The Fullback is Back!

The rugby year of 2009 will be remembered for many things amongst them the failed Lions tour, the quite disgraceful Bloodgate Scandal and the even headier shame of Renault/Briatori and it's premeditated crash in formula 1, lets not forget The Springboks powerful and relentless Tri-Nations campaign not disimiliar to the act of laying tarmac a process that is both inevitable and all encompassing.

My interest mainly lays at the doorstep of the return of the Fullback.

I remember in the not too distant past the scything runs of Andre Joubert, the eel like movements of Christen Cullen, the sure boot and surer defence of Matt Burke, all legends in their own right were capable of turning a match on it's head and did so week in and week out.

What happened? following a set of rule changes and the arrival of rugby league like defences, it has since stunted the fleet of foot and monster boots of the men with 15 on their backs.

The full back became obsolete as we knew it, teams opted for a third winger or even a third centre and they just became another body on the line.

This year, I have seen a revival, first Ireland's Rob Kearney made his appearance in the Lions tour coming in for an injured Lee Burne who himself is a very dangerous full back.

I firmly believe that were Kearney not at 15 then the British & Irish Lions would not have come off half as well as they did.

His sure claiming of up and unders and blistering runs ensured that the Lions were on the front foot and set up the moves that created those all too frequent midfield breaks.

Kearney even scored a try by joining the line, and this announced the arrival of the full back with a great big bang.

This revival threatened to become a revolution when Frans Steyn came on the scene during the Tri-Nations and literally kicked the Springbok's rivals into the stone age.

Everytime the All Blacks and the Wallabies received the ball they treated it like the neandethal man's first encounter with a hot coal, with great difficulty.

Steyn's presence was sorely missed in Brisbane and on his return in Wellington his incredibly influencial penalty kicks over 50 metres will not be soon forgotten and in particular, old Henry will have many a sleepless night for years to come.

After the first penalty kick Richie McCaw famously said to his bewildered team mates "right, no mistakes within 60 metres!" which does show if anything that the All Black captain has a wry sense of humour.

Steyn followed up his kicking brilliance with some trojan defence and some incisive runs, but not nearly enough as the Bok's gameplan did not allow for it.

Since Mills Muliaina is no slouch either, come the November internationals I suspect we will be in store for some strategically brilliant full back play that might just set the game alight and hopefully, it will never be put it out again.