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You are in: Rugby Union: Features |  |
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World Cup Scavengers | |
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The scavengers of the back row are the players who scour the pitch for precious scraps of possession their team-mates can turn into points.
The ability to read the game and anticipate where an attack will break down is essential to the flanker's art, as is the turn of foot to get there ahead of the opposition. Then, they must be strong enough to compete for possession in the ruck or maul and sufficiently streetwise to slow any ball already under their rivals' control.
Neil Back (England)
For five years or so, Neil Back has been rugby's scavenger supreme.
The British Lion may lack the bulk of his rivals - he titled his autobiography Size Doesn't Matter - but he has the speed and tenacity to punch more than his weight all over the pitch A fitness obsessive, Back is at his best with his nose in the dirt, ferreting out possession in the darkest recesses of the ruck. As well as excelling in the bread and butter of sustaining his own team's attacks, he is in a class of his own in spoiling and stealing opposition ball from under his rivals' studs.
Olivier Magne (France)
Magne does not fit the archetypal destructive scavenger's mould, but his mastery of the breakdown has still been essential to France's Grand Slam success.
At 16 stone and with a 100m time of 11 seconds, he has the blend of pace and power to make him the ideal link-man. Magne keeps attacks alive with his speed to the breakdown and ability to protect and support the ball-carrier on arrival.
Richard McCaw (New Zealand) McCaw is deemed the best back-row forward in the game at the moment and arguably the best in All Black history.
And it is difficult to disagree, such are the high standards he sets for himself at every level of the game. McCaw seems to pop up in every corner of the field in every game he appears, scooping up loose ball, bouncing on the opposition half-backs. He is still very much in the infancy of his career and the World Cup could be the perfect springboard for him to show exactly where he rates among the all-time greats.
George Smith (Australia) Smith is supremely irritating to almost every opposition he comes against.
He is consistently the first man to the ball, pounces on rival forwards and backs at every opportunity and also picks up his fair share of tries. Despite still only being 23, he seems to have been around an age such is his cool head and so assured is his place in the team. Smith will again by the key to turning Australian defence into attack in an instant.
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