Flankers

[BengalTiger]

Why do we not value out and out No 7s both in the club and in England, Neil Back, even he struggled to get established if he had been a lesser player he would not have survived, back then England were picking a massive back row, Teauge, Skinner, Richards.
Strangely we had Kronfeld and Back on our books at the same time but then we let Will Skinner go.
Salvi was allowed to drift away, I know salary cap and French offers etc clouded the water but even after the work he put in for us he was not really valued.
Now we have Thacker, I am sorry but never in a milion years will he be a hooker of any note, Tom Youngs is also a bit on the small side no wonder poor old Dan Cole is not the force he once was, he is doing the job of 1 1/2 people in the scrum both for England and Tigers.
But why are the coaches persisting playing Thacker at hooker, train him up as an out and out No 7, then give him game time.

[The Boy Dave]

I agree about the hooker position and is Thacker strong enough to play 7? Personally I doubt it.
The reality is he is probably fourth choice hooker but the difficulty is Leicester are becoming very reliant on those third or fourth choice players and hooker is one of those positions.
There is a lot of stuff going on around the front row positions and it is increasingly difficult to possess a settled set of six for one reason and another.

[RagingBull]

Brendon O'Connor.

End of thread.

[4071]

Apparently some people value 'out-and-out 7s' so highly that they believe the position can be more than adequately filled by a career hooker who has made just a handful of appearances in the back row.

[BengalTiger]

My point about Thacker, I was under the impression he was on the books as Flanker / Hooker, with the behemoths inhabiting the front row nowadays he cannot play hooker without compromising the whole scrum.
I have never seen him play flanker but being too small to play no6 or 8 that leaves No7, but No 7's seem to have little value in the English game so he is encouraged to play in a position he can never succeed in.

[trendylfj]

I would deffo have O'Connor playing next week - no ifs or buts along with Pearce and Croft. Back them up with either Williams, McCaffery or Crane. We need to understand the importance of the win next week AND denying them a BP

[JackFlashJonny]

Brendon O'Connor.

End of thread.

[Cagey Tiger]

Salvi was allowed to drift away, I know salary cap and French offers etc clouded the water but even after the work he put in for us he was not really valued.

IIRC from all the rumours about Salvi (it is mostly only rumours, not many definite facts AFAIK), the sequence was that he decided to leave Tigers (I think a contract had been offered but he wanted to go to France for more money, fair enough). Tigers sorted out a replacement, Brendon O'Connor. Julian didn't get a suitable offer elsewhere and came back, a bit cap in hand, to Tigers, who decided that they had filled the position and didn't (re-)offer him a contract.

[CitizenSmiff]

Thacker is only 2cm and 8kg off Steffon Armitage (according to Wikipedia), so its not unimaginable that he could find his way at 7. If Wasps can turn the 29yr old, 6ft+ lifetime back-rower Ashley Johnson back the other way into a hooker anything's possible.

[4071]

Thacker is only 2cm and 8kg off Steffon Armitage (according to Wikipedia), so its not unimaginable that he could find his way at 7. If Wasps can turn the 29yr old, 6ft+ lifetime back-rower Ashley Johnson back the other way into a hooker anything's possible.

It's certainly possible to convert him. I'm just not sure how the decision not to force him to commit to openside is symptomatic of a failure to value the role of the openside.

[Spicer]

Thacker won't make it as a hooker. Flanker maybe.

[Iain]

It saddens me when I see mention of Thacker being too small to be a hooker. It shouldn't matter. He's nimble enough to hook well, he throws well, and he is useful in the loose. That all hookers seem to be expected to have bulked up is a damning indictment on the modern game's obsession in bulking players up. You may remember I wrote about this a while ago.

[LE18]

But lightweight scrums getting pushed backwards don't win you anything, sorry but he is just too small and lightweight to be much use as a front row player.

[FrontRowUnionMember]

Ashley Johnson also played hooker when he was younger back in SA. This move of position is not as radical and new to him as some would believe.

"In 2006 Ashley joined the Free State Cheetahs. Between 2008 and 2009 he was loaned to the Griffons Rugby team for short stints, as Free State Cheetahs coach Naka Drotské planned to give Ashley more game time. It was also during this time that Naka Drotské experimented by playing Ashley at Hooker (No. 2) position, but due to injury problems in the loose forwards Ashley Johnson was recalled and had his first true chance to shine at No.8 where he excelled."

[Ads677]

But lightweight scrums getting pushed backwards don't win you anything, sorry but he is just too small and lightweight to be much use as a front row player.

Bur aren't scrums more than the sum of their parts? If that wasn't true then Marcos would have no chance against the big grunts he invariably gets the better of.