Jake White: Canan Moodie will play 100 Tests for the Springboks

Bulls head coach Jake White believes that young star Canan Moodie has what it takes to play 100 Tests for the Springboks after the outside back was called up to the national squad for the first time.

Moodie linked up with the Springboks squad on Monday after head coach Jacques Nienaber called up the teenager for backline cover after it was confirmed that wing Kurt-Lee Arendse had been suspended for four weeks.

White was full of praise for the 19-year-old, who can play various positions across the backline and has shown maturity since bursting onto the professional scene last season, featuring prominently for the Bulls in their charge to the United Rugby Championship final.

“He’s got everything and, to be fair, he’s actually a centre and that’s the irony of the whole thing. He’s playing wing and full-back but he’s actually a 13,” White told Sport24.

“I’m obviously [happy] but it’s not just me. Everybody, the whole team and coaching staff are very happy.”

Future Springbok centurion?

The Bulls coach is convinced that Moodie will have no problems at Test level and even tipped the young speedster to play a century of Tests for the Springboks.

“He was at training today and the next thing we got a call saying we’ve got to send him to the Boks,” White said. “He was in tears, man. It’s a massive thing for a young boy.

“He’s going to make it … he’s going to play 100 Tests for South Africa.

“Going to see him and telling him that he’s been picked into the Springbok side makes coaching so worthwhile for us.”

Squad balance key to development

White revealed that the more experienced players in his set-up were key for young Moodie to flourish at such a high level.

“Guys like Lionel Mapoe, Cornal Hendricks and Harold Vorster are very good for him, too, because they help him understand what he’s got to do,” said White.

“That’s one of the reasons I wasn’t scared to put him in because I’ve got good senior players around him.

“But he’s got it. The one thing about him is, on Saturday morning, we’d just started pre-season and he was running on his own, doing a bleep test trying to get fit on his own.

“Nobody asked him but he was putting in extras. That’s the sort of guy he is.”

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