VIDEO: Mood(ie) Boks have a 'mature' solution
When Bulls Director of Rugby Jake White earlier this year waxed lyrical about teenager Canan Moodie, the scoffers suggested he was hyperbolizing.
However, the 19-year-old made those naysayers eat their words when he was named in the Springbok starting XV for the Rugby Championship crunch match against the Wallabies in Sydney on Saturday.
White’s prediction of a bright Bok future is a step closer and the national team’s coach, Jacques Nienaber, is equally as enthusiastic about the Paarl-born youngster as White.
Moodie will make his Test debut on the right wing in the place of World Cup winner Warrick Gelant.
His call-up comes when injury and suspension have left the Boks thin on the right wing.
Cheslin Kolbe is sidelined with a fractured jaw and Kurt-Lee Arendse has been suspended as a result of his mid-air collision with All Black flyhalf Beauden Barrett in the Round One Rugby Championship outing in Nelspruit earlier this month.
“This will be a great test for Canan,” Nienaber said, after naming his team for the Rugby Championship Round Four encounter in Sydney.
“He’s a very talented player, who will enjoy this opportunity.”
It is not just his obvious talent and sublime URC form that has impressed the Bok coach.
(Continue below …)
The youngster has shown a maturity beyond his years since joining the national set-up – a characteristic that White spoke about many months ago, long before Moodie was formally on the Bok radar.
“We’re excited to get him into the mix,” Nienaber said from the team’s training base in Australia.
“He had an awesome season in the URC,” the coach said of the young Bulls flyer’s form for the team that lost to the Stormers in the United Rugby Championship Final.
Nienaber said they have been monitoring the teenager’s form closely.
“We are excited to see him get the opportunity to put his skillset into a test match,” the coach said.
“He has been with us for a month now and we have been happy to see his progress within the team and how comfortable he became in the team [environment].
“He is very coachable and obviously he has the skills.
“When you work with him, you wouldn’t say he is a 19-year-old.
“He is very mature for his age and has a good rugby brain on him.”
Moodie made his Bulls debut in a Currie Cup match against the Western Province on January 19 and played in his first URC outing 10 days later.
“Canan is one of the best players I’ve ever coached,” the Bulls boss, White, said.
“He’s got everything.”
@king365ed
@rugby365com
