The Great Ruck Debate.

[Thryleon]

The people against the '1 ruck' team lineup do so because they are worried about injuries, specifically an injury to that ruck.
This is where luck comes into it.
Its also where common sense seems to escape.
The ruck is a specialist position and in that position is no more or less susceptable to an injury on any given day. If injuries happen to all positions equally. The chance of an injury have to a 'non-ruck' is 21x more likely than it happening to a ruck from your best 22 players. So why get so fixated no covering for that 1 in 22 chance of injury?
Yes, its luck who gets injured.
Yes, you can plan for a ruck getting injured.
Will that planning ultimately win you the game that the ruck does get injured? Potentially.
Will that planning cost you a win in another game by not having a suitable 'small' replacement instead? More likely.
So play the %'s IMO.


EDIT: re tigers....their ruck setup is different to our ruck setup. The players they have available and their individual strengths/weaknesses are different to ours.
I've always maintained that my stance is based on OUR team, not anybody elses.
If i did the same analysis on a different team, i might prefer 2 rucks in the side. Its all about team balance.

see, I think you've misinterpreted what I was getting at. 

The debate is a distraction. 

The real question is, which of our sides gets the job done on grand final day.