{"id":558764,"date":"2026-08-04T13:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T13:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/558764\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T13:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T13:56:09","slug":"springboks-legend-damian-de-allende-is-the-worlds-best-and-will-prove-it-against-jordie-barrett-during-greatest-rivalry-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/558764\/","title":{"rendered":"Springboks legend: Damian de Allende is the ‘world’s best’ and will prove it against Jordie Barrett during Greatest Rivalry Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Springboks<\/a> veteran Damian de Allende is the best centre in the world, not All Blacks\u2019 star Jordie Barrett.<\/p>\n

That is the view of legendary lock Victor Matfield, who believes that the soon-to-be Test centurion will prove that statement to be factual when the two superstar midfielders collide during the Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry Series.<\/p>\n

De Allende has been rested for the Springboks\u2019 trip to Argentina to tackle Los Pumas in Buenos Aires, which means that he will enter the highly anticipated showdown between the two giants of the international game with 99 Test caps under his belt.<\/p>\n

While the 34-year-old has been a crucial cog in the Springboks<\/a> backline since Rassie Erasmus took over the head coaching reins in 2018, he was also entrusted with the number 12 jumper under his predecessors \u2013 Heyneke Meyer and Allister Coetzee.<\/p>\n

Not only is De Allende primed to hit triple digits for the Boks during the series, but he is set to break Jean de Villiers\u2019 record for the most starts in the centres for South Africa in Test matches<\/a> \u2013 he needs just two more starts to equal the former captain\u2019s tally of 92.<\/p>\n

Victor Matfield: Damian de Allende is the best centre in the world<\/p>\n

Whilst the veteran centre has been a mainstay in South Africa\u2019s starting lineups for over a decade now and has been a fulcrum of the team that has won back-to-back World Cups and a British and Irish Lions Series, he is seldom mentioned as one of the best in the world \u2013 and unfairly so according to Matfield.<\/p>\n

The former Bok lock has backed De Allende to stamp his mark against the All Blacks<\/a> and prove that he is the best player in his position in the game while predicting that number eight Jasper Wiese will have a \u2018huge tour\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got two key players, and it\u2019s probably not the two you think I\u2019m going to mention. I think Jasper Wiese is going to be huge in this tour,\u201d Matfield remarked on the Rugby Rivals podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other one is Damian de Allende<\/a>, just the work rate that he puts in. Sacha [Feinberg-Mngomezulu] will be back, and he will be keeping him calm in that 10 jersey, helping him with making the right calls and just almost organising the whole attack. So for me, he is the player who is going to come through under pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know a lot of people say Jordie Barrett is the best 12 in the world. We\u2019ll see after this tour. I think Damian de Allende is the best 12 in the world, and he\u2019s been the best 12 in the world for a pretty long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springboks coaches have \u2018very clear\u2019 objectives for Argentina and won\u2019t make a \u2018big mistake\u2019 before All Blacks series<\/a><\/p>\n

Sir Steve Hansen: Springboks v All Blacks was a \u2018key\u2019 reason why neutral referees were brought in<\/a><\/p>\n

Roigard and Barrett backed to shine for the All Blacks<\/p>\n

Legendary All Blacks winger Sir John Kirwan joined Matfield on the podcast and immediately disagreed with the ex-Bok \u2013 so much so that he is willing to put a bet on it.<\/p>\n

The former Blues and Italy head coach predicts that Barrett will prove that he is the better inside centre and has backed scrum-half Cam Roigard and experienced playmaker Beauden Barrett to perform under pressure for Dave Rennie\u2019s charges during the series.<\/p>\n

Barrett is yet to earn a cap for New Zealand under the new All Blacks boss, who confirmed that the 35-year-old will feature in the opening game of the tour against the Stormers<\/a> on Friday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to put a bet on that. I think that Jordie Barrett will come out of this series as the best. So there is a little side bet,\u201d Kirwan said in reply to Matfield\u2019s prediction.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it will be Cam Roigard. Over the last sort of 24 months he has matured into one of these X-factor halfbacks, and to beat South Africa you need to have some X-factor players, and I think he\u2019s going to be that \u2013 under pressure, he\u2019ll step up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turning his focus to Barrett, he continued: \u201cThen I\u2019m really interested to see how Beauden goes this week against the Stormers. He\u2019s already been named by Dave Rennie, because I think that he\u2019s got X Factor. He\u2019s got that break-a-game moment \u2013 even off the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a game a few years ago, was it South Africa at Eden Park, where he came on, so I\u2019m pretty sure that he\u2019ll go from playing against the Stormers to at least the bench. I think he and Roigard will be the point of difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Ex-All Black claims just one Springboks great compares to \u2018complete package\u2019 Jordie Barrett and it\u2019s not Damian de Allende<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Springboks veteran Damian de Allende is the best centre in the world, not All Blacks\u2019 star Jordie Barrett.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[274825,1463,1464,76561,111,43,139,69,6327,1466,213],"class_list":["post-558764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-damian-de-allende","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-jordie-barrett","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}