{"id":791503,"date":"2026-07-10T14:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/791503\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T14:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:22:12","slug":"victor-matfield-the-springboks-star-who-is-the-most-underrated-player-in-world-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/791503\/","title":{"rendered":"Victor Matfield: The Springboks star who is the most ‘underrated player in world rugby’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Springboks legend Victor Matfield believes that centre Damian de Allende continues to be \u201cunderrated\u201d by observers after his stunning performance in their Nations Championship opener.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old has been given a rest this weekend by Rassie Erasmus after being a key part of their 45-21 demolition of England in Johannesburg last weekend.<\/p>\n

De Allende was handed the man of the match award, although it was later revealed that it should have gone to Damian Willemse, but that didn\u2019t detract from the midfield maestro\u2019s display.<\/p>\n

In fact, the two Damians were magnificent and Matfield<\/a> was quick to praise them both on the Rivals podcast.<\/p>\n

\u2018One of the best games I\u2019ve seen him play\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI must say again, Rassie somehow gets the best out of these players, even with the changes \u2013 our backline looked so good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDamian de Allende at 12, for me he\u2019s just a workhorse and I think he\u2019s probably the most underrated player in world rugby. The go-forward he gives South Africa<\/a>, the workrate around the park.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then Damian Willemse at 15, I thought it was one of the best games I\u2019ve seen him play. Under the high ball, I don\u2019t think he missed one the whole day. He\u2019s got that step and always beats the first guy.<\/p>\n

Coincidently, Willemse has replaced De Allende in the 12 jersey with Erasmus bringing in Aphelele Fassi at full-back for their clash against Scotland.<\/p>\n

Fassi is one of 10 changes to the side that defeated England<\/a> as the Boks once again look build depth in the squad after rotating their team.<\/p>\n

World Rugby rankings preview: How All Blacks could replace Springboks at summit while Wales eye two-year first<\/a><\/p>\n

Up front, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Paul de Villiers remain and Ruan Nortje, albeit the former has shifted from lock to the back-row.<\/p>\n

Du Toit and De Villiers are two of the three loose forwards with Evan Roos coming in for Jasper Wiese, who was another to impress against the English.<\/p>\n

Jasper Wiese now among \u2018the best\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other guy from South Africa I think people will need to start looking at as one of the best is Jasper Wiese,\u201d Matfield said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time he carries he gets metres and he gets South Africans on the front foot and from there a guy like Manie can control the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

With all the alterations, it will be interesting to see how the Boks approach their encounter with the Scots.<\/p>\n

At fly-half they have brought in Handre Pollard to replace Manie Libbok, who is seen as a more attacking and creative number 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you play Manie, you know the style is going to be different. We definitely will play a bit more, he likes to get the ball in his hands, but we still won\u2019t go away from [our strengths],\u201d Matfield added.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we don\u2019t have quick ball, we don\u2019t have momentum, and we have to go to the air. We move 30 or 40 metres up the field, get the ball back and have a go again.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Springboks legend weighs into Jacques Nienaber\u2019s future and \u2018spying\u2019 suggestions: \u2018South African fans are probably the greatest conspiracy theorists\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Springboks legend Victor Matfield believes that centre Damian de Allende continues to be \u201cunderrated\u201d by observers after his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,818,1182,44,760,1183,85,1185],"class_list":["post-791503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-victor-matfield"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}