Exactly. Although I do have to defend Ford against those calumnies. I'd say Fazlet at 12 is as much about our lack of another suitable option as it is about Ford's constitution.Mikey Brown wrote:Ah. You mean like negating the best back you've got by playing a guy that just drifts sideways but has been selected to kick goals because your fly-half has the temperament of a 14 year-old girl?Puja wrote:The problen with that is that, with a more bespoke distribution of skills, it becomes harder to swap players like-for-like. Say you pick Harry Thacker at hooker and he does a lot of turnovers, support play and jackalling, so you can then have two 6s in the back row. However, if Thacker is injured or out of form and his replacement is someone like Hibbard, then you can't just make one change as you're going to need to bring in someone to cover the jackalling. And you can't get rid of one of your back row, because he's the lineout option covering the fact that your 4 is a behemoth who doesn't really jump because you needed a big carrier to cover the fact that your hooker isn't a big carrier... although now you've picked Hibbard who can carry, so do you need the big lock and the lineout back row?Stom wrote:We have this problem in English sport to label each position with very specific needs. So a 13 must make outside breaks, a 7 must jackal, a 4 must be an enforcer, etc...
While each position does have responsibilities, we need to ditch this. So long as Slade has the ability to defend effectively at 13, the rest of his skills depend on the overall makeup of the backline, not on the number on his back.
Ditto 7. So long as the loose forwards are balanced, his role can be anything, so long as he's quick off the scrum to make those 1st out tackles and/or hit those 1 out rucks, depending on the situation.
It just creates unnecessary links between players in selection if you're covering a lack in one position elsewhere and you can have the fun situation where someone is dropped despite playing well because of needs elsewhere in the team. Or worse, that someone is kept despite not being in form, because they're needed to cover someone else's flaws.
Puja
Puja