What is De Villiers planning for Pienaar and Steyn?

Is Pieter de Villiers playing discordant musical chairs with Ruan Pienaar and Francois Steyn? Will these two players’ amazing versatility and prodigious talent prove to be a curse?

I ask this because it was under Jake White that the curse first came to the fore. White used these talented ex-Grey College boys in virtually every 22-man line-up for Tests, albeit mainly on the bench because of their all-round abilities. They were seldom first choice, but they were both selected.

That dubious “partnership” seems to have been broken. The question is: What is Coach de Villiers planning for them? In the first Test against Wales, Pienaar was on the bench and Steyn was dropped. For the second Test, it’s Steyn on the bench and Pienaar out in the cold.

Overall there are no surprises in the team selection for Loftus Versfeld — but I sincerely hope that the Pienaar/Steyn conundrum isn’t about to become a trend with one warming the bench while the other is left out of the squad. When will there be room for both of them in a future starting Springbok line-up? This is truly worrying. There’s a very real danger that both could fade into obscurity because coaches believe that they are too talented to confine to just one position despite the fact that this would allow them to develop and make that position their own.

You know the saying: “Jack of all trades, master of none.”

In their case, ability is a curse. But they wouldn’t be the first players sidelined by their own talent. Remember Brent Russell? He disappeared from the scene after setting what must be a record for warming the subs bench in Tests as well as provincial matches — all because of his prodigious versatility.

Pienaar had a raw deal from White who once admitted that he [Pienaar] was better than Ricky Januarie but he gave preference to Januarie as he knew him from his World Cup-winning under-21 side. Now it looks like De Villiers is going to continue what White began.

In fact, it became clear right from the start of their international careers in 2006 that both Pienaar and Steyn had the talent to cover all seven backline positions. White fully utilised these skills and they became his first-choice reserves. Steyn, however, was a bit more fortunate and was used in a more fulltime role in the Rugby World Cup where he gave a good account of himself.

Pienaar, on the other hand, has never really been given this chance in the absence of first-choice Fourie du Preez. Pundits and experts put that down to the fact that the then 23-year-old was “too young” to take on front-line responsibilities.

Now he’s 24 and it looks like he’s about to be sidelined permanently.

I accept that neither Pienaar nor Steyn had the greatest of seasons in the Super-14 competition. But Pienaar was played out of position (that versatility again) and Steyn was played all over the place. However, Conradie wasn’t even first choice for the Stormers and spent most of the competition on the bench.

When Januarie was suspended for the first Test in Bloemfontein, Pienaar should have replaced him. That would have been the logical choice, I would have thought. But, then again, I have also learned, in more than 30 years of closely following rugby, that a coach’s logic can sometimes be a bit mystifying.

So, with Du Preez and Januarie again unavailable it’s a mystery to me why De Villiers opted to have Pienaar on the bench and play 30-year-old Bolla Conradie – despite his pronouncement when naming his 30-man training squad after the initial training camp that “having a bigger squad here is just setting the tone for four years”.

Strange logic, indeed, to then choose a 30-year-old over a man six years his junior — unless, of course, he’s hoping Conradie has the staying power to follow in the footsteps of Wallaby great, George Gregan.

Maybe De Villiers has not yet started those “four years” and this is very much a short-term venture to first establish himself and build afterwards.

Meanwhile, speaking of Gregan, it was against the Wallabies a year ago, almost to the day, that Pienaar played his first run-on Test (Du Preez and Januarie were both injured) and more than held his own against the man billed as one of the most brilliant scrumhalves ever. And then he was back on the bench again!

Nevertheless, congratulations are due to Conradie. He grabbed the opportunity with both hands and is now on the bench for the second Test. But Pienaar, who has not been given a fair chance to settle and grow, and who I felt added extra vigour to the backline in the last 20 minutes or so after he came onto the field in Bloemfontein, has now been dumped.

Who is going to be sidelined for Italy?

Any international side would count their lucky stars to have two players of such great potential as Steyn and Pienaar.

South Africa, it seems, has talent to waste.