Two-time Rugby World Cup winner Damian de Allende was placed firmly in the conversation as one of the greatest inside centres in the history of the Test game in a candid RugbyPass interview from Japan — and the Springbok responded the way you would expect from a man who has built his Test career on the basics.
The compliment from his interviewer was unambiguous.
"Chatting to the lads and mates, I'd put you in the conversation as one of the best 12s to have ever played. I put you up there with Ma'a Nonu," he was told.
That was followed by a more pointed observation about why South Africa keep going back to him in the matches that decide everything.
"You get the biggest moments like quarterfinals of World Cup, semi-finals of World Cup, Wales 2019 — like score the tries, the big big moments," the interviewer said. "And that's kind of where you put players like yourself and they thrive."
De Allende, true to type, deflected back toward the unglamorous side of the job.
"For me I always put the team first," he said. "Yeah, I know I can do a lot more on the field, but I know sometimes doing the basics [expletive] well on the field is a lot more important than doing flashy things."
He was quick, however, to push back on the lazy stereotype that has followed him around for a decade — that he is purely a battering-ram 12.
"I think they also know that I'm not just a crash baller," he said. "Can actually play around with the ball and have lots of fun in the field."
The interview also offered a rare window into the man behind the jersey — and how little time the man behind the jersey actually spends thinking about himself. Asked what he did the moment he won the 2019 Rugby World Cup, his answer was not what you would expect from a Test centre at the peak of his powers.
"Even for me after winning the World Cup, the only thing I really wanted to do was go home and be with my family and just celebrate with them," de Allende said. "Because I think that for me was more important."
He went further still on the 2019 trophy tour.
"I think for me the most important thing after winning the 2019 World Cup was being there for my brother to be with him when he got married," he said. "I think that was more important for me than winning the World Cup and being on the trophy tour. That was more special for me. The World Cup was very nice, but it was more special for me to be there with my brother experiencing his big day in his life."
Family, in fact, has been the constant reframer for de Allende through his rise to two World Cup winner's medals.
"When I met my wife now, she also like — I would say like humbled me and brought me back down to earth and just made me realize that rugby is nice and everything, but it's not also the most important thing," he said. "And now I've been married with two kids and I think that's the most important thing for me."
His upbringing in Cape Town informs that grounding, and de Allende was open about how hard those early years were.
"Yeah. So, I didn't have much. Parents struggled a lot," he said. "For me, it's nice for me to always remind myself of how far I've come and how hard I've worked to get to where I am now. But I'll never forget what we went through as a family."
There is one member of the family, he confessed, who is still convinced he picked the wrong sport.
"He always thinks I should have just stayed with cricket," de Allende said of his father. "He thinks I was a better cricketer."
He still goes back to Milnerton High School in Cape Town whenever his schedule allows, partly out of loyalty to his old coach.
"I love where I come from. I love my high school. I go there every time I can," he said. "My old high school coach, he still coaches now at the high school. So, it's nice to go see him and see how he's doing and see how the kids are going. And it's nice. I'm the first Springbok from my high school, which is really nice."
Now playing his rugby in Japan, he has found a level of normality that the Test calendar rarely allows.
"The general thing for me is life in Japan is a bit more relaxed," he said. "It's more like after training you can go out and just be yourself and be a normal human being. And I think that's the thing I enjoy the most about Japan in terms of off the field after rugby."
