By Ron Knox
February 20 2006

Rugby league is a game where every player on the field is expected to have all the skills – running at pace, passing accurately, and tackling, even kicking from hand. This expectation extends to even the biggest guys on the field the Front Row. Guys of 16, 17 or even 18 stones who can run at pace, and pass the ball like centres, some even having a great side step. They have all the skills and are all great athletes. Rugby Union followers may not be impressed by their scrummaging, but they will quickly realise that the scrum in Rugby league is non-competitive, and is simply a way for the game to re-start.

Harlequins Rugby league will be blessed this season with no fewer than 5 specialist prop forwards – The humongous Mark Tookey (18 stones at pace), the aggressive Filimona Lolohea, and 3 newcomers – the young Louis Scarsbrook McCarthy from our Academy, the gigantic David Mills (Welshman, son of the infamous Jim Mills), and the experience Daniel Heckenberg. You can read more about Daniel on the Quins RL web site. He’s an Australian with a Scottish passport, and wants to be one of our own in the red, white and blue.

Rugby league forwards do not have to win the ball. Their job is to go forward, and create the momentum for the backs to play off. Tactically they either will go down quickly when tackled and look for a quick play the ball ( very similar in many ways to Union players), or when in an attacking position look for them to stand in the tackle and offload to a supporting player to switch the point of attack or create a gap to run through. They get noticed probably most when the team are in possession coming away from their own try line. They are expected to make “the hard yards” going forward whilst being gang-tackled by 2,3 or even 4 of the opposition.

Their running style is quite different from Rugby Union forwards, who tend to run fairly low to the ground to allow themselves to hit the floor quickly and get support over them. League props run upright with their head up, trying to run into space, keep an arm free for a strong fend, and look for support to offload in contact. You will find the differences in style very interesting.

Few prop forwards last the full 80 minutes. They are regularly substituted to keep them fresh and powerful. The 4 substitutes on the bench invariably have 3 or even 4 forward replacements to keep momentum high.