Murray Mexted

And that's his prime objective, you know.

And the reason for that is we want him to do two words to make it simple, retain and regain.

the ball that is the whole that's the whole deal about the open side playing retainer again and i watch people coaches rotating players around the six seven and eight position like razer himself played six seven and eight on a regular basis but um i think it's more definitive than that these days and it's more there's more strategic um play involved around that

And the number eight, of course, is going forward today, not like in the old days when I first started, but it's going forward all the time.

It's got to be attacking wherever that ball is or wherever that open side flanker is.

If the open side flanker's on the money, then that number eight from scrums particularly, doesn't matter whether it's left or right, should be within about three metres of where that, and because he's, you know, they talk about,

the lone ranger in Tonto, well, he's buddy Tonto.

There's no doubt about it.

He's got to support that open side flanker.

Blind side flanker's miles away.

You know, there's going to be a lot get to the action before then on about two or three backs.

So the blind side flanker often hangs on the blind side and the play comes back to him.

So he doesn't have to cover as much ground, generally speaking, but we need him to be robust defensively

and abrasive in defence and attack.

So when he is in play,

He's really in play.

But the guy that should be in play most is the seven and the eight, particularly the eight.

So that eight's got to have the ability to roam.

So the days of an eight playing within five metres of the scrum are long gone, quite frankly.

The eight's got to be able to roam and he's got to be an athlete.