Brendan Gallagher: Let’s hear it for the new glory boys wearing 15

For decades it was the pin-ups at half-back who always seemed to hold sway, the mercurial playmakers and distributors who were often their team’s main goalkickers to boot. Then came the irritated counter claims by the much-neglected heroes of the pack who always seemed to miss out on the headlines and the lucrative endorsements.
Surely a world-class No.8 or tighthead prop were the key men not to mention those towering middle of the line jumpers who provided an endless stream of possession.
Just recently though all have been well and truly put in the shade. Full-back is now clearly the sexiest, most influential, most written about and most coveted position on the pitch. Full-backs are the game’s new superstars, the players who can exert a profound influence on their team and the game and the professionals who put bums on seats and increasingly command the highest salaries.
A quick look at this year’s Six Nations is illustrative. Would anybody take serious issue with my claim that on current form the best player in at least five of the Six Nations is their full-back? I give you Stuart Hogg, Rob Kearney, European player of the year Leigh Halfpenny, Mike Brown and Brice Dulin.
I would also argue strongly that, behind Sergio Parisse, the underrated Luke McLean has been Italy‘s best player this season while spreading the net a little further I give you Willie le Roux with the Boks and Australia‘s Israel Folau. New Zealand‘s Israel Dagg isn’t the worst, either.
At Twickenham next weekend two of the very best will be in direct opposition, Halfpenny and Brown and it’s salutary to consider that Brown didn’t even make the Lions squad last summer. Looking on with interest will be JPR Williams, one of the prototype modern-day No.15s who helped transform our perception of full-back play.

“Full-back is definitely the ‘box office’ position these days and many of the world’s most talented backs seem to be gravitating there because that is where they can cause most damage,” says Williams, who made 62 of his 63 Test appearances at full-back. The other came at flanker against Australia in 1979. “There is an outstanding crop at the moment everywhere you look.
“Even with these claustrophobic and well-organised modern defences you are always going to get just that bit more time and space at full-back to pick your moment but the biggest factor in the pre-eminence of the full-back these days is the endless, mindless kicking that has become a part of many games.
“At the risk of sounding like a dinosaur I’ve never understood this aerial ping-pong – to these eyes it’s just a free ball every time, an invitation to attack and make ground. I was watching a game with Gerald Davies recently and we both shook our heads in bemusement, we’d have loved working off that kind of possession.
“Full-backs seem to have just so much ball these days, they’re almost like punt returners in some games, and seem to head all the attacking stats.
“Even in teams up against it the full-backs come into play. Italy’s Luke McLean is very underrated in my opinion; he kicks absolutely as a last option and is a strong sensible runner. Why return the ball with another kick when you can make 25-30 metres without too much difficulty while retaining possession?”
Historically the role of full-back is ever changing.
Initially it was a defensive stopping role with perhaps goal-kicking as an extra. Viv Jenkins caused a furore when he became the first Wales full-back to score an international try, against Ireland in 1934 and the next Wales full-back to repeat that was Keith Jarrett 33 years later.
The following year the IRB introduced the no kicking to touch outside the 25-yard ruling which spawned a new breed.
“Suddenly a full-back was faced with the option of having to run or pass the ball cleverly out of defence or becoming a really good tactical kicker,” recalls JPR.
“That attacking element certainly helped my game and you started getting full-backs like Pierre Villepreux, Andy Irvine and Serge Blanco – all masters of coming into the line or counter-attacking.
“Then it developed further when the Rugby League-style defences made it so hard to break through midfield. Now so much seems to evolve around the full-back position – I would absolutely love to be out there again.”