Cameo wrote:I think some of the journals are getting carried away with versatility too. Virtually all our centres can cover somewhere else and our tens have both played centre or full back at international level. Our wings have mostly played 15 too. In that context I don't think Harris's ability to cover on the wing makes much difference. Equally, I'd be as happy with Cummings or Tools as a emergency 6 as with parachuting Swindon in just because he has played there.
Annoys me a bit as well. I get the need for utility players and versatility in a 31 man squad over a short period of time is an important consideration.
But as the BBC article puts it "how many utility players do you need?" - afterall, they can only play one position at a time!
The trap is that we weaken a strong position by omitting a specialist for the sake of covering 3 positions....moderately.
Take centres (and use Horne and Harris as it's the fashionable thing to do just now!)
Harris has shown him to be comparable to Jones.....on poor form. And absolutely light years behind Jones' best form. Would you really want Harris (or current Taylor) in the squad to cover wing just because they can and have specialists like Jones and Graham miss out?
Horne can play 12 reasonably well, but shouldn't be ahead of Johnson and can cover 10...barely adequately. As we saw most recently in Paris.
Contingency plan for the worst by all means, but let's make primary plan around the best we want to happen.
Every game won't be require resources like Twickenham 2017!
