On the ground....Bismarck is not enough

The hooker made his now expected two or three steals.....but nobody else is contributing to the ball on the ground. Coetzee is not a factor, Spies even less when it comes to on the ground play.

That will not be enough. We got past the Poms, because they too have no natural fetcher....and because yesterday we pounded over the ball....the Pom pack were a step too late.

That wont happen against NZ or Oz. If we play Alberts and if Spies is not a one test pony.....we will have to find a ball provider. We are unbalanced with three ball carriers. 

If one loosie has to go, my guess is it will be young Coetzee.....who is a third ball carrier. And while he does that well, he doesn't break tackles like Alberts. He also showed his inexperience backpeddling while Youngs made crucial metres after the tap....leading to the try. Better to stop the threat and take the penalty.

I think he will mature into a fine test 7....but he is not a 6 who is going to have much impact in the TN. Coetzee versus McCaw or Pocock? That's not going to work. 

Mozart

If I see how many penalties are being given against McCaw in particular I think Meyer is right when he said he does not believe that fetchers are nowadays acceptable.   They may win a few balls in a game - but if they also give away penalties - those gains are not acceptable.

That requires our pack to be at the breakdown very quickly. This has worked.....eg under Jake at the RWC. But even then, Schalk was winning ball on the ground. I have never seen us make this work against TN opponents, without a fetcher or a near fetcher.

My answer to Meyer would be Bismarck is making fetcher like steals....and the ratio of steals to penalties works for us. So why couldn't Brussouw do the same/

the biggest issue is that the pack must work harder for longer ot ensure decent ruck ball. as a collective unit they will need to shutdown a ruck almost every time to ensure that the type of ball that is being presented is quick or else the phases wont have any momentum. one cant expect a forward pack to send numbers to every breakdown. its close to impossible. a fetcher frees up the other ball carriers to do what they do best and its to carry the ball. the donkey work is being attended to by the opensider. stats dont tell of the times that the opposing teams rucks get slowed down. attacking rucks get shutdown by one player ext ext. so we can debate this all day long but judge this by the castle champs coming soon. NZ and the wallies befend alot different than the NH teams. pocock and mccheat is always a factor and depending how the ref handles them can influence the game. its when the game becomes quick and lose that the bigger lose trios het caught out by the pace. in a situation where its a breakdown and there is one or 2 cleaners the likes of a mccheat and pocock i will fancy there chances way more of affecting a turnover.

brussow is a very short player which is wonderfull when it comes to ruck time. its a lot tougher to clean him of the ball so in effect he pulls 2 or 3 players out the defence or attacking team.

a low center of gravity is a huge asset when it comes to doing some work on the dirt. we need balance. ball carriers do what they do and the fetcher does his job that is getting some ball. stats dont always tell the full story. its how he compliments the rest of the forwards around him.

Moz and that is why Meyer should have at least included Brussouw on the bench. Bring him on and see if he makes a difference.

While McCaw is what I consider a terrible fetcher and fantastic player of the "grey area" Pocock is fantastic fetcher. He can decemate and deposses anyone at anytime, he so strong on his feet and so clinical at the break down, that 9 times out of 10 he will be 100% legal.

We are short a decent fetcher (Brussow is by far our best option so far) and more to point we could do with a decent player to clean those players out.   

being a fecther in the first instance generally means living in the grey area. so penalties will be pard and parcel but the amount benefits a player like that brings to a pack of forwards cant really be measured in stats ext alone.

pocock he also a master in the dark of art of the grey area but your right 9 out of 10 times he gets it right and can completly derail a attacking teams. our biggest test will come against the aussies and AB. the big burrly lose trio will come up short when if comes down to the ruck area. unless they bomb every rugby with at least 4 to 5 fowards every time. which in its own right is close to impossible.

lets hope sanity prevails and brussow gets picked

Put it this way......if Pocock wasn't playing in the RWCQF we would have won. We were slowed or turned many times at crucial stages.

These rugby solutions....big props, tall locks and compact fetchers (as muncher points out).....have evolved out of the physical challenges presented by the game. Many teams have sought to nullify the fetcher, sometimes with temporary success. But then adjustments are made and the fetcher roars back with a vengeance.

We will discover this (again) before the season is over.

spot on mozart

fetcher will always have a place....there are at least 10 times more rucks and mauls than lineouts and scrums so a fetcher will feature more prominantly more often than n lineout option blind sider.

the english pack is very one dimensional so we can get away with playing this way but in the 4 nations it will be a complete different kettle of fish.