: Sun Feb 22, 2009 9:30 pm
Rogues Gallery wrote:
One of the reasons we are so cr@p at top level is this obsession with "running from dummy half"
Where has the craft gone from a ball playing hooker
(I've just read that back to myself).
IMO we have too many hookers who are failed scrum halves.
I don't think we are obsessed at running from dummy half, as you say, it's more to do with the defences. Last season, Phil Clarke, pointed out why teams run from dummy half, and it's basically because once you get around the two markers with a dummy, there is a great big gap to run through.
Now, as simple as it may seem, 1 player being put into the gap behind the markers would stop the running from dummy half. But, the players only run, because opposition players are offside from a break or simply because of that great big gap, and they think they can get through.
I've noticed a few times since Clarke said that, that there are gaps behind the markers, and that people with a good dummy and pace off the mark, players such as Roby, Burrow and Pryce, exploit this gap.
The hookers aren't failed scrum halves as you say they are, they are just capitalising on poor defences and thinking on the ball.
