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In rugby, the 'open-side' flanker is now king

14th April, 2015
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Roar Guru
14th April, 2015
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1809 Reads

We are living in the rugby ‘age of phase play’, a term that is easily thrown around and dismissed at will. I’m here to tell you that this is hugely significant and the king is the ‘open-side’ flanker.

It dawned on me that six of the top eight sides in world rugby are currently led by back-rowers, and most of these are indeed ‘open-sides’. What might surprise some is that this is a new phenomenon in the history of rugby.

Richie McCaw (New Zealand), Chris Robshaw (England), Sam Warburton (Wales), Thierry Dusatoir (France), and Michael Hooper (Australia) are all current captains of their countries and they are all ‘open-sides’.

I recognise that some might argue that Thierry Dusatoir is a ‘blind-side’ flanker. Don’t let the number on his back fool you. The truth is that this 6-foot, 100-kilogram flanker from Toulouse is indeed an ‘open-side’ that just happens to wear a no. 6 at Test level.

Not only does he physically measure up as an ‘open-side’, not only has he generally worn the no. 7 for his club these past ten or so years, but he indeed plays the game as the perpetually motioned ‘open-side’ within the non-descript flanker ideology of the French. He is not a scavenger but not all ‘open-sides’ need to be. His worth is his work-rate particularly his super human efforts in tackle counts.

Regardless, since 2010 there has been a changing of the guard in terms of leadership in rugby.

This is important because it is yet another indicator that the game has changed. This observation should help to put this loosely stated ‘age of phase play’ notion into perspective. It should help to place worth on the opinions of those from yesteryear. because when they say the game has not changed you will know they are kidding themselves.

The reason why there are so many ‘open-sides’ leading their Tests sides around today is because they are now the players of most worth. This is purely because what they do matters the most on a rugby field. Once upon a time the ‘open-side’ played his role, but it was proportionally much less significant. This is not because the likes of Michael Jones were any less of a player than the modern ‘open-sides’, but simply because the game has changed a great deal.

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To help put this in perspective, let’s look at some IRB research led by the famous Mr Corris Thomas a few years back.

His team compared a few different eras of Test rugby. Granted most of the research done by the IRB, led by Mr Thomas, is from data gathered from major tournaments such as the World Cups or Six Nations – but they have also taken the time to look at archives from the early 1970s.

Here are some of their findings that plot three different distinct periods.

Average rucks/mauls per match
1970-73 – average of 31 ruck/mauls per Test
1995 – average of 69 ruck/mauls per Test
2011 – average of 162 ruck/mauls per Test

Average set pieces per Test
1970-73 – average of 101 set pieces per Test (63 lineouts/38 scrums)
1995- averaged of 64 set pieces per test (37 lineouts/27 scrums)
2011 – average of 41 set pieces per Test (24 line-outs/17 scrums)

There are many reasons why Corris Thomas has stated rugby has ‘changed more in nature and character than any other team sport in the past 40 years.’

We could theorise that it comes down to professionalism or rule changes or changes in tactics, but that is beside the point. All we need to understand is that there is a vast difference in the amount of time the ball is play and therefore there are more chances for the ‘open-side’ to shine and to inspire his teammates. This is the reason we are seeing a change at the leadership level within Test rugby teams.

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The ‘open-side’ has risen to lead the world of rugby in the same way mammals rose to dominance after the death of the dinosaurs.

It’s evolutionary.

The trend in captaincy of most major nations reflects all this.

Here is a breakdown of each Rugby World Cup and the amount of captains in the quarter finals that were also ‘open-side’ flankers.

1987 – 0
1991 – 0
1995 – 1
1999 – 0
2003 – 1 (two if we count Colin Charvis as an ‘open-side’, which is hard to do)
2007 – 1
2011 – 4

Sure there have been examples of captains wearing a no. 7 here and there, David Wilson comes to mind, but it wasn’t until 2011 when it became apparent that there was a clear change of leadership across the rugby world.

By 2011 there was no denying that the game had permanently evolved.

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In 2015 it is looking like the ‘open-sides’ are going to continue to rule the ‘age of phase play’.

I say long live the king, for he is here to stay.

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