Disappointed to lose Roach, he’s very underrated and the perfect bench hooker with his impact. Could easily be a guy that does what the Scottish hooker Frazer Brown does and sometimes comes on as a flanker if the team needs something different, also allows you to carry specialists in other positions.
Funny thing about that is that Browny was the earliest of our 3 hookers to make the switch to the front row: Turner played in the back row at U20s level and McInally got his first international cap as a blindside: and yet he's always the one who gets put to the backrow. Goes back to the Bath v Glasgow game in the Champions Cup where our pack injuries were so bad we had a Lock at 6, a Hooker at 7 and a Center at 8.
My gut call is that it works for Browny because he's the number one hooker at his club at "domestic" level, in the top 3 for country, and has been both for much longer than the four and a bit years that he's occasionally been played in the back row professionally. Deliberately looking for or retaining that Hooker at this level, if they're not already the "best" option in a general backroom sense will come with some sort of compromise, be it ability, performance, player loading, gametime demands, additional financial strains, etc. that wouldn't balance out with the added versatility in the match day and club squads. Would go for scrum halves too.