Why must Flyhalfs do the kicking?

[Spicer]

So when Freddie was at 10 and Williams at 12, Freddie takes kicking duty.
When Williams at 10 and Freddie at 15, Williams does the kicking.
Why do we insist that the flyhalf does the kicking? Tradition? It doesn't make scene to me, no matter what the position, the best kicker should take the kicks.

[fleabane]

So true!

[LittleBigG]

Can't even be tradition... Stimmo used to take them from 15...

Williams was not striking the ball well but ultimately it is down to the captain to decide who takes the kick...

[tigercaspian]

Bring back Crane......his boot never let us down when needed!!

[Soggypitch]

Burns has been place kicking better than OW all season. He should definitely be doing the kicking whenever he's in the team, except for the long ones!!

OW was not timing the ball properly today, his first kick scraped over and all his kicks, bar the last penalty, just didn't make the right sound off of the boot.

[TigerCam]

I (full back) always took the kicks but that was in the 60s/70s. In my school days the full back was expected to be a kicker, mind you in those days there was never a back 3 to speak of?

[mol2]

I think the reasons are purely rigidity on the part of the coaches.

Kicking to touch is one thing, where you might not want to have your full back out of position if touch is missed, but when going for the posts it is much less of an issue.

It may be Freddie was carrying a knock, but I suspect that it is no the case. When you have two top drawer kickers rotate from game to game, but if one seems to be having an off day then swap and take the pressure off. All players know they will have off days with the boot and far better they know beforehand that if they don't seem solid on the first couple - the other takes over as a matter of course!

[ellis9]

What do you class as being the best kicker?

Against Munster, Owen Williams got a kick from our own half to win the game. Burns wouldn't have got that kick.

[jgriffin]

Your kicker should be your best kicker -and this might be a 15, a 5, a 6....the list of actual kickers in rugby over the years covers most of the team, maybe not the front row, but......

[Big Dai]

Agreed..........just the bloke who's best with the boot. Dusty, John Liley, Jon Callard, Jon Webb, John Eales, Paul Thorburn all kickers, not 10s.

[sebco]

So Freddy wins premiership player of the month playing at 10 which presumably makes him the best 10 out there at this time and what do we do oh yes move him to 15, you couldn't make it up.

[fleabane]

Just read your post on the Cockerell thread before reading this, sebco. This seems contradictory.

[Old Hob]

...and why must flaky hookers throw in? Was always the winger

[Big Dai]

...and why must flaky hookers throw in? Was always the winger

Yeah.......And no lifting. The winger threw in and a fight started. brilliant! Loved line outs. All that skullduggery you could get up to.

[Cagey Tiger]

...and why must flaky hookers throw in? Was always the winger

Yeah.......And no lifting. The winger threw in and a fight started. brilliant! Loved line outs. All that skullduggery you could get up to.

Which is one of the reasons they allow lifting. Gives the ref a fighting chance as there are fewer players capable of skullduggeryand there is less chance for the ref to be biased - there were always players from both sides up to no good, and if the ref took a dislike to you, he could legitimately ping you off the park at line-out time.