Are there any actual positions in Rugby League?

[Pieman68]

XCP said:

Pieman68 said:

As the ball tends to go straight through the props legs into the back row for the loose forward to pick up I think it's more of a "not worth trying" mentality, but there is nothing to say that you can't. In fact, I have actually seen a couple won against the head this season - I think the odd team give a push every now and again and catch the other off guard.

Could the loose forward keep it at his feet and go for a drive? If you catch the other team off guard you could go a long way forward I'd have thought.

He could. What we are seeing on occasion is the loose holding the ball and the other team breaking early to try and get into the tackles, thus milking a penalty and making the ground that way

[JB!]

Mark13 said:

All the talk about fitness levels is interesting.

The key fact for me is that the ball is in play on average for only c36 minutes in a Union game and 60 minutes in a League game. The set piece just eats time, Re-set scrums, hooker moaning about encroachment at the line out etc. last season when Eastmond had a meltdown at half time early season, it was because he hadn't touched the ball for the whole 40 minutes.

The set pieces are what drains your energy. Constant scrum resets and line outs.

[Nom de ploom]

JB! said:

There is no rest for a Union forward!

Scrum, ruck, ruck, ruck, scrum, ruck, lineout, maul...

that's when the ball is in play, nowhere near the same amount of time as league and a league forward will actually touch the ball much more frequently and make more than double the number of tackles per match.

I used to summaries the difference as "in union you run "to" the opposition, in league your run "at" the opposition" now things have moved on a bit in union and it has got more physical and faster.

I would agree that there is more "interchageability" between certain roles in league, and often hookers, scrum halves, stand offs and loose forward interchange when in possession due the homogeneaity of roles in attack particularly the dummy half and first receiver. The distributions are quite similar.

in union the pattern is different and hookers / number eights are much less likely to be ball distributors and their skills are much more position specific.

in terms of burgess, the best converts are flankers as they are the most mobile of the forwards and aside from the technicalities of the ruck and maul I think he could have adpated to that role really well. England was still a step too far too soon and he was exposed.

interestingly one of my colleagues is a close friend of Lancaster and apparently (without breaching confidence and his impending media work) Burgess was outstanding in training but it wasn't replicated on the pitch, a real shame as he had everything.