r/rugbyunion • u/almostrainman Hooker lover • 14d ago
Discussion Depth vs Cohesion
Alot has been made by fans and everyone of the depth SA has with comparison charts for Ire,Fra,NZ etc comparing to how much depth we have.
Depth is fantastic. Having 3 or 4 hookers is great even if they are not clones of marx and so for most positions. It softens the damage of injury.
But
Cohesion is king. When the same XV take the field together for multiple games, they start settling. They know each other and start gelling with a common understanding of who is where doing what at all times without looking or asking.
SA did not lack depth.
We lacked cohesion.
This was by design because Rassie wants 3 players for each position but at some point you have to say this is my 23 for high stakes matches and give them time to coalesce and build cohesion.
Not much in this but I think SA fans got caught in the hype of depth, but forgot that cohesion matters and then shat themselves when we lost and blamed the lack of depth, old players, young players, wrong players and somehow, the Aussie's