs230 Hooker (C)John SmitSharks2637 Tight-head PropCJ van der LindeCheetahs2411 LockBakkies BothaBlue Bulls2520 LockVictor MatfieldBlue Bulls2732 FlankSolly TyibilikaSharks2501 tryFlankDanie RossouwBlue Bulls265 EighthmanJoe van NiekerkWP2430 ScrumhalfFourie du PreezBlue Bulls2211 FlyhalfJaco van der WesthuyzenNEC26201 try, 3 dropgoalsLeft WingBryan HabanaLions2112 triesInside CentreWayne JuliesEagles264 Outside CentreMarius JoubertWP2524 Right WingJaque FourieLions2161 tryFull BackPercy MontgomeryNewport30604 conversions, 1 penaltyReserveJacques CronjéBlue Bulls228 ReserveGerrie BritzCheetahs268 ReserveMichael ClaassensCheetahs221 ReserveGaffie du ToitWP279 ReserveDanie CoetzeeBlue Bulls2712 ReserveOs du RandtCheetahs3250 ReserveGcobani BoboLions254 
Beeno, of course, would have had two extra players in this team. His teams used to have Solly and Tyibilika as well as Danie and Rossouw. 

Jean’s first test was against France at 13, but Marius Joubert was preferred at 13 until the end of the 2004 season....two great options.

 Back to a history discussion with nothing to offer insofar as the present situation is  concerned.   Will get us nowhere,
 

 Thanks Cera.