All Blacks star Brodie Retallick has been credited with "changing the shape of attacking rugby".
In looking at the developments in rugby over the last decade, astute Times writer Stuart Barnes lauded the efforts of the New Zealand lock who was World Rugby's player of the year in 2014.
In a period dominated by fellow All Blacks like Dan Carter and Richie McCaw, Barnes felt Retallick's contribution to New Zealand's success and the game's progression shouldn't be understated.
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All Blacks lock Brodie Retallick on the rampage against Australia.
His assessment was that Retallick had "played the revolutionary role in the expansion of a second row's repertoire of skills".
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"In the era of Dan Carter, it was the lanky lock forward who changed the shape of attacking rugby," Barnes wrote in The Times.
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Brodie Retallick's offloading skills have changed the game for international locks.
"Standing at either first or second receiver, he has the skill to time a pass to put a teammate through the gap, or pull back a pass to a second-wave running into space from deep.
"The three-man pod and the secondary surge of backs is the shape of 21st Century attacking rugby. Outside New Zealand it was mainly imitation. None could do it like Retallick, the man who changed offensive rugby as much, if not more, than other player."
Other teams had tried to replicate Retallick and all had looked at ways to counter a huge player with rare skills, demonstrated by him winning the try of the year in 2018 at the World Rugby awards.
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Brodie Retallick displays his athletic abilities and his support play against the Wallabies.
Barnes noted that Welsh captain Alun Wyn Jones had changed his style to add the offload pass to his standard skills of of jumping, pushing, carrying and tackling.
Fijian Leone Nakarawa was another with rare skills that were now taking second row play to another level on the back of Retallick's examples.
"Soon there will be locks found to add this extra dimension to a team. A conveyor belt of Nakarawas would be the quantum leap of locks from the second to third decade of this century," Barnes predicted, though they would struggle to make as many improvements as Retallick had managed in such a short time.
"It is hard to imagine the position continuing to change as it has for the past decade. The merging of the position's basic skills, the athletic excellence brought to both attack and defence and, of course, the redefined art of midfield distribution as originated with that long, tall drink, Retallick, is a revolution that overwhelms any other positional growth in the game," Barnes wrote.
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December 31, 2019 at 01:33AM
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All Black Brodie Retallick hailed for rugby revolutionary role - Stuff.co.nz
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