Greatest: Round 2: Choose your 1

Rules and context here:
https://www.606v2.com/t38622-the-greatest-introduction-the-rules

Previous threads here:
https://www.606v2.com/t38819-greatest-round-2-choose-your-15#1753473
https://www.606v2.com/t38887-greatest-round-2-choose-your-11-14
https://www.606v2.com/t38898-greatest-round-2-choose-your-13
https://www.606v2.com/t38921-greatest-round-2-choose-your-12
https://www.606v2.com/t38949-greatest-round-2-choose-your-10
https://www.606v2.com/t38974-greatest-round-2-choose-your-9
https://www.606v2.com/t39002-greatest-round-2-choose-your-8
https://www.606v2.com/t39104-greatest-round-2-choose-your-7
https://www.606v2.com/t39143-greatest-round-2-choose-your-6
https://www.606v2.com/t39533-greatest-round-2-choose-your-4-and-5
https://www.606v2.com/t39632-greatest-round-2-choose-your-3
https://www.606v2.com/t39932-greatest-round-2-choose-your-2

Brief:

• Vote for ONE PLAYER in the loosehead position.

• Votes are cancellable so in the event that the votes for the rest of the front row are swinging one way, feel free to change your mind if you wish do so.

• It can be assumed that players in the amateur era would have been just as dominant vis a vis their historical peers if they had followed professional conditioning programmes.

•A catch-up thread for the whole team will follow shortly.

Your shortlist (in no particular order):

1. Rodrigo Roncero
Argentina – 55 caps

From 1998 until his retirement in 2012, Rodrigo Roncero developed a fearsome reputation as one of the world game's most destructive scrummagers – few matching him with his natural ability as an aerobic athlete, powerlifter and technician.

He made his international debut in 1999 in a 44-29 loss to Japan in Chichibunomiya, whilst playing at amateur level for Deportiva Francesca in Argentina and made the switch to professional rugby in 2002 when he signed for Guinness Premiership side Gloucester.

During his time in the Premiership, Roncero regained a spot in the Pumas side which he never relinquished, playing three tests during 2002 and securing a place in Marcelo Loffreda's 2003 World Cup squad. Roncero played twice at the tournament in Australia, in convincing wins over Namibia and Romania during the group stages.

In 2004 Roncero continued to hold down a place in the Argentina squad, playing five tests during the year including his first against the All Blacks in Waikato. This was the year that Roncero swapped Gloucester for Paris and French giants Stade Francais where he instantaneously became a fan favourite with his bullocking runs and crushing power in the tight. Roncero became a fixture of the Stade front row and packed down in their extra time defeat to Toulouse in the 2005 Heineken Cup final. Roncero added a further five caps to his name in 2005 and was part of the Argentina side that recorded a series win over Wales and narrowly lost 25-19 to the All Blacks in 2006.

Heading towards the World Cup in 2007, Roncero was in the form of his career and many consider the tournament to be his own private triumph. He played in every game of the Pumas' remarkable march to the semi finals. Roncero was considered by many to be the outstanding prop at the tournament, and formed part of a fearsome Argentinean scrummaging unit alongside Mario Ledesma and Martin Scelzo.

His brutal power in the tight and deceptive turn of pace make Roncero the complete modern prop forward.

In 2008 Roncero was named in the Argentina team to face the Springboks in honour of Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday.

Despite Stade Francais announcing a host of departures at the end of the 2010-11 season, Roncero remained with the Parisian giants for the 2011-12 season and is still closely affiliated with the club and development of its younger players.

The standard by which Puma forwards must measure themselves – both as athletes and statesmen for the game.

2. Ian McLauchlan
British & Irish Lions – 8 caps, Scotland – 43 caps

Ian McLauchlan, known throughout the rugby world as the Mighty Mouse, is the current president of the Scottish Rugby Union . However, many will remember him on the pitch as the pocket battleship who was at the heart of the British and Irish Lions test series successes in New Zealand (1971) and South Africa (1974).

Ayrshire-born, as all of the finest people are - he captained Scotland on 19 occasions leading his side to 10 victories (both of which were records for a man in his position). He won his first cap out of the Jordanhill club against England in 1969 and his 43rd and final cap against New Zealand ten years later.

Famously loud and articulate, he was famed at talking round his teammates, referees and even members of the opposition. He notoriously even led Scotland in the Calcutta Cup match of 1973 despite breaking a bone in his leg two weeks before against Ireland. By all accounts, the only reason this happened was that he talked the selectors into letting him play.

However, it is for the Lions that he will be best remembered. He played in eight tests for the British Lions on the 1971 tour to New Zealand and the 1974 tour to South Africa, only once finishing on the losing side.

When first-choice props Ray McLoughlin and Sandy Carmichael were invalided out of the 1971 Lions tour amidst the mayhem of the game against Canterbury (Carmichael having been punched in the face, cracking his cheekbone) , New Zealanders believed the visitors' pack had been delivered a fatal blow.

Instead, understudies Ian McLauchlan and Sean Lynch stepped into the breach and built the platform on which the Lions backs were able to earn the team's first series victory over the All Blacks. The locals had been particularly sceptical of McLauchlan's worth, considering him far too small by conventional standards at 5'8 ½ " and 92kg to dominate his opponents in the set-piece. He was to prove them spectacularly wrong.

McLauchlan was arguably the most high profile example of how a smaller man with a combination of amazing power to weight ratio plus an excellent application of techniques could devastate larger men and bring down entire opposition front rows. Throughout the 1971 campaign, the Jordanhill man exposed countless taller props with a strength and technique that were only intensified by the awkwardness of the angles with which he applied them. Burrowing underneath and forcing opposing tight heads up and out of their bind became his hallmark. Tom Smith was to do exactly the same for the Lions years later.

By the end of the tour, it wasn't just McLauchlan's team-mates who called him 'Mighty Mouse' – the local press had adopted the moniker too. By the time he had similarly helped dismantle traditionally the fiercest of all scrummages in South Africa three years later, he was recognised unquestionably as the model loosehead prop of his age.

McLauchlan's comparative lack of bulk also added to his contribution in the loose, exemplified by the decisive try he scored against New Zealand in the first Test of 1971. On the Lions' first excursion into All Black territory, the Scot harassed full-back Fergie McCormick into an error and in the ensuing panic charged down Alan Sutherland's attempted clearance to score.

By the time of the 1974 Lions tour, McLauchlan was an established cornerstone of the Lions pack and formed arguably its greatest ever front row, alongside hooker Bobby Windsor and tighthead Fran Cotton. McLauchlan made 13 appearances on tour and received the ultimate recognition of his contribution to the side in the sixth of those matches, when he captained the Lions against Southern Universities.

Little man. Big game.

3. Os du Randt
South Africa – 80 caps

Regarded by many as the finest overall loose-head prop of all time, Jacobus Petrus du Randt was a powerful scrummager with a notable work-rate who earned a total of 80 caps for his country during an injury-plagued career. He is part of an elite club of players who have won the Rugby World Cup twice – Dan Crowley, Phil Kearns, John Eales, Tim Horan and Jason Little are the only other members and not all of those did what Os did – starting in both finals in which his team won.

Du Randt, or The Ox as he was nicknamed during his playing days, was part of South Africa's historic triumph at the 1995 Rugby World Cup and was the last active member of that squad. His final match was the 2007 Rugby World Cup Final, where the Springboks beat England 15-6, with Du Randt playing the entire 80 minutes.

Hailing initially from the small Eastern Cape town of Elliot (the same as another legendary Springbok, Mark Andrews), Du Randt had first been selected for the national team when Kitch Christie took charge of the Boks for the first time in a home series against Argentina in late 1994. Du Randt did not take long to make his mark, and by the end of the tour of Wales, Scotland and Ireland that followed, he was the established first choice No1.

Du Randt continued to make a big contribution to a solid Bok scrum into 1995, and with Balie Swart propping up the other side, the powerfully built Free Stater was one of the unsung heroes of a gutsy winning effort against the French on a sodden Kings Park in that year’s World Cup semi-final. The Boks had to survive a series of five metre scrums at a crucial stage of the game, but they stood firm.

The scrum also played a perhaps understated role in the final, and anyone who disagrees should just take a look at the video of that Ellis Park match and be reminded of where the most crucial Bok plays that day came from. Certainly it was because his team did not have much front foot ball to play with that the influential Jonah Lomu, who had terrorized all the other teams in that tournament, was so less formidable when it mattered.

Du Randt went on to play some great rugby in the following years, and apart from his World Cup successes he was also able to get his hands on two Tri-Nations trophies (1998 and 2004). While the Boks bowed out of the 1999 World Cup at the semi-final stage at the hands of Australia, Du Randt stood tall and was named by the respected Rugby World magazine as the second best loosehead prop of all time.

He was sidelined for three years by injury between 2000-2003 but battled back to reclaim a place in the Springboks' ranks in 2004. He retired as the most-capped South African forward (a mark that has since been eclipsed by John Smit and Victor Matfield) and is currently the fifth most-capped Springbok of all-time.

He played the majority of his provincial rugby with the Free State Cheetahs although he spent a season with the Blue Bulls. His Super Rugby career also began with the Cheetahs before moving onto the Cats with the introduction of the franchise system. He would later also represent the Bulls and the Cheetahs in the competition.

He re-joined his former provincial employers, the Cheetahs, as scrum coach in 2009 and also served as scrummaging consultant to the Springboks under coach Peter de Villiers throughout 2010 and in the lead up to 2011 Rugby World Cup.

In every respect, a giant.

Just appalling that you couldn't find a place for arguably the best all-round prop of all as a candidate for either the tight-head or loose-head berth. No Fran Cotton makes a nonsense of this particular vote.

Oh well. McLauchlan, for me. I guess you'll have to file me under those who don't regard The Ox as the finest overall loose-head of all time. Not by some margin, either.

Cotton just lost out to McLauchlan and Roncero on the shortlist, Captain.

Which just goes to underline the shortcomings of democracy, George.

captain carrantuohil wrote:Which just goes to underline the shortcomings of democracy, George.

I think that the election of George W. Bush also made that point fairly well.

captain carrantuohil wrote:Which just goes to underline the shortcomings of democracy, George.

Short comings of democracy occur whenever the decision doesn't suit whoever is commenting.

No error nganboy? I think that may have been my point.