Getting the Bok midfield right

NOT since 2011, when Jean de Villiers and Jaque Fourie were considered the best 12-13 pairing in the game, have the Boks boasted a midfield duo that has brought comfort and excitement.

Five years on from when De Villiers and Fourie carved up the best defences in rugby, the Boks are still trying to find the right mix in midfield – a problem as significant as the halfback issues facing coach Allister Coetzee.

Serious questions are being asked about the ability of Faf de Klerk and Elton Jantjies, and whether Coetzee should continue with them as the first-choice scrumhalf and flyhalf in the national team. But outside them there are serious questions, too.

Coetzee used Damian de Allende and Lionel Mapoe in midfield in the three Tests against Ireland in June, and twice against Argentina, and then changed them for Juan de Jongh and Jesse Kriel for the last two Tests against Australia and New Zealand.

Neither pairing looked comfortable or settled, but it shouldn’t be a surprise.

De Allende and Mapoe hadn’t played alongside each other before, and De Allende hasn’t played with Jantjies on his inside before, either.

Move on to the Rugby Championship and one’s got to wonder how often De Jongh and Kriel have played next to each other? And, again, De Jongh at 12 would hardly have played outside flyhalf Jantjies.

Should we then be surprised the Bok backs have looked like strangers to each other? The question now is, who will Coetzee try next?

Well, the De Allende-Kriel combination hasn’t been tried yet this year, but maybe it should.

The combination was, after all, the Boks’ first choice in the latter stages of last year, at the World Cup.

De Allende and Kriel started all five Tests. It is clear that the De Allende-Kriel combination worked to a degree and was favoured by former coach Heyneke Meyer.

But then Coetzee could always try De Jongh and Mapoe; the former a man who knows and understands what the coach wants; the latter a player who has hardly been given a fair deal in the Bok team.

Down the line the national coach will also be able to consider Jan Serfontein and possibly even Handre Pollard at 12, while current fullback Johan Goosen has also played a lot of rugby for his French club, Racing Metro, at 13.

Then there’s young rookie Lions centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg, but he appears to have lost some confidence since returning from a lengthy break following his endeavours in Super Rugby.

All of the centres mentioned here are quality operators who have shown they can play on the big stage, but getting the right combination together is the tricky part.

Good luck to Coetzee and backline coach Mzwandile Stick.