Ben Youngs: Why ‘aggressive’ and ‘subtle’ Benhard Janse van Rensburg doesn’t have the ‘question marks’ of other England centres
Bristol Bears centre Benhard Janse van Rensburg and England legend Ben Youngs.
England great Ben Youngs believes that Benhard Janse van Rensburg has the all-round skill set to separate him from their other midfield options.
Earlier this month head coach Steve Borthwick made the controversial decision to include the centre in his squad for a training camp ahead of the Nations Championship.
Janse van Rensburg qualifies on residency after the RFU were able to effectively annul a cap he earned for South Africa U20s which initially tied him to the Springboks.
It has caused a stir in England but, purely on the attributes he can offer to the team, Youngs understands why Borthwick has brought him in at the first opportunity.
Janse van Rensburg offers ‘physicality’ and ‘subtlety’
“He is someone that is extremely physical but he’s got more subtleties than that. You look at the way Bristol play, they move the ball, they have subtleties, they play with great width and you can’t be a centre in the Bristol mould, and the way they play, without having great distribution skills,” he said on the For The Love of Rugby podcast.
“The big point that Benhard also brings is you look off lineouts, you look off launches, his ability to actually carry through traffic and win momentum and gain line.
“He’s brilliant off lineouts. It looks like a maul for all intents and purposes, an insert comes in, they break away from a maul and where Janse van Rensburg is so good is coming into those seams.
“I think that’s something [Tommy] Freeman was looked at to do during the Six Nations. Then you look at Ollie Lawrence, who is someone else that can do that.
“I look at it as more seeing what he can bring – is his ceiling higher than what’s currently in there? – and that’s maybe what they’re looking at.”
Fraser Dingwall, Seb Atkinson and Henry Slade were the other out-and-out centres named in the England squad with Lawrence and Max Ojomoh the big omissions.
Many felt the in-form Ojomoh, after his man of the match performance against Argentina in November, was particularly unfortunate to miss out, but Youngs has suggested that the other options don’t cover all the bases.
Ticks all boxes
“If you look at Fraser Dingwall, a brilliant distributor, what’s the question mark – has he physically got it at Test match level?” he said.
“He ticks one box but still question marks about another. You look at Max Ojomoh, can he distribute? Absolutely. Physically he’s not a big guy in stature and he hasn’t had a lot of go’s, so we don’t quite know about him yet.
“Ollie Lawrence is physical, brings all that and has a lot of Test experience but doesn’t have the distribution.”
He added: “When you look at Janse van Rensburg, he does cover both. He covers you in the sense of distribution but there’s also a bit of an edge to how he plays.
“He’s aggressive, he can carry through traffic, he can mix it in a team like Bristol where they aren’t renowned for having that bit of edge.
“That’s where it comes back to Steve and how he wants to play. That’s probably why he’s going, ‘this guy can potentially do the two things that I want from one of my midfielders’.”
READ MORE: ‘It doesn’t sit right with me’ – England great hits out at Benhard Janse van Rensburg call-up