The Dud Allende…a man for more seasons

We all saw a lift in Dud in the 3rd and 4th tests. He seemed more engaged, clearer in his mission. It shows up in the stats….he passed 9 times in test 3 and 7 times in test 4…..vs only 7 times in tests 1 and 2 combined. He carried 26 times vs 14 times in tests 1 and 2. Defenders beaten were even at 2 in all the tests, except for 3 in test 1.

In aggregate he carried 40 times to beat 9 defenders….fairly typical mediocre Dud numbers. He did, however, score two tries. Seemingly more aware that scoring is actually the objective. He gained 125 meters at 3 meters a carry. Again fairly typical Dud numbers. However, in 4 tests he was one of the few Boks who never made one clean break.

Defensively he made 45 tackles missing 11, tackling at a below team average 80%. He also made zero dominant tackles. Which is surprising given his hype about being a physical tackler. Even Morne van der Bergh made a dominant tackle.

Dud is a programmed player as you can see his passing numbers picking up in the 3rd and 4 tests, which was probably coaching. Oddly he never kicked the ball in the series….remember when he was programmed to grubber everything.

Actually as I said at the time his 3rd and 4th tests were among the best he has played in a Bok jersey. Which shows he isn’t far off peak Dud Allende. But how does a Bok center run 40 times and not make a clean break.! He is so programmed to take contact, vs seeking space.

And his defensive stats never capture the many times he misreads the situation and doesn’t move to the right spot. No doubt those pundits who are suspicious of stats will endorse that gap in a purely statistical view at the current state of rugby analysis. We also can’t quantify what we are missing on attack without a creative inside center, how much more our wings can be given the ball off structured play.

So I expect we will see him back at the WC, the man is made of tungsten and never gets hurt, apparently he doesn’t age either

To be quite frank, all I saw was some lateral passing and running into people. Not a great deal else. The bar has been set so low over the past eleven years that catching a rugby ball and passing it a few metres to another slow-moving biped is apparently now evidence of midfield excellence.

Compare that with Esterhuizen. In the blink of an eye he absorbed two defenders and, at considerable speed, produced a deft no-look offload that found its target. There was purpose to the involvement: commit defenders, manipulate the space and put somebody else into it. One man was playing flank and demonstrated the instincts of a centre; the other was occupying centre and largely demonstrated the instincts of a flank.

Or perhaps I've missed another of Rassie's great tactical revolutions: the invention of the inside plank and outside plank — a quasi-forward midfield pairing designed for low-powered tractoring, lateral distribution and the occasional fluttering pass.

De Allende's performance actually reminded me considerably of his 2018 end-of-year Test against England: plenty of accumulation without much consequence. Carries, touches and involvement gradually pile up on the stat sheet, creating the impression that an enormous amount has happened. But strip away the volume and ask what those involvements actually created — which defenders were manipulated, which line breaks were generated, which teammates were put into space — and suddenly there is rather less to admire.

That's always been the distinction for me. Involvement is not the same thing as influence.