Willie Le Roux cutting the backline

 The way he enters the backline on attack has been great against both Italy and Samoa.

The way he creates space with his running lines to draw in defenders before passing,  is a major skill that has been missing from the Boks backline play for sometime. Our centres although often strong runners often are short in this area.

Andre Joubert was maybe the last fullback to play with this enterprise and vision. 

Willie Le Roux also often enter the backline as 2nd reciever in the flyhalf position as he does for the Cheetas on multi-phase play. 

Not sure if these are planned moves or just spontaneous by Le Roux

If Goosen was at 10 this backline would be phenomenal. Hopefully Goosen overcomes his ongoing injury issues.

Sharkbok, one say Le Roux has somehow breathed a new life into the Boks backline. This kid is our future, be it at fullback or wind. There is a lot more to come from Le Roux, its looking good so far, but SARU need to start taking care of their quality players. Goosen is a great player with great pace and attacking ability, but I'm starting feel that maybe he is injury prone like some of "would have been promising players". Its like Andries Bekker, he's a great player, but is always injured!

Ntanga I share your opinion with regard to the above comments. I frequently questioned he previous center combinations of the Springboks - mentioning that they are part of a dead backline syndrome. The excuse was always - and in particular from Saffex - that modern centers have no or vey little space to operate in. The fact that Le Roux often receives balls in the center and even flyhalf position and at pace draw in defenders, making space for other players wide out - indicates his real abilities in the relevant regard. Virtually all the backline tries scored in the three tests showed a critical involvement of Le Roux in them - he seriously worries the opposition and draw in more than one defender - make his passes at just the right time and is prepared to take hard tackles - while the others scored. I think that Le Roux has one critical element in his make-up - he has ball sense in abundance - just like Joubert had in the past. The above is what makes the backline shine. You cannot have slow players like Francois Steyn in the backline - it just slows down the whole process and make the defence easier. As to Goosen - I agree wth you about the injury issue. However, there are two important issues here. To my mind he was too young and physically a bit under-par when he came into the Cheetahs and Springbok teams. The youngster needs a bit more in muscle development and weight to help against injuries. I think with another year of development his problems may hopefully be solved. He similarly have a vast degree of ball sense and speed as well - so with him in the backline - I would think that he will make a huge difference. A backline like the following could make a major difference in the 2015 RWC:- 15 Le Roux 14 Habana 13 Engelbrecht 12 Serfontein 11 Pietersen 10 Goosen 9 Reinach I think Pietersen is contracted with Japan for two years - and might be back by 2015. If not - we have enough younger wings coming through who can make the grade. Habana - even though he is 31 this year seems to be "ageless" and Reinach is back from injury this week. I rate Reinach as our key scrummie of the future - he is to my mind better than Van Zyl- really a talented player.

willie le roux is something special and is a far cry from the age of robotics ala zane ext so lets hope meyer can give him some game time in the champs. that will be the real test.in terms of his talent one can only thank the heavens for the cheetahs talent backline factory as they have really taken him to the next level.

 

take a bow hawies fourie. old school backline coach proves his worth