FULLBACK - Greatest XV Ever voted by 606v2

thebluesmancometh wrote:
I'm afriad it's mostly sentimental twaddle

Mitey

That just says all I have ever needed to know about you, lets disect this bit by bit for your more accurate humiliation...

JPR was a good player in the amateur era. But lets be honest, by today's standards he wouldn't even get selected for a 2nd division club side's reserves.

You can apply this to ANY player that didn't play proffesional rugby, even the greats in your mind!

We see time and time again players who stand out at club level who just can't foot it with the ferocity and pace of the modern game.

You mean like Robshaw, Corbisiero, Strettle etc...

Possibly the thing that made him stand out at the time was his size, which is comparable with that of an average modern full back.

No it wasn't his size, it was his size, speed, skill, and those hits in defence! If you want to talk size differenciation, you could look at Lomu, and how he would be distinctly average in today's game, most wingers are now faster and much stronger than he was!

But let's be honest, for starters he played only just over 50 tests. Half the number of some of the modern legends.

Some of the modern legends get caps for looking at the shirt, back then you had to earn them, and tests were accounted accordingly. Not to mention his doctoring at the same time as playing.

Secondly for all the hoo-ha about his "lethal attacking" he only scored half a dozen tries. And lets remember that defences were nowhere near as good as they are now at the time.

Defences weren't as strong as they are now, but neither were attacking plays, strike moves, training techniques etc... It was simple 1v1 1v2 1v3 rugby.

The team, in his time won at just over 71%. Hardly the stuff of legends as they are re-imagined now.

Which team is this? Wales or the lions or a combo? Since when does win rate = player ability?



Mate stop humiliating yourself with this twaddle!

Eclipse wrote:Well said Bluesman! 50 caps then would be the equivalent of well over 100 these days.

stlowe wrote:The other problem with comparing players across eras is that few are truly qualified to do so. I'd wager that a number of posters have voted for players based on what they've been told, highlight videos and maybe one or two classic and highly heralded games in full. That's quite different from seeing the majority of their international and club performances in full, which would contain more than just their gilded moments.

Cardiff Taffy wrote:The wum's of the 70's wouldn't stand a chance against mitey. Sure they were more eloquent but they just wouldn't have the stamina and fitness to keep it going for so long.

RubyGuby wrote:"JPR was a good player in the amateur era. But lets be honest, by today's standards he wouldn't even get selected for a 2nd division club side's reserves."

If you see that as being correct then I'm a bit surprised, the guy was actually playing for a 2nd XV well into his 50's.

miteyironpaw wrote:I agree with Biltong, in everything he has said in that post.

JPR Williams was undoutably a great player in his era AND a legend of the game forever more.

But on a cold factual comparison of attributes and achievements, he ranks lower than many modern day full backs.

Might he have matched them if he was around now and could take advantage of the professional environment? who knows? maybe, maybe not, maybe he might have Gavin Henson'ed it. That's not something that is easy to evaluate.

Of course, this thread was created by notorious WUM extraordinaire, HERSH, and as such typically creates more friction per square milimetre of text than your average high density sand paper, deliberately vague about what constitutes the "Greatest", and with a set of choices (and omissions) deliberately designed to inflame.

HERSH wrote:You haven't seen the Centers article yet!

gregortree wrote:Gawd allMitey lighten up man !
JPR was / is a legend, and a hero to me, an Englishman !
No need to get all pedantic about eras and ages over this article.
Hersh, no more positions please ! 1-14 Mitey might blow up.

ChequeredJersey wrote:JPR was a fantastic player, my Dad played with him at St Mary's and likes to remind us of it. However, from what he has said, from what I have heard from others and from what I have seen in the press and in the brief time every year that comes to watch Imperial's Varsity, as an individual he was apparently a nasty man and not a great doctor.

gregortree wrote:Ruby.
ok, thanks. Well, we had a better rugby attitude back in the pre-pro pre-606 70s. Lions meant something unifying. Much more friendly 'club' attitude to the game. The jealousy / rivalry seems to have since become more bitter. Of course, we can blame web anonymity for this sad decline.

Anyway, looks like we are destined to meet up again over on Hersh's 'Centres' thread, lord help us all. So, let me go and take a look then....