Agreed. (Well, almost, the stamina comment is belied by edge players playing 80 and middles playing 40/50/60)Which is sort of worse. Edge backrower is one of the toughest positions to defend - you constantly need to make critical decisions including last minute choices to mark up on other backrowers (who are at full pace), cover quick little halves or slide to cover a backline sweep, you need to be quick laterally and also strong enough to cover the (likely) smaller, weaker defenders outside you. The workrate isnt quite as high as those in the middle but still pretty solid, but you need to have more stamina and intellegence due to the consistent targeting on the edge.
Makes it all the more ridiculous to play NIghty there. If he had defended in the middle, he would have at least had strong defenders in McInnes and the props/lock to assist. On the edge, he is/was completely exposed and it showed.
But I get sick of this forum claiming that Mary is a moron for making nighty defend in the middle. The irony of this statement is mind boggling.
Then there's the "should have defended lawrie there", which is whole other level.
Nighty shouldn't have been defending at 4. It became more and more obvious the longer the game went on. But hearing people put shit on Mary for making nighty defend in the middle gets awfully irritating after a while.