Less is More

He was my favourite player when he played for Canterbury and New Zealand and I've liked what I've read from him as a pundit. In his latest piece, Merths claims McCaw should do less in order to be more effective. http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/9862520/Mehrtens-McCaw-must-do-less-not-more

One of the things that makes McCaw stand out is his work rate. There was an interesting stat comparison between the workload of Hooper and McCaw in the Bledisloe encounters, which in a way was similar to the comparisons of McCaw and Pocock. Hooper to a certain extent stole the limelight or enjoyed more high profile moments such as steals in rucks but was found wanting in other areas such as clean outs, carries, tackles. In essence he did the flashy stuff rather than the grunt work or 'unseen' work as it's sometimes called.

In his piece, Merths is effectively advocating McCaw limit that tight work and have someone else like Messam or perhaps Kaino if he recovers his 2011 form to take up more of that role so that he can do more support work and win more turnovers at ruck time. I can see where Merths might have a point. Clearly McCaw last year was less visible in those flashy moments like Hooper was but in a way I disagree with him. I fully recognise McCaw was doing more of the tight stuff but in a way that enabled the likes of Messam and Read to free themselves up in the loose. Read probably gained more turnover ball than McCaw (wild assumption on my part as I'm too lazy to look for stat evidence but nonetheless I think of high profile moments such as Read before halftime at Ellis Park executing the turnover and Messam ranging out wide on the left to score the try) and Messam or Luatua were doing more of the damage ranging wide of the rucks.

McCaw has lost pace and he is less of an attacking threat than Read or Messam in the loose I would argue. He doesn't have the support play of Cane who reminds me of the Kronfeld Merths alludes to in his article (he did improve his physicality) but I would argue that his strength now for the ABs is his work in the tight. He may wear the number 7 shirt but he is doing more the work of a 6 now and Messam looks more like a 7. If Kaino were to regain his 2011 form - that may require a season to add back his bulk and destructive tackling - I don't think McCaw would be suited to the more dynamic role that Merths speaks of. I wouldn't want to see him work more on his support play or turnover work as I think Cane is better suited to that type of play. I think what McCaw can offer is exactly the opposite of what a true 7 is renowned for. His strengths are is his huge ticker that has an enormous appetite for the tight stuff. I don't think if he stopped doing so much of that tight work we'd see a dramatic increase in the more traditional play of the openside from him. He isn't that player anymore and the players around him don't want him to be that kind of player.

So in essence I think Merths is identified a change in the style of McCaw's play but I think he's barking up the wrong tree looking for a different style of play from him. The balance of our back row as it stands at the moment requires McCaw to be engaged more in the tight battle than ranging wide and causing trouble for opposition defences. What do you think?

He is a groundhog. He should keep his nose in the ruck because that is what he has stood out his whole career for doing. Too late in the day to teach an old dog new tricks.

trust a first-five to know about the work of forwards     

A ten 10 knows everything dally. A 9 merely thinks he knows everything.

It's a fallacy backs are smarter than backs. 10s are just smarter than everybody.   

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:A ten 10 knows everything dally. A 9 merely thinks he knows everything.

It's a fallacy backs are smarter than backs. 10s are just smarter than everybody.   

 ...