Jake White, the former Springboks coach, didn't mince words about Canan Moodie's latest on-field efforts, criticizing the young center ahead of a crucial showdown against the All Blacks. Moodie, only 22, will don the 13 jersey this Saturday after his recent stint on the wing during the Rugby Championship matches. Despite his previous coaching stint with Moodie at the Bulls, White expressed disappointment over the player's performance in the 2025 Test season.
"Canan (Moodie) has the talent to play anywhere in the Boks backline, but in the past few games he hasn’t shown that quality and in truth, he’s been disappointing," White lamented in his RugbyPass column. "He hasn’t carried that initial wow factor and kicked on. I think it was the first Test he’d lost, in his 13th appearance, so he’s been fortunate as a Test player so far. He’s still young, however," he added, highlighting the challenges of integrating Moodie into a new midfield combination that hasn't yet gelled.
"Moving to midfield, to select a combination that has never played together before, let alone trained together is bold in the extreme."
The critique didn't stop with Moodie. White also voiced concerns over head coach Rassie Erasmus's decision to overhaul the backline, which includes six changes from the previous setup. "Let’s take Ethan Hooker. He has talent. He’s quick and he has all the skills, but Rassie hasn’t surrounded him with experience and that worries me," White noted, pointing out the lack of veteran presence to shepherd the younger players through the intense match.
Despite the sweeping changes and his reservations, White sees a silver lining in Jan Hendrik-Wessels, a forward he coached at the Bulls. "He is the real deal. He’s John Smit, Bismarck du Plessis, and Malcolm Marx rolled into one. The epitome of the type of forward South Africa are trying to produce and their direction of travel," praised White.
As for the upcoming match, White acknowledged the potential of the Springboks' rapid backline to cause problems for the All Blacks, but only under favorable weather conditions. "If that backline ran a 100m race against any of its rivals, it would probably be collectively the quickest backline they could select," he explained. "They are seriously rapid. If there’s a linebreak and space, they will eat defenders alive but if the weather’s poor, and it turns into a dogfight, things could go south pretty quickly because they’re match-winners, not playmakers. They prefer being put into space rather than putting others into space."
The stakes are high as the Springboks prepare to face Scott Robertson’s All Blacks, in what promises to be a tightly contested battle in Wellington.