We have said a lot here and elsewhere about Myall, Rowlands etc. in the absence of Gaskell/Launch for much of the season.
There is an obvious temptation to say "they have done well at times/good second choice etc." This is reasonable given their contributions at times last year and, indeed, parts of this. That is until you consider the lock options at Sarries. The second choice locks, our Rowlands/Myall equivalents are Kruis, or Skelton or whichever of their stock of international locks are deemed second choice. I am not sure what their second choice pair actually is, which says sonething. Our back row operates in a similar fashion. Hughes/Young/Willises/Carr/Ashley/Shields etc. Whichever way we go the back row will be class, and I am not sure of the pecking order. Sarries second row is exactly the same. Whichever combination they have picked in the second row for two years it has been top notch by club standards.
That is the reality we are up against, the top team has at least four quality locks with a fag paper between them at their best. At Chiefs the individual quality is lower but the effect the same, they lose two locks the next choices perform as well. So, surely we must ask ourselves if we are going to compete with that with what we have? I think it is accepted thst every club needs two quality options of both types of prop and hookers, and yet we have a situation where the second row is not seen in that light by many of the GP clubs apart from the most successful ones, who have it as one of the better stocked areas.
I think we have missed a trick here, the second row has become more vital and we have recruited elsewhere whilst losing options. Matthews for Symons may have made sense but we were taking a big gamble without further recruitment, one that was exposed without Launch/Gaskell. Regardless of our style moving forward, we need to see what is on the market post WC, and use some of that cap to bring our second row depth up towards that of the top teams. We can't match everyone everywhere, but I think the gap is big enough to warrant recruitment if we want to be top table next year, do rather than exchanging one for one when Willie et al go, I think we should strengthen second row, even if we end up a bit short of stardust eksewhere...