Lawrence mentioned Simon Shaw as being the best at clamping around the player with the ball. Simon Shaw was the best second row at loads and loads of stuff. How he isn't the one of the most famous locks of all time is a travesty. I think he was unlucky with his timing because when lifting in lineouts started he was just too big and heavy. He was the best tackler because comparatively everyone else was small and weak. He was a great ball carrier because he was very athletic for such a huge bloke , and he could easily hold the ball in one hand and off-load at will because he could extricate his arm from most contact situations. He should have had 100 England caps and we should be talking about him every time we mention great players.
Before lifting at the lineout Shaw would have been one of the greatest second rows. Unfortunately in the early days of the rule changes most English props couldn't get someone so large very easily in the air. Today lifting is a critical skill that props have to learn along with scrummaging and modern props and back rows would be able to lift him. Goliath second rows went out for a while but South Africa & New Zealand have shown that the 6 ft 8+ lock is back in. As a side comment before the laws around lifting and a bit before that rules to prevent the maul being as an effective weapon and the move towards rucking as the preferred method at the breakdown, England were emerging as a potentially dominant force with enormous locks and gigantic back rows. Brian Moore suspected the law changes were meant to dent that rising English ascendancy in the years just before and after 1991
Lawrence mentioned Simon Shaw as being the best at clamping around the player with the ball. Simon Shaw was the best second row at loads and loads of stuff. How he isn't the one of the most famous locks of all time is a travesty. I think he was unlucky with his timing because when lifting in lineouts started he was just too big and heavy. He was the best tackler because comparatively everyone else was small and weak. He was a great ball carrier because he was very athletic for such a huge bloke , and he could easily hold the ball in one hand and off-load at will because he could extricate his arm from most contact situations. He should have had 100 England caps and we should be talking about him every time we mention great players.
+Derek Brown Shaw should have started all 6 tests for the Lions
v the Saffas in 1997 and 2009.
Agree. Shaw was class, a proper hard lock.
Before lifting at the lineout Shaw would have been one of the greatest second rows. Unfortunately in the early days of the rule changes most English props couldn't get someone so large very easily in the air. Today lifting is a critical skill that props have to learn along with scrummaging and modern props and back rows would be able to lift him. Goliath second rows went out for a while but South Africa & New Zealand have shown that the 6 ft 8+ lock is back in.
As a side comment before the laws around lifting and a bit before that rules to prevent the maul being as an effective weapon and the move towards rucking as the preferred method at the breakdown, England were emerging as a potentially dominant force with enormous locks and gigantic back rows. Brian Moore suspected the law changes were meant to dent that rising English ascendancy in the years just before and after 1991
Omg Bayfields so tall
both scenarios looked like the defending team had collapsed the maul....
which is illegal ....