Flankers are the new stars of the game...!

No longer will your kids be badgering you for a national or club shirt with the hope that you would remember to get number 10 or 11 or 14 stitched on the back. Todays kids will want either 7 or 6.

Dausitoir announced as IRB player of the year, Dan Lydiate player of the six nations. Reading many of the lists of the great and good of the RWC and RBS 6N or the weekly who's hot and who's not it is a list of the great and good of the fine arts of back row play not the whispy meanderings of pacey wingers or the deft touches and sublime control of master tacticians at flyhalf.

The Game has changed.

No longer is there enough 50/50 ball to be contested at the reset, scrums are invariably one-sided rarely against the head. This years line out stats show even Wales, (surely the poorest line out nation of all the major rugby countries) as having only lost a couple on their own throw.

It is the ruck where the tackled the tackler and the ensuing great and good of the flank decide the flow of the game, the modern art of playing the referee, interpretations such as closing off have all changed the shape and style.

Back play is about how to over come the oppositions impenetrable defence, chip the blitz or play it close to the fringes until they run out of tacklers... Again the Flank forward is the flyhalfs best friend, those two or three meters over the gainline, his buddy in to secure quick ball and move on to the next phase and the next.

Flank forwards are deft passers of the ball, guilish runners with a shake of the hip like a Barry john of old and a wave of French defence opens like the red sea leaving you sprinting in to an open line.

The game has changed but we do still have a great spectacle.


A big 606V2 congratulations to Dan Lydiate, the quiet man of Rugby, who does his talking on your ankles...


RBS Player of the Six Nations, Daniel Lydiate

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/17453529



"Why Dans the Man" by Bryn Palmer article worth a read...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/brynpalmer/2012/03/the_best_of_the_six_nations_an.html

In NZ flanker has been the "glamour" position for decades. Jonah's arrival in the game gave wingers some cachet, but it took the emergence of Dan Carter to shift things a little in favour of the 10s.

Kiwireddevil wrote:In NZ flanker has been the "glamour" position for decades. Jonah's arrival in the game gave wingers some cachet, but it took the emergence of Dan Carter to shift things a little in favour of the 10s.

Well KRD,

dare i say it because you probably already knew but you guys have been slightly ahead of the rest of the world when it came to rugby for a blwdi long time...

we catch up eventually, if you haven't already disappeared over the horizon...

maestegmafia wrote:

Kiwireddevil wrote:In NZ flanker has been the "glamour" position for decades. Jonah's arrival in the game gave wingers some cachet, but it took the emergence of Dan Carter to shift things a little in favour of the 10s.

Well KRD,

dare i say it because you probably already knew but you guys have been slightly ahead of the rest of the world when it came to rugby for a blwdi long time...

we catch up eventually, if you haven't already disappeared over the horizon...

I did think about saying something like "good to see the rest of the world catching up" but decided to leave it implied

The Welsh invented the concept of the fly-half, the South Africans invented the idea of forwards having specialised positions in the scrum, and NZ invented the concept of the open-side flanker. And of course the English invented the game itself. I think there's some reflection of national psyches there. And thinking about it, rugby 7s was invented by the Scots as a way of dealing with limited player numbers. Hmmm.

Don't forget the wonderful French refined the eccentricities...!

We'll proudly claim 10 man rugby

wickedwasp wrote:We'll proudly claim 10 man rugby

Kiwireddevil wrote:

wickedwasp wrote:We'll proudly claim 10 man rugby

10 men and his boot...!

I think a little reshuffle and a reverting to last years helmsman will open a few doors for England mate.

Though talking of openside flankers England do seem to be one of the few teams not reverting to an out and out openside role within their pack. Strange considering Winterbottom, Back and to a degree Moody were the cornerstones of all that was good for so long...?