Magicians with no number: SA's appreciation for utility backs is new, the idea is old

19-year-old Canan Moodie's switch to fullback for the Bulls' United Rugby Championship meeting with Glasgow Warriors on Friday evening is another footnote in a folder called "SA's great switch to utility backs".

Employed at wing for the whole of the season to date, the Junior Springbok star has become Jake White's latest backline player to be switched to a different position.

It shouldn't really come as a surprise because the former World Cup-winning Springbok mentor and Bulls director of rugby has for the past year consistently reiterated that - taking into account how the modern game is evolving as well as the realities of the local game's salary cap - recruiting utility backs makes eminent sense from a rugby and business perspective.

More importantly, South African backs are increasingly playing like men with no numbers on their backs.

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White might've been beating this drum for a while, but the reality is that it's been the Stormers, with their eye-catching use of Warrick Gelant, Damian Willemse and Manie Libbok, who've made the broader rugby-loving public aware of that fact.

Gelant and Willemse might, on a given week, be selected at fullback and inside centre respectively yet invariably play first receivers during attacking movements.

Flyhalf Libbok is a play-maker in his own right, but regularly falls back at fullback to help out with his educated boot.

Even the Springboks, for all the criticism over their perceived lack of ambition on attack, quite liberally bring Willie le Roux up from fullback to take the lead in the 10-12 channel on attack.

Local rugby's appreciation for backs capable of fulfilling any position might be new, but the