CENTRE STOCKS: A lot of fruit on the No 13 tree

When Jake White said after his Vodacom Bulls team had beaten Ulster in their Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash at Loftus that he’d look to use Canan Moodie more at outside centre this season, it was something that had an air of inevitability about it.

And that’s not just because Moodie played well against the Irish team. It has always been a question of when Moodie will be given the opportunity to play more often in the midfield, it was never if. Anyone who thinks back to the Springbok World Cup warmup game against the All Blacks in London last August should get excited about the thought of Moodie wearing the No 13.

That was the position he played in that game at Twickenham, and he delivered a performance of telling impact that you seldom see from an opposing player against New Zealand. Moodie was such an influential presence in that game that you wondered why the Boks brains trust didn’t just make him a permanent fixture there.

The answer might lie in the other players that feature in that position for the Boks - Jesse Kriel and Lukhanyo Am are both experienced international players and world class players too. There might also be a feeling that Moodie, who only turns 22 on 5 November, still has some growing to do before taking up what will probably become the position where he will become world renowned.

JEAN ALSO SERVED APPRENTICESHIP ON THE WING

Bulls director of rugby White knows only too well that there’s profit from allowing a player to gain experience in another position before switching him to his defining role. It happened to Jean de Villiers when White was coaching the Boks. When the future Bok captain counted out the number of tries on his fingers that Marius Joubert, as fine an attacking outside centre as there was on his day, scored against the All Blacks at Ellis Park in White’s first season in charge of the Boks (2004), he was wearing the No 11 to signify left wing.

De Villiers played most of his early international rugby on the wing, and only switched into the midfield, together with Jaque Fourie, who also played quite a bit on the wing initially, for a game against Australia in Johannesburg in 2005. That was a fixture separate from the Tri-Nations and White used it to experiment. The experiment came up trumps, with De Villiers, at inside centre, and Fourie combining beautifully as the No 12/No 13 combination, and they went on to become a record Bok midfield partnership before Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel broke their record against Ireland in Durban in July.

When speaking of Moodie’s credentials for outside centre, he pinpointed his defensive abilities, describing the product of Paarl rugby country - ironically the same as De Villiers - as one of the best tacklers he’s worked with. Defence is of course important in that position, and in the midfield generally, and when De Villiers was a young player White told me in an interview that he was one of the best defensive readers of the game. That was more important to him than De Villiers’ creative abilities on attack that were getting a lot of airplay at the time.

One of the drawbacks of South Africa’s seemingly interminable treadmill of a rugby season is that there isn’t a proper off-season where players can work on their conditioning. In Moodie’s case, although this might sound strange because of his height and physical presence on the field, he could possibly do with some strengthening. He looks like a player who could fill out more and become more formidable than he is when in a position to bounce opponents off.

HARTZENBERG COULD BE A MOODIE TOO

Here’s the thing though about outside centre - it’s an area where South Africa has a lot of players of big potential who could also come into the frame by the next World Cup in 2027. And not all of them are currently playing that position.

Ethan Hooker, the Sharks’ 21-year-old rising star, is playing on the wing and spoke earlier in the week of how he feels he will benefit from that by making him a more versatile player and give him utility value that could see his elevation to Bok duty come earlier than it otherwise might. Like De Villiers two decades ago.

Another player currently playing on the wing who probably has outside centre in his future, and has all the potential to be as big a star as Moodie when he does get to make the switch, is Suleiman Hartzenberg. Hartzenberg has been around for a few seasons now after making his debut for the Stormers as a teenager so it is easy to think he’s older than he is. He is in fact only 21, and only turned that age in May.

As a junior it was as a centre that he excelled and while the experienced Ruhan Nel, now that he is back from injury, is bringing some stability to the Stormers midfield that might have been lacking at stages of last year, Stormers coach John Dobson would probably tell you that Hartzenberg is the future at No 13.

That’s if Wandesile Simelane, who moved to the Stormers from the Bulls last year as a swop for Cornel Smit, doesn’t kick on and realise his own considerable potential. At the Stormers, like South African rugby in general, the tree of outside centres is carrying some ripening fruit. And with Dobson facing the challenge sometime in the future of having to fit Manie Libbok and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu into the same team, meaning surely that Feinberg-Mngomezulu plays at 12, don’t bet your entire house against the versatile Damian Willemse playing outside centre.

Former Stormers coach Robbie Fleck, himself an outside centre of renown in his playing days, once told me he thought Willemse would make a brilliant No 13, and he certainly has the credentials for the position. Should he ever play there for the Stormers as a starter - he has moved there when needed and done well during games - he could well end up adding to the outside resources at national level.

VAN WYK ADDS TO THE LIST

Not that the Stormers’ embarrassment of riches at outside centre compares with that of the Sharks - the Durbanites have a world class World Cup winner in Lukhanyo Am still on their books, but it is the 20-year-old sensation Jurenzo “Boogieman” Julius who is currently forcing Hooker to play on the wing.

And then there’s Henco van Wyk. The 23-year-old was considered by many to be the best outside centre in the URC a few seasons ago but his progress was stopped by an injury that put the Emirates Lions players out for most of last year. He’s back now though and showed glimpses as a replacement in the big win over Edinburgh last week of his known potential.

He’s playing behind Erich Cronje right now and the former Southern Kings player is also a good outside centre, although not a potential international in the way that Van Wyk is. It’s surely only a matter of time though before Van Wyk is strutting his stuff in the Lions No 13 jersey, and if he picks up where he left off, there’s another player who contributes to an overflow of riches in a position that has been held down by some legends of the game in this country, such as the aforementioned Fourie, the current players Kriel and Am, and of course perhaps the best of the lot, Danie Gerber.

WEEKEND VODACOM UNITED RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP FIXTURES

Glasgow Warriors v Zebre (Glasgow, Friday 20.35)

Cardiff Rugby v Scarlets (Cardiff, Saturday 16.00)

Benetton v Hollywoodbets Sharks (Treviso, Saturday 16.00)

Edinburgh v DHL Stormers (Edinburgh, Saturday 18.15)

Leinster v Munster (Dublin, Saturday 18.45)

Ospreys v Vodacom Bulls (Swansea, Saturday 20.35)

Ulster v Connacht (Belfast, Saturday 21.00)

Dragons v Emirates Lions (Newport, Sunday 15.30)