The Great Ruck Debate.

[kruddler]

You can't really put value on a big man that has presence. Putting on blocks, getting opposition mids out the way, just generally throwing their weight around. That would be a real asset to any team and Pittonet and De Koning would add to our team if they developed in this space. Hit outs are nice numerically, but not the main attraction IMO.

FWIW, both TDK and Pitto are excellent at clearances, and not just for rucks, but considering they get the chance to grab the ball out of the ruck before it even gets to the mids, it helps.

However, once the ball hits the deck is key. A ruck, even one as agile as TDK is NOT going to be as good as a mid at the point, despite the bigger body.
So an added bonus of playing bigger mids like Cripps and Kennedy in there as the ruck is it offers another genuine bigger body who can block and move mids out of the way.....yes usually sacrificing a hitout in the process (but not necessarily a hitout to advantage).

At the end of the day, if you wanna look at clearances for the team. Playing a backup ruck is not evident by looking at clearances week to week. There is no 'dip' in numbers of our team when playing a backup ruck. So....why else would you play one?