Nah, I described him as standing hooker for 2 reasons:
1) to show how daft it is to make so many arguments about how to label someone, and whether a lock should be labelled a middle half (etc etc)
and
2) because, if we are going to be particular, a standing hooker would touch the ball before the halves, and would have the job of (a) playing the forwards through the middle or (b) passing it on to the halves to orchestrate the set plays out wide.
Based on (2), my description is far more apt (if we are describing backrow by role), and it makes (1) a lot more fun!
And, based on your own admission, hooker is a special case (or dummy half). Can teams not have 2 dummy halves? One who plays with his head down, one who stands? It is pretty much exactly what Paulo did last season - played forwards through the middle, darted from 'standing dummy half' himself, or chucked it to the halves.
A genuine 'middle half' would have the option to run a play, or kick, or play out wide on occasion (as the actual halves switch sides on rare occasion, or play inside the other half in attacking sets on occasion - tends to happen when there is a 2 option play being called).
Anyway, all moot points as (so far) this year, Joseph Paulo has played a more traditional type role.
