mudskipper, there's just so much wrong with your post above.
Having a massive pack to soften up the opposition is a failed tactic - we saw this last year with the Reds. McKenzie even admitted his mistake afterwards and accepted the blame. The problem is, the Brumbies have effectively replaced Hooper with Kimlin (in my book, anyway). You have to compare the difference each would make on the rucks. Kimlin will get to a lot less rucks than Hooper will, and he won't have the same impact at the ones he gets to other than an occasional big cleanout. You need guys like Hooper there, hands on the opposition's ball to disrupt it.
And pests like Hooper at the breakdown are more instintual. You can't teak a pack of forwards to be "scavengers" or "pests" in one off season, or there'd be a Pocock or Brussuow in every team, or many McCaws who just ruin opposition ball all day and rarely get pinged. You can work on the breakdown in training, yes, and improve your accuracy and cleanouts, yes, but creating a pack of breakdown pests? No.
Every game of rugby is too fast or hard for one man to make all the breakdown, even Subbies. Having played plenty of flanker, I can attest to that. I can also attest the difference between having played with a guy who runs half marathons at 7 that will make close to every second breakdown and just be a serial pest, and having him replaced with a bigger tougher guy who was an enforcer but did a fraction of the work. It makes a huge difference.
As PB says, it's a traditional White tactic, playing a massive backrow with no fetcher. I'll say this: it's outdated. You can only win with it if your 6 and 7 are fantastic and can play a mixed role, like, say, a Burger or a bunch of the French flankers (who are close to what Lee calls "notters"). The Boks had fantastic and mobile players like Smit and Burger in the White era, who would be more effective than a lock at 6 (Kimlon) and number 8 at 7 (Vaea).
edit: I wrote this before the reading the Brumbies 2012 thread which basically a heap of people said the same thing. Damn punch beaters!
