Off the cuff players are generally off the cuff in both aspects, defence and attack. How many times did big fat Gary Schfield get caught out trying to intercept a pass? Also, with all these wonderful off the cuff players Great Britain won nothing.
What a team needs is a player who knows the difference between sacrifice and glory, your general off the cuff players wants the glory, whereas your Gene Miles type of player knew how to sacrifice his own glory by committing defenders and delivering a perfect money ball pass. The balance is critical, it needs intelligence and instinct. Another thing to question is how do your measure the performance of an off the cuff player? If they have a bad day do you drop them, if they score 5 tries do you pencil theyre name down first on the team sheet? Its tough for a coache to get the right x factor in his team.
Saying all that you can't beat the unpredictability of the players your talking about, they have you on the seat of your pants and they are worth the entrance fee
