Springboks roll eyes at Janse van Rensburg – allowing him to jump queue sends out worrying message
Simon Halliday cannot understand why England have promoted a 29-year-old South African ahead of the talented centres coming through in this country
All selections at Test level are subjective and prone to engender debate, but I find Steve Borthwick’s choice of Benhard Janse van Rensburg in his latest England training squad both infuriating and depressing.
This is no personal slight on Janse van Rensburg. He can only do his best for Bristol Bears. I just cannot understand why England have gone to such lengths to promote a 29-year-old South African ahead of a host of talented centres coming through in this country. What message does that send to them and the pathway as a whole?
I am based in South Africa and know a few former Springboks. When you ask them about Janse van Rensburg, they just smile. There are any number of great players here who cannot get into the Springboks set-up. Jurenzo Julius at the Sharks is a talented player. If Janse van Rensburg came back here, I am not sure whether he would be playing at a prominent level.
In my opinion, he has not been that against top-quality opposition in the Champions Cup. I watched him against Northampton on Friday and questioned why we are doing this when we have English-qualified players who have come through the system as good as Max Ojomoh at Bath. It sends a very worrying message to aspiring players.
I played with Ojomoh’s dad, Steve, who asked me a number of years ago about Max. I could see he was – and is – a hugely talented player who just needed to get his opportunity. He finally got his chance for England, against Argentina when he was man of the match. He can play and is a great distributor. England have pace to burn out wide, but you need someone who understands the art of distribution to make the most of those weapons.
It is not just Ojomoh. You cannot say that Seb Atkinson or Tommy Freeman have had a proper go at centre yet. Then you have Will Wand, a recent standout for Leicester, and Olly Hartley, who I know Mark McCall rates highly at Saracens. The talent is there and there are more names I could mention. So why have we done this? And what does it say about the pathway for developing English-qualified players through the academy system?
This is not a new issue. If you looks at past imports, it does not feel like a coincidence that so many of them have been centres, such as Ben Te’o, Shontayne Hape, Riki Flutey or even Joel Tompkins and Sam Burgess from league. Then, when you count the number of different centre partnerships going back to the Stuart Lancaster and Eddie Jones days, it is a cricket score. Borthwick has continued the trend.
Anyone who has played international rugby at centre will tell you it takes time to acclimatise. It is a confidence position because you need to make the right decisions under constant pressure. When an inside centre receives the ball, there are about 10 plays they can do in terms of passing and running angles or kicking. It takes a run of games to understand how much time you have at international level and develop performance.
While we seem to jump around, the best teams tend to have settled centre partnerships. Go through the most successful England teams and there is Clive Woodward, Paul Dodge, Nick Preston; Jeremy Guscott, Will Carling, myself; Will Greenwood, Mike Tindall and Mike Catt.
I am not saying all those successful periods were down to the centres but you need stability in the middle of the field and we seem incapable of finding it. Just as we were working out whether Atkinson and Freeman could click long-term, we bring in Janse van Rensburg. If you were bringing in a superstar in a problem position then at least I would understand it. This, I just do not get, and why the Rugby Football Union went to such lengths with World Rugby to ensure Janse van Rensburg was eligible.
In this country, we talk so much about our pathways. This sends a terrible message to young English centres, that a 29-year-old South African can simply jump the queue.
[Source: Daily Telegraph - Simon Halliday opinion]
