Elton vs Quade showdown: Which X-man will hit the spot at Ellis Park?
JOHANNESBURG: More steady than stupendous. That’s how much-hyped flyhalves Elton Jantjies and Quade Cooper have performed so far this season.
One of them though will trump the other when the Lions and Reds meet at Ellis Park in a round four Super Rugby match on Saturday.
And, it’s not too far fetched to suggest that both men will play a pivotal role for their teams after both outfits suffered defeats last time out.
The Lions go into the game on the back of a hammering by the Jaguares in Buenos Aires albeit with a weakened team but a defeat nonetheless, while the Reds were shocked late on in their game by the Crusaders.
It’s time for both to hit back immediately and pick up a win, something the Lions will be favoured to do because they’re at home – a place where they nowadays rarely lose – but writing off the Reds would be extremely foolish. The reality is both the Lions and the Reds are in a similar sort of position – they’ve been decent enough, but haven’t been wholly convincing so far, much like their No 10s who’ll go head to head.
The Lions are two from three: they struggle to down the Cheetahs (28-25), they looked impressive against the Waratahs (55-36), and then they lost to the Jaguares (36-24).
Again, as is so often the case, how the Lions and Reds perform on Saturday evening will depend on well, or poorly, Jantjies and Cooper perform.
Neither has hit the form they are known for, with Jantjies, pictured left, showing glimpses of his potential against the Waratahs, but he will want a big performance this weekend especially with Handre Pollard earmarked as the Springboks’ first-choice No 10 struggling for form and Pat Lambie again injured.
Also, after the Boks suffered a disastrous 2016, an international offering in which Jantjies was heavily involved, the Lions flyhalf will be keen to show that in the right environment and with the right players around him he is good enough to do the business at Test level. Cooper, standing opposite him, will provide the perfect test for him; a challenge he will relish.
The Reds man, too, despite his more than 60 Tests for the Wallabies, will be hoping to regain the form that made him such a sensational gamechanging player of a few years ago. There was a time when Cooper, pictured right, with his behind-the-back passes, chip-kicks and dummies, was the best No 10 on the planet. He is far from that now … but his trickery is surely still stored away somewhere in his head and it’s surely a matter of time before he flourishes again.
It’s still early in the season and Jantjies didn’t even play against the Jaguares last week, but in professional sport there is no time to waste and every match is an opportunity to show off your talents and be the match-winner, and the two flyhalves doing business on Saturday will be acutely aware they have a big part to play.
They’re exciting protagonists who have the class to mesmerise opponents – and the fans – but like all men who’re deemed to have the X-factor, they can also get it horribly wrong on the day. Which Jantjies and Cooper will we see on Saturday?