Sounds like the start of a joke, right? But it’s where the Wallaby second rowers are right now. After Hoss wrote his article on Harry Wilson, I started thinking about how things would work for the Wallabies. Naturally, my thoughts went to where I played many years ago, in the forwards.
I started out as a shortish second rower, until my love of food and beer turned me into a tallish prop. Once my coach figured out I could play up front, it was the end of my second rower days. Second rowers are the kings of the lineout, underappreciated in the scrum and the movers of bodies at rucks and mauls. But one of my favourite sights is watching one of the big giraffes in open space!
A second rower in full flight is, for want of a better word, majestic. All arms and legs flying about as they gallop along, seemingly hardly moving. Yet, they gobble up metres like the Cookie Monster flies through Choc Ripples. All the while, there is some “superfast” back with their legs moving at a hundred steps per second trying to run them down. I mean, it’s brilliant!
Wallaby coach Eddie Jones has picked three second rowers and a six/eight who can fill in at four in an emergency to tour South Africa. But, to me, the intriguing thing is how he is going to use them. Let’s learn a little about our contestants.
The Players.
Ritchie Arnold, the less credentialed, but no less talented twin brother of Rory Arnold. He hasn’t won a wallabies cap, but at 32 he has a wealth of talent won from years of hard work across two continents. He is 2.08 metres tall and 125-130 kgs. So technically, in official second rower terminology, he’s a big unit.
Nick Frost, this guy, brings a kind of athleticism rarely seen in a 2.06 metres 120 kg second rower. When he runs, he’s not all arms and legs. Everything looks like it’s supposed to look, and he still gobbles up metres. On top of that, he’s pretty good in a lineout.
Will Skelton, is the biggest unit around, chiming in at just 2.03 but weighing around 140 kgs. Mr Skelton is officially a fucking big unit. Skelton is a legend in European rugby. A player coaches build their team around, but he’s not happy about his games for the Wallabies and has mentioned that he wants to correct that by playing his arse off this test season.
Finally, the half a giraffe. Rob Leota, a hardworking six/eight, is our break glass in an emergency go to guy. At 1.9 metres and 110 kgs, he’s more of a work rate and push hard in a scrum type guy. He won’t let you down, but unless one of the big guys ends up in team rehab, he won’t be considered as a second rower this trip.
More Power!
All three of the second rowers on tour will feature in the match day 23. But I wonder which two will start the game and which one will help finish it. Traditional thinking suggests that your more athletic, lighter second rower, in this case Nick Frost, wears the four jersey and packs in behind the loosehead prop. While your big unit, Skelton or Arnold, wears five and packs in behind the tighthead. In other words, you put your power behind your most critical player in a scrum.
So if you’re a traditionalist, you have Frost with one of Arnold or Skelton starting and the other on the bench. But what I’d love to see is Eddie throwing the play book out the window, start the two big units with Frost on the bench. Now, this is not a dig at Nick Frost in any way, I just really want to see the Wallabies go all in on their power game!
“But what about the lineout” I hear you cry, “big units can’t jump.” No, not often, but they can lift and if they are lifting the right jumper they can be just as high and faster than the traditional set up.
“But they won’t be fit enough to finish the game.” Well, that’s true, but one of them was always expected to play 80 minutes. Now you have a chance to see how they’re going and decide who to take off. If you lose both of them, you can always break the glass on Leota.
Come on, you know you love this idea. Tell me why I’m wrong.
