Jean de Villiers: Manie Libbok puts Springboks in a ‘selection dilemma’ as he doesn’t ‘tick all the boxes’
Jean de Villiers believes that Manie Libbok's struggles off the tee has created a 'dilemma'.
Former Springboks centre Jean de Villiers believes that Manie Libbok’s struggles off the tee has created a “dilemma” for Rassie Erasmus.
Libbok starred in South Africa’s 48-7 thumping of Argentina to clinch the Rugby Championship title as the Boks ran in four of their seven tries whilst he was on the pitch.
However, the fly-half was relieved of the kicking duties for the encounter after he missed a clutch penalty in the final minutes of the previous clash against Los Pumas which the Boks lost 29-28.
Springboks dilemma
De Villiers believes that his excellence around the park makes him an ideal fly-half for the side but that his woes off the tee complicates the selection.
The former Bok captain was joined by 2023 Rugby World Cup winner and a teammate of Libbok’s last year and at the Stormers, Deon Fourie, and fellow ex-Springbok Hanyani Shimange on the Boks Office podcast where they discussed the fly-half’s performances.
“Manie was outstanding after last week and all the backlash that he got on social media and what he produced this weekend was, at times, mind-boggling with those kicks,” Fourie said.
“That’s just how he is and with the head he has on his shoulders, he can easily brush off criticism like that and just perform again – I’ve seen it with the Stormers.”
De Villiers agreed with Fourie’s assessment of Libbok’s ability to put errors in his game behind him, adding: “It does seem that is just his character, emotionally it must have some sort of impact on his preparation but when he goes into the game, it doesn’t affect him too much. Even when he makes mistakes within a game he’s able to brush it off quite easily.”
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However, the legendary Bok believes that his inaccuracies off the tee does create a bit of an issue when it comes to selecting a team.
“It’s an interesting one though because they took the kicking responsibilities away from him and it puts him in a bit of a dilemma in terms of his value to a team as a ten,” he continued.
“Now you need to almost separate the two and say, ‘we are picking our fly-half, who do we want’ and then there needs to be another conversation to say who is going to be our goal kicker and it makes it difficult for a player to justify their position.
“If you aren’t one that gets acknowledged as a goal kicker as well as a fly-half, it becomes a tricky one for him.”
Ex-prop Shimange chimed in likening the miss in Argentina to a hooker failing to hit his jumper at a lineout, with the timing of the error playing a crucial role in the perception of a player.
“Look he’ll certainly kick again, it’s who is around him in terms of personnel,” he said.
“It’s the life of a kicker, it’s the same thing – Deon when playing a hooker you miss a lineout throw in the first minute of the game, no one cares, miss it at the end of the game when it’s a one-point game and you need to win that lineout then all of sudden you have cost the team the game.
“You know forget about the guy that maybe kicked the ball out short and gave you that opportunity or the knock-on or whatever it is, there certain things that are more highlighted than others in games.”
Core skills of a fly-half
Again De Villiers was in agreement but added that in recent times, South Africa have become accustomed to their fly-half kicking for goal, a shift from his playing days when Percy Montgomery was the first-choice kicker.
He further explained that the former full-back was also the first choice in his position.
“As a player whatever the position you play, you’ve got responsibilities within that role and you need to be able to tick all the boxes,” he explained.
“If there are boxes that you’re not able to tick then obviously the guys that you compete with, if they can do that, you’re missing out.
“As a hooker that’s a core [lineout throwing], as a fly-half, we have got used to goal kicking being a core skill as well if you’ve got a guy like Percy Montgomery who plays at full-back every single weekend and kicks at 90% – then no problem but we don’t have that in the Bok set-up at the moment.”
