Year End Player Notes.....Damien de Allende 4/10

Perhaps the most frustrating Bok ever....Allende has great leg strength and the physical ability to offload in the tackle. But he doesn't....he dies with the ball, every time. The odd thing is briefly in 2015 he offloaded very effectively....and then simply lost the skill. He also made a few good turnovers at the WC.....gone....but we saw a good turnover against Scotland. Why isn't this a regular feature of his game? Of all our players this is the guy who could benefit from a demanding, observant backline coach. But can he remain focused through a WC match? The evidence says not. Damien seems like a nice guy, I recall when Jean's knee was destroyed in 2014 the Bok who came over to commiserate was Damien. Unfortunately we don't need nice guys with latent potential, we need ruthless warriors who deploy match winning skills. And defensively he remains a double negative....a poor tackler and a poor reader of the movement. Allende has all but played himself out of the WC in 2018....he will have to make a hell of a case to get more chances.

South Africa are no-hopers at the world cup unless the centre problems can be solved. Unfortunately, it does not seem that any contenders exist to take over the role.
Delande's best season was around 2014 where he was offloading like Sonny Bill, and making more clean breaks. His defence has always been poor but has gradually improved while the rest of his game has fallen apart.