IT HAS reached the stage where nobody knows for sure what the best Springbok midfield partnership is or who is best equipped to deal with the threat posed by the All Blacks’ Ryan Crotty and Malakai Fekitoa on Saturday.Last weekend’s 23-17 defeat to the Wallabies exposed yet more weaknesses for the Boks, as they try to find their feet under new coach Allister Coetzee.After the defeat to Argentina in Salta, the coach might have been a little hasty in making a midfield overhaul by swapping Damian de Allende and Lionel Mapoe for Juan de Jongh and Jesse Kriel.Granted, something had to be done after the aimless showing against Los Pumas, but the midfield changes showed that Mapoe paid for De Allende’s sins.Aside from the tackle he broke against Ireland to win the game for SA at Ellis Park in June, the Stormers inside centre has been five levels below par this season. In 2015 he was a demon in midfield.Alongside Kriel, the pair looked like they were dead certain to take the Boks to the nex...
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