Ruan Pienaar at 9 or 10?

There is a lot of talk about where Ruan Pienaar should be playing. Some say he is a scrum-half and some are calling for him to be a fly-half. Well, the player himself has come out and said that he prefers to play as a number 9. But Eddie Jones has said that he thinks Pienaar will be a great number 10, in the mould of a Stephen Larkham.

Now why this debate about Pienaar’s position? South Africa are going to come short when it comes to looking for a replacement fly-half for Butch James when Butch retires after the Lions tour next year. Right now, the candidates to take over the number 10 are Peter Grant and to a certain extent Frans Steyn. Looking at those two players, one could argue that Pienaar could actually turn out to be a better number 10 than those two. Looking at it from Pienaar’s point of view, the number 9 jursey seems to belong to Fourie du Preez and then Ricky Januarie. Right now, Pienaar is the third choice scrum-half for the Springboks.

So the debate is, would it not be best for Pienaar to move to fly-half for the sake of his career and also for the betterment of the Springboks? The floor is open for debate.