Nacho Brex, sidelined with a detached bicep requiring surgery and facing three months on the sidelines, has named Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel as the best centre partnership in world rugby ahead of Italy's Test against the Springboks in Turin on Saturday.
"They're probably the best centre partnership in the world," Brex told Planet Rugby. "They have so many games together and I think they understand each other's games so well — a really complementary pair of high-quality, high-skill centres. They offer a very complete partnership and always provide the hardest of opposition."
Brex and his fellow centre Tommaso Menoncello — who is 12 weeks out after subluxing his shoulder playing for Toulouse against Exeter — have used the South African pairing as a personal benchmark. "Both Tommy and I see them as a benchmark, a pair of players that really challenge us to be better and for us to aspire to challenge them back," Brex said, adding that it was a "real shame" both were unavailable after the showing Italy gave the Springboks last year.
With the Brexoncello partnership absent, Gonzalo Quesada has named Leonardo Marin at inside centre and Paolo Odogwu outside him. Marin, a former fly-half, was identified by Quesada as early as June 2025 as a potential successor to Brex's playmaking role at centre, with Italy committed to operating with two principal distributors. The pair started together for Benetton against Edinburgh in the week before the international window.
Brex offered a measured assessment of the replacement pairing, noting that Odogwu — "squat, powerful, direct and comfortable challenging defenders physically" — gives Italy a carrying threat capable of occupying the Springbok defence.
Brex also indicated that he and Menoncello had done detailed analytical work on South Africa's attacking evolution ahead of what would have been their rematch. "Tommy and I studied every one of South Africa's Tests, including the Rugby Championship, and together we identified that the South African team had gone through an attacking evolution that made them considerably harder to defend against than the popular view of a team relying simply on collision," he said.