The difference between players - Frans Steyn and Duhan van der Merwe

Frans Steyn started off as an exceptional talent in 2006 and 2007 and ended up being used in the wrong positions as either flyhalf or center where he was useless,   In 2013 Plumtree said h was NO CENTER and saw him as a full back - the only problem was deficient pace.   Realizing that Montpellier has in the past five weeks Steyn was used at full back where he was generally good and even dangerous when he joined the backline.   

Last night Steyn played at full back in the game against Edinburgh and his stats looks quite impressive:-

Balls passed and off-loaded                -      3

Ball Carries                                       -     13

Meters gained                                   -     41

Clean Breaks                                    -       0

Defenders beaten                              -      3

The above stats looks good enough until compared with the figures of Duhan van der Merwe playing at wing for Edinburgh:-

Balls passed and off-loaded                -      1

Ball Carries                                       -      8

Meters gained                                   -    129 

Clean Breaks                                    -       5

Defenders beaten                              -      11

One difference is that Van der Merwe has both pace in abundance coupled to physical strength.   One of the game-changers yesterday was when Van der Mere followed up a long distance kick ultimately covered by Pienaar - Van der Merwe caught Pienaar deep in the Montpellier 22 and all Pienaar could do was to run over the sideline about ten meters from the tryline.      

                                  -       

SB

Why do you think that Montpellier is not playing him at center anymore?   Because it hits home that what Plumtree said 5 years ago was correct - he is no center,

So your idea to play him at center for the Springboks is brilliant!????   There is a serious problem at center for the Boks at present,   I would not like to see it deteriorates into a catastrophic problem .   .

SB

Unfortunately as is the case with virtually all aspects of his game, Steyn has lost the plot in respect of his kicking game as well.   He rarely kicks at goal in games anymore and when he does the kick would have been converted by any other player - it has to be exceptionally easy,

Steyn's out-of-hand kicking  is a joke as well,   It is normally inaccurate and mostly aimless - too often causing actual possession handover and of very little advantage to his team.   He has been in recent games for Montpellier being able to bulldoze his way ahead fairly successfully,  but whether he is good enough at that is also problematic because of lack of pace.

I would rather select a player like Van der Merwe as back-up full back- wing for the team and let Steyn keep the frog production line in shortage in France.