Andy Farrell - Six

Initially I thought an old man with a bad back can't bend down at breakdown and expect to last long. Then I thought about it as a coach, I've just been given perhaps the greatest league player ever what do I do with him. The answer is I want him to play exactly as he has for all of his illustrious career, I don't want to try and turn him in to something he's not, I want to exploit what he is as best I can. So I want him standing close to the breakdown, first or second receiver, in both attack and defence. He can call the attacking options as well as any union half back, and he can tackle superbly. By putting him at blindside it gives him a roving role, organisng both attack and defence; centre would limit his positioning and control. Obviously he is not going to be the best breakdown guy, but there of plenty of others on the pitch to do that job and the truth is for most phases the player alignments in union are very similar to league. Currently I rate Jerry Collins as the best six in the game, and he is always standing off looking for the big hit, or in attack looking to attack, he can take the ball over the gain line or offload a sweet pass to Rockoko :-)
It is possible that in time he could migrate to eight. The trickiest point at eight is possibly the ball control at the base of the scrum. Tackling's first requirement is to stop the guy and Farrell will do that, the finesse will have to follow. I have also noticed that league converts get pinged a lot in their early days for not releasing usually because they don't fall the right way, being tackled is different in union. At Sarries I would put Vyvyan up in to the second row, play Seymour at seven and if Hill comes back he and Farrell can squabble over the eight were Hill is pretty useful and assuming Farell is picking up the skills. Then with Seymour and Hill doing the crafty stuff Farrell is free to do the good stuff. For England we can never rely on AR to do the smart thing, however I am currently playing Lund, Moody and Sanderson (6,7,8) so if Farrell were up to England standard at six then let Moody go, if it is eight then Sanderson to seven and let Moody go :-) Either way you still have the craft to support Farrell.


So I think this could be the right choice, if they let him be what he is.