Centre Superstars, who is tops?

As the Springboks line up to face the Wallabies on Saturday 05 September 2009, Jean De Villiers and Jaque Fourie will make Springbok history as they overtake the record set as a centre combination by De Wet Barry and Marius Joubert.

Barry and Joubert both played schoolboy rugby at Paarl Gymnasium, and both went on to establish themselves at provincial level before earning Springbok call ups, where they played with a ‘radar like sense’ of where the other was on the pitch, with Barry often being able to offload the ball blindly to Joubert in complete confidence that he would be there to receive.

De Wet Barry was often criticised for his direct, hard running approach. Labelled as being unimaginative, he often broke the line with that same ‘direct’ aproach, enabling him to put Joubert into space. He was a rock on defense, most memorable for me was being at the 2003 Springboks VS Wallabies test at Newlands where De Wet Barry tackled the KAK out of Steve Kefu, practically ending any hope of Kefu’s rugby career right there.

In 2004, Joubert became only the 2nd South African  to score a hatrick against the All Blacks (after Ray Mordt accomplished the feat during the infamous ‘flour bomb test’ at Eden Park, Auckland) en route to South Africa’s Tri Nations victory that same year. Joubert also famously scored a double against the Wallabies, taking Chris Latham for an absolute NIL in the process

The combination between Barry and Joubert was one of my favourite aspects of the Springbok game during that ‘era’. Let’s take a look at Joubert’s hatrick, with Barry playing a vital role in one of his three tries: (compliments of www.rugbydump.com)

Enter: Jean De Villiers & Jaque Fourie…

After sustaining a knee injury just minutes into his Springbok debut in November 2002 against France, JDV made his return to the Bok jersey, playing a vital role in the Springboks 2004 Tri Nations victory. Both he and his former Paarl Gymnasium teammate, Joubert earned the joint try-scoring lead in the 2004 competition, with three apiece.

Like Jean De Villiers, Jaque Fourie played most of his early rugby for the Springboks out on the wing. He has since cemented his claim on the Springbok #13 jersey, and is widely regarded as the best #13 in world rugby at present. Jaque not only shows great pace for a centre, but is also incredibly strong in the tackle, solid on defence and maintains a high turnover rate at the breakdown. Fourie is the only international rugby player to have scored a try against every international team he has faced. He will earn his 50th test cap this weekend.

Lets take a look at his double against the All Blacks:

Which of the two is the greatest Springbok centre pairing of the modern era?