In Praise of Seven

The rugby world cup has come and gone again and the trends of world rugby have spun again. In the mid 90's when I had my rugby awakening the trend in the back row was for large back rows. It was not unusual for England to take the field with three number 8's. The reason was bulk was king the bigger the bosh the more games you would win. This continued until the start of the new millennium and was exaggerated by the advent of the professional player and the love of the weights section of the gym. The classic scavenging 7 fell out of flavour for the ball carrying bruiser.

This changed at the end of the 90's when Neil Back finally got the run in the England side he deserved. Not only did he bring tremendous ball scavenging techniques but also great  general ball skills, acting as much as a second scrum half as a back row. He also dominated the ground game. Ever since then the world has been looking for a similar player. The greatest 7 of the modern era is Richie McCaw as mentioned previously without him New Zealand would not be the same side and would not have won the world cup. Australia lost to Ireland partly because they were without David Pocock and partly because Sean O Brian was brilliant. Wales beat Ireland because Sam Warburton was outstanding, tackling anything that moves and winning everything on the floor.

England were awful because they played with three blindside/number 8 type players. They looked ponderous because without a link player they could not get their game going the backs were getting slow recycled ball. That led to ponderous and slow movements in the back line.

The moral of this blog is that any side that finds a great open-side has wrap them in cotton wool and only bring them out on the big occasions. Play without one because you think bigger is better and prepare for trouble.