Well obviously it was never as simple as no 7 = massive loss. I was suggesting that a lack of a traditional 'fetcher' 7 leaves us more open to exploitation against teams with good back rows (i.e. almost every top tier nation). I feel we would be stronger with a ruck bothered, fly half terrorising openside than we have with one (or two) six and a halves.
Skip to 1.50 here:
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How often do you see Robshaw do something like Moody does there? Never. He makes a lot of tackles but they're generally stopping big runnings around the fringes rather than getting in the face of the oppo ten. In the current England set up Lawes, and to an extent Launchbury, are the players you are more likely to see flying up and putting big hits in. Thats fine, except that they have plenty of other things to be doing as well so we shouln't be relying on them entirely. Imagine if, as well as Lawes making big hits and Launchbury being a breakdown pest when they could, we also had a 7 who spent the entire game doing that kind of stuff. We'd be in a stronger position.
