Coetzee’s reshuffling of centres risky

SPRINGBOK coach Allister Coetzee’s decision to massively reshuffle his backline for this Saturday’s Rugby Championship match against the Wallabies in Brisbane (12.05pm) is a risk vs reward decision.

Coetzee dropped centres Damian de Allende and Lionel Mapoe and brought in Francois Hougaard on the left wing with Bryan Habana moving to the right.

Inside centre Juan de Jongh is the only genuine No 12 centre in the 23-man squad.

In the past‚ the number on the back of the centres meant little, but in the modern world and with modern attacking patterns‚ inside centre is key to organising defence.

The inside centre’s role is to move the defensive line up as cohesively as possible and also decide on the unit’s line speed.

These are splitsecond decisions a No 12 has to make. The rest have to follow his lead, while the 13 then decides on whether the defence needs to fold or fan out.

But No 12 dictates how the backline will attempt to snuff out attack and it’s a job that requires a calm head.

De Jongh is adept at doing it‚ but if he goes down injured in the first minute of the game‚ who fulfils that role?

Morné Steyn‚ a flyhalf‚ could come in and play No 12. But he does not have the same understanding of the nuances of the role. So Coetzee’s decision‚ while positive‚ could also explode in his face.

In one-on-one situations De Jongh seldom misses tackles and he will offer good feet on attack.

But attack has not been the major issue for the Boks this season – they’ve scored a respectable 12 tries in five matches.

Their major area of weakness has been defence.

It’s not so much individual defensive errors either‚ but system errors where players were out of alignment because they did not push up in a single line‚ or didn’t fold when they needed to. — TMG Digital