The Great Ruck Debate.

[DJC]

Thought i'd come back to this after seeing the ins/outs for this week.

Hewett has been ommitted (as has Pittonet) for this week. In is Cottrell (and TDK).

Now the reason i bring this up is someone of Hewetts talent can't get a game right now because of how good our team is going.
Imagine we played a 2nd ruck.
I don't think Hewett has missed a game this year, and i don't think anyone would say he's done anything wrong, or is terribly out of form.  Excluding his 2 games where he started as sub, he has averaged 25 touches this year and 5.2 tackles.

So the question is, who else would you drop in order to play that 2nd ruck this week?
.....and how could you justify that?

The benifit provided by that 2nd ruck surely doesn't even come close to the output of someone like Hewett (or better) who would also need to make way.

That's easy; Ollie Hollands.

A second ruck in reasonable form, like Pitto, would provide greater output than Ollie has over recent weeks.  Cottrell covers Ollie's role and De Koning going forward means we don't miss Cottrell as a high half forward.