Who would be South Africa’s best loose trio of all time? The loose trio is probably one of the most important combinations in union rugby. The loose trio consist of three players with overlapping but also very distinctly different tasks. Each player has a very clear and specific task traditionally. The allotted tasks might have changed slightly in the modern game and/or the aligned task might also differ from one country to the next but in essence the loose trio’s effectiveness in doing these jobs as well as their ability to hunt as a pack determines to a large extent to outcome of the match. The loose trio are also the players in the team with the fewest set responsibilities (most freedom to go where they want) and therefore the position where the player should have all round attributes such as speed, strength, fitness, handling skills and good tackling and rucking technique.  

South African teams generally use openside and blindside flankers, we play the smaller, more agile or openside flanker in the number six shirt, while the larger or taller (blindside) flanker wears seven. 

The openside flanker (No6 in South Africa or No7 in New Zealand) 

Traditionally number 6 (open side flanker) is the “fetcher” and the player that helps with continuity at the breakdowns. Being smaller and more mobile as he starts play nearer to the potential action and needs to be the first person to arrive, and has the responsibility to mark the other side’s fly-half or in the modern tendency to hit the pods or the person bring the ball up. They do this by quickly closing them down, reducing the time they have to kick or pass. 

His role on defence is to stop the opposition’s momentum when they carry the ball by disrupting, slowing down or stealing possession. 

On attack the task of the no6 is to support the ball carrier when he goes into contact; mainly to help with creating forward momentum but also and probably more importantly to prevent the opposition from stealing to ball or slowing down the ball. Stegman does this very well for the Bulls when the pods goes into contact. 

The No6 is traditionally also the more muscular player in the trio with strong legs, big torso and upper arms as well as broad hips and shoulders with a low center of gravity. Lastly, in South Africa we want our openside flanker (No6) to be quick over 20 to 50 meters (fast of the mark) with good anticipation skills of where the next ruck or maul are going to be. 

Zinzan Brook had to following say about the openside flanker: 

Think of the open-side flanker as your ‘rat-up-a-drainpipe’ type player, if you will, or the ‘groveller’. 

Because defensive lines are so tight in the modern game, the open-side’s role is turning rucks and mauls into continuity play again. 

It’s such an important role now, and that’s one area of the game that has changed so much since my playing days. 

In the old days the benchmark was set by someone like Michael Jones. Back then he was seen as the new breed, the guy who forged the gap between the forwards and backs. 

Jones created the continuity, he always seemed to be on the shoulder of the inside or outside centre or he was steaming up on the inside of the wingers to score tries. 

But the guy who first mastered the new wave of open-side flankers was former All Black Josh Kronfeld. England’s Neil Back was another pioneer too. 

The way guys tackle these days, they’re not always looking to just smash the opponent back. 

At the tackle area or a ruck situation, you’re talking about a 50-50 ball, and often a tackler will be willing to sacrifice a few metres to get into a good position. 

Their job is to then get the ball-carrier into a body wrap, pull him to the ground, get up in one movement and rip the ball. 

Often the tackler will deliberately wrap up his opponent, knowing that eight times out of 10 the ball-carrier will be penalised for holding onto the ball. 

Australia’s George Smith and Phil Waugh are other stand-out guys but All Black captain Richie McCaw has taken the game to a new dimension. 

I wouldn’t say he’s exactly a step-up from Kronfeld, but he’s such a leader and has such a presence on the field which can change the direction of a game. 

So there’s a real art to modern open-side play and McCaw has mastered it. 

The blindside flanker (No7 in South Africa and 6 in New Zealand) 

No 7’s role on defence is to mark the opposition No8 and 9 on the blindside and to close the gaps around the fringes of the scrums, rucks and mauls. The blindside flanker being larger has a more physical role to play at the lineout and may well be used as a jumper. He is the one that needs to make the hard hits and force opponents back in the tackle. In South Africa we prefer the blindside (No7) flanker to be leaner and taller. The blindside flanker has more of a ball carrying duty and better ball handling skills and flair (good supporting running lines and the ability to offload and put other players in space) is common in the No7 position. 

Zinzan Brook describe the role of the blindside flanker: 

The blindside flanker is the guy who cleans out the rucks and is primarily a defensive player on the blind-side, shutting down the opposition number eight or number nine.  

He needs to be someone who likes that confrontation and physically robust approach, and of the three back-row positions he needs to be the absolute bedrock. 

The role hasn’t changed much over the years, a blind-side flanker still has to make sure that the opposition doesn’t get over the advantage line – it’s his job to smash them back. 

If it has changed at all it’s in the ball-carrying, not necessarily the off-load, but you have to be able to carry the ball to defensive lines and through defensive lines.

 The All Blacks, for example, play a high-risk level of rugby these days, punching holes and then using short interplay to get in behind the opposition. 

For this, the blindside and the rest of the back-row are often used more as three-quarters to punch holes because they’re bigger and can draw two defensive players, and if you can do that you’ve created a hole somewhere else. 

My idea of world-class number sixes (7 in SA terms) would be New Zealand’s Jerry Collins or the old All Blacks legend Michael Jones. 

Lastly, George Smith is a notable flanker who blurs the boundaries between the openside and blindside positions; he was mostly used as the exclusive ball-poacher among the Wallabies’ back-row players. 

The No8 

The Number 8 must secure possession at the base of the scrum, carry the ball in open play, provide the link between the forwards and backs in attacking phases and defend aggressively. Good handling skills are essential, as is a great awareness of space. Power and pace over short distances is crucial – gaining territory and field position for a quick release to the backs in attack. The no 8 is also the wider roaming loose forward that does a lot of cover defence. 

The modern number eight has the physical strength of a forward along with the speed and skill of a back. The number eight packs down at the rear of the scrum, controlling the movement and feeding the ball to the scrum-half. A very influential position and is often used to attack with a pickup of the scrum. Normally tall and athletic and used as an option to win the ball in the lineout. 

Like flankers they do less of the pushing than locks or props, but need to be quick to cover opposition half-backs. Number eight is the only position that does not have a specific name and is simply referred to as ‘number eight’. A number 8 should be a key ball winner in broken play, and occasionally a ‘battering rams’ at the front of rucks. 

Here is Zinzan Brooks’ take on the No8: 

The number 8’s duties are similar to his loose forward team-mates – to tackle, carry and provide the backs support in breaks. 

But he also has the added responsibility of securing possession at the base of the scrum. The number 8 should have a psychological advantage over the opposing scrum-half, the little guys who are like big roosters! 

The former South Africa scrum-half Joost van der Westhuizen was a classic in this regard. He would come up to you at the back of a scrum and say ‘I’m going to get this ball off you’ – well, that’s one of the nicer things he would say! 

A number 8 has such an important role to release wingers, the fly-half and full-back. Personally I don’t think enough teams use the base of the scrum as an attacking option in the modern game. 

You don’t necessarily have good footballing skills, but you have to have a good awareness of creating space. 

When you’re looking at the ball at the base of the scrum you must have that innate sense of position, of knowing where your team-mates are. 

Over the years South Africa had some brilliant players in the various positions. 

On No 6 we had players like Jan-Boland Coetzee, Rassie Erasmus, Piet Greyling, Ruben Kruger, Schalk Burger, Heinrich Brussow, Corné Krige, Burger Geldenhuys, and Rob Louw. 

On 7 we had players like Andre Venter, Jan Ellis, Juan Smith, Joe van Niekerk, Butch Lochner, Daan Retief and Stephen Fry, Theuns Stofberg, and Gert Small. 

On 8 we had players like Gary Teichman, Tommy Bedford, Albie Bates, Morné du Plessis, Hennie Muller, Bobby Skinstad, Wynand Claassen, Doug Hopwood and Piere Spies. 

A few of these players have actually played in more than one position in the loose trio and the ones in red are players who have played numerous times in other position in the loose trio. In the above list I tried to group them in their best positions but a player like Rob Louw played for instance in No6 against the 1980 Lions and then on No8 in the first test against New Zealand in 1981 and in third test he was back in No6 while Burger Geldenhuys played in No6 in the second test and then in No7 in the third test. These sort of shifting of flankers and the No8 to different spots in the looose trio -from one game to the next- is often based on tactical manoeuvres and/or on certain strengths one player in the trio might have which the coach wants use in order to exploit a weakness he may have noticed in the opposition. Often players are moved because of injury to one of the trio and the new player that comes in can only play -or are better- in the position of one of the non-injured players in the trio; one of the original trio -who might be more versatile- is then moved to the other side of the scrum or from flank to No8. In 1956 Butch Lochner and Daan Retief were frequently rotated on No7 and No8 -from one test to the next- for tactical purposes.  

The question here is not who was the most versatile loose trio but who would be our best combination. In order to answer the question we need to determine what would constitute an exceptional loose trio combination? 

Now that is not an easy question to answer and different people will have different answers on what add up to a perfect loose trio. After some consideration I came up with the following criteria. 

The evaluation criteria 

Classic role (CR) – players in the three positions should be able to do the classic tasks (as described above) required for the various positions. 

Speed (S) – There need to be speed in the loose trio that is speed of the mark, speed to the breakdowns and speed over 80 to 100 meters. 

Bulk, height, agility and power (BHAP) – These four characteristics need to be present not necessarily in all three but in the combination. 

Domination of the breakdowns (DoB) – A good loose trio must be able to dominate the breakdowns against most teams. That is force the opposition back on defence and on attack. 

Flair and space awareness (FSA) – The ability to run good supporting lines, read the game, be at the right place at the right time, to create opportunities by having an innate sense of where your supporting players would be and good handling skills. 

Physicality, the ability to punch holes and to offload (P) – Not scared for contact in fact revelling in contact and good at taking the ball up with the added ability to offload. 

Contribute to lineout play (LO) – either as jumpers or as supporting players. 

Unison play (UP) – ability to hunt as a pack and to combine not only on attack but also on defence.  

 Background on a few of the older players in the analysis 

There are a few players mentioned here which date back to 1952, 1960 and 1956 and I thought it a good idea to provide some background about them. 

The loose trio of probably the greatest side that ever visited the UK namely the 1952 Springboks was Basie van Wyk, Stephen Fry and Hennie Muller. Hennie Muller alias “die windhond” is a legend and most people know about him and his exceptional speed, work rate and fearsome competiveness. The other two players in this trio namely Basie van Wyk and Stephen Fry is probably a bit of a mystery for most of the current generation South African rugby fans. 

Danie Craven wrote about Basie van Wyk:  

“A superb team man, he certainly always responded to any call on his services. His hands were not wonderful; it was almost as if he first fumbled the ball when it came to him, but he never dropped it. Like his great partners Hennie Muller and Stephen Fry, Basie had speed, flair and the will to win. When I talk of the one I have to talk of the other two. They formed a great looseforward combination, the best in the world in their era.” 

Basie van Wyk went on the 1956 Springbok tour to New Zealand but broke his leg and didn’t play in a match on that tour. Stephen Fry captained the Springboks in all four tests against the 1955 British Lions.  

Basie van Wyk went on the 1956 Springbok tour to New Zealand but broke his leg and didn’t play in a match on that tour. Stephen Fry captained the Springboks in all four tests against the 1955 British Lions. 

The other trio I feel need to be described is the Ackerman, Lochner and Retief combo of 1956. This was certainly a top class combination. Danie Craven wrote as follows about Butch Lochner: 

“Butch was the best under-19 player of his year at Stellenbosch. The first thing that comes to mind about him is the 1956 tour to Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand were still sore about their 1949 tour to South Africa, where they had lost all four tests, in no small measure due to Okey Geffin’s kicking ability as well as the part that Hennie Muller had played as a roving loose forward. 

They were in fact looking for revenge on Hennie Muller, who had done most of the damage and had dented their reputation rather badly in 1949. Hennie had retired by then and Butch, as a similar roving kind of forward, had to bear the brunt of the All Black onslaught. 

However, Butch demolished their flyhalves from the line-outs. He could tackle like a demon, just as Jimmy White did during the 1937 tour. 

It was after this disillusionment that they started with the up and unders, which nearly killed our players. Butch, unbeknown to himself, was in part responsible for this particular retaliation, because of his excellent tackling. There have certainly been few men who have tackled as well as he did.” 

Terry McLean writes about Dawie Ackermann:  

As fast as Deerfoot, handsome as a matinee idol and perfectly proportional, was once chosen, about three years before the ’56 tour, to represent, or personify, South African youth at a great Afrikaner festival in the Transvaal. He was somewhat susceptible to injury and having been one of the most prominent players against the 1955 Lions, he seemed somewhat careless over various matters. He was for instance, a lazy trainer and examples of his prodigious speed and wonderful defensive covering were liable to be separated by long periods of mooned about, recuperating. He was 1.91m tall and weighed 97.98kg and played lock at u/20 level. 

Mclean has the following on Daan Retief: 

Daan was good –er-darn good. In fact, he was the outstanding loose forward of the team and one of the finest of his type to be seen in New Zealand for many years. He had been a wing and could hold his own with most New Zealand backs. Though not so gifted a cover-defender as Ackermann, he had a hawk-like intelligence on attack and completed movements in a way that no other forward in the two countries could have matched. He was 1.86m tall and weighed 97.52kg. 

There was certainly speed and flair in abundance as well as physicality in this combination. The only problem maybe that they were too similar and lacking the true fetcher in the combination. 

 My conclusion on who would be the best loose trio  

So the winners, based on my analysis, are Ruben Kruger, Andre Venter and Gary Teichman. 

In second place is Rassie Erasmus/Andre Venter and Gary Teichman. 

In third spot is three groups namely:

• Greyling/Jan Ellis/Bedford;
• Krige/Joe van Niekerk/Skinstad and
• Greyling/Ellis/Albie Bates.