VIDEO: The Manie Libbok 'dilemma'

WATCH as the Boks Office crew share their views on Manie Libbok after his impressive performance against Argentina at Mbombela Stadium.

The Springboks recorded a 48-7 win to secure this year’s Rugby Championship title and Libbok was pulling the strings on attack with great success.

He terrorised Argentina’s defenders with his variation on attack, which included some excellent cross-field kicks and kick passes.

The playmaker eventually left the field in the 66th minute to a standing ovation from fans in the stands.

It was a challenging week for Libbok ahead of that Test as he faced a barrage of criticism and abuse from fans on social media for his performance in South Africa’s 28-29 defeat to the same opponents in Santiago del Estero in Round Five.

The 27-year-old could not find the direction with his last-minute penalty attempt in that match and was singled out as the scapegoat.

Libbok might have turned things around in a space of a week, but there are still questions that need to be answered.

He was not given the goal-kicking responsibilities for that Mbombela clash and Springbok legend Jean de Villiers believes that could be a concern going forward.

In conversation with Boks Office host Hanyani Shimange and guest Deon Fourie, De Villiers raised a few points on the matter.

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“Because they took the kicking responsibilities away from him, it puts him in a bit of a dilemma in terms of his value to a team, ” said De Villiers.

“There is a lot of value to him as a No.10, but now you almost need to separate the two and decide who we want as our flyhalf and then you need to have another conversation about who is going to be the goal-kicker.

“It makes it difficult to justify your position if you are not one who gets acknowledged as a goal-kicker as well, so it a tricky one for him.”

De Villiers added: “Whatever position you play, you have responsibilities within that role, and you need to be able to tick all the boxes.

“If there are boxes that you are not able to tick then obviously you are missing out.

“As a hooker, that [line-out throwing] is a core skill and as a flyhalf we get used to goal-kicking being a core skill as well.

“If you’ve got a guy like Percy Montgomery who plays at fullback every weekend and kicks at 90 percent, then it’s no problem, but we don’t have that in the Bok set-up at the moment.”

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