The Italian Ruse....

...seems to have been dismissed. It was a way to get at Eddie, but not anything serious. All you have to do is counter ruck and pour through the point of contact to force the opponent to commit players to the ruck. But what if you do it randomly, it could be quite effective....this probably should be fixed in the laws. I agree with Eddie having an opponent waiting for the ball next to your flyhalf is not the game of rugby as we know it.

The Boks should use this tactic.  With the likes of Fat Alberts- our loosies are too slow to get to the breakdown or they don't know how to compete anyway- so we may as well not compete. 

I would phrase that a bit differently.....apart from Brussouw, Louw to some extent and Schalk before his neck injury.....we have never had fetchers in the class of George Smith, Hooper or Poclock. Our fetching tends to be abortive so maybe the 'Italian way' to quote Robert and Elizabeth is the way to go.

 You are really clueless about fetching.   Of the three players mentioned none were real fetchers ever - Brussow got nearest to the mark, but ultimately became a penalty machine.  
To be effective as fetchers a player must have ball sense, physical strength and speed so as to be sure to  reach breakdown points in time.   Late arrivals means penalties when they try to get their hands on the balls.    That is why at present George Smith - a great fetcher at the time - is now a penalty machine.  
Anyone who calls Louw a fetcher and Burger as well in one sentence must have their heads read.   Effectively we never had any players specializing in fetching per se and the loosies have been our weakest link in teams ever since readmission in 1992.  
That plus aimless possession handover kicking were the major problems of SA teams and the sooner that is realized  the better.
Even Meyer identified ball protection ad recovery as a problem - but other than bringing in the Scottish advisor did nothing to cure the problem.   fact is his loosie selections were a joke in bad taste negating what could potentially cure the problem.      

You ought to be more careful, purely by mistake you agreed with me that we have a poor history of fetchers.