Maro Itoje’s excellence shows why locks are top earners | Jeremy Guscott

AT first glance reports that second rows are now the most valuable players in the European club game based on a recent survey of wages across Premiership, the Top 14, and the PRO14, was a bit of a surprise.

If you look at them physically then there's not a lot different in the second row, because the heights and weights of locks are pretty similar to when I was playing alongside the likes of Wade Dooley, Paul Ackford, and Martin Johnson.

International locks in that era had the main attributes of being great lineout exponents and scrummagers, and nothing much has changed about the importance of those roles. Even the interchangeability between lock and the back row has not altered a huge amount, because blindsides and No.8s, like John Hall at Bath, were very often required to go into the second row if we had an injury or a sending off.

It is interesting that Maro Itoje was seen initially as being equally good at blindside and lock, until it became clear that at elite level he is much better in the second row.

The main thing is that the terms and conditions have changed because of professionalism, and particularly the improvements in fitness and conditioning that have brought greater athleticism – however, Brodie Retallick is still one in a million, and in my time the same was true of Johnson.

There are still second rows in the pro game where you would hold your breath after passing them the ball, rather than expect them to catch it and link with a teammate, but there is no denying that it has become a very competitive position.

This was illustrated when Saracens were in full flow with Itoje, George Kruis, Will Skelton and Nick Isiekwe competing for places, and it is the same at Exeter now with Jonny Hill, Jonny Gray, Sam Skinner and Jannes Kirsten.

It is surprising, though, that under the law of supply and demand, with more good second rows available than there are flyhalves, that locks are commanding salaries as big, or bigger, than 10s.

My thinking is that the same applies with scrum-halves, because, for me, 9 and 10 are still the key decision- makers in any team. It is their execution that determines how the team plays the game. Without a good 10 your team is not going anywhere, and that's why you would expect your 9 and 10 would be more valuable than your lock pairing – after all, it's not often that you hear the team has been built around a 4 or 5! However, in every league it is locks earning the biggest wage packets, apart from in the Premiership, where they are second to fly-halves.

This probably stems from the increased responsibilities and requirements of locks in the pro era. In the amateur game their main role outside the set piece was to hit rucks and mauls and generate momentum because it was more important to be going forward in order to win the put-in at the next scrum.

Now they are expected to make more carries, more tackles, and even to win turnovers. In order to share that load they have to be fitter and more versatile, as well as strong enough and big enough to make an impact in their traditional role at the set piece.

Springbok locks like Eben Etzebeth, and before him, Bakkies Botha, tick most of those boxes – even though they were not really destructive carriers, and not many second rows are. In the past, not many locks were renowned for defence, but now there can be no weak links in the line, even though every back looking for a mismatch is looking for someone with a jersey numbered from 1 to 5.

It is why most locks defend closer to the ruck than out wide, but even then you get the exceptions like Itoje, who, with an arm-span almost as wide as the goalposts, is able to cover a huge amount of ground.

“Good locks are constantly involved, in defence, attack, tackling, lineouts or carrying hard”

Locks have a reputation for being pretty durable, which may have to do with them not running fast enough, or having enough cat-like flexibility, to put their joints under stress. Also, because they are lineout callers they are generally also team-leaders.

If you are anything from 6ft 5ins to 6ft 10ins, which most locks are, you want a man of that size to have an impact. One of the reasons Itoje gives the perception he is man-ofthe- match almost every time is because good locks are constantly involved, whether it's defence or attack, tackling, or carrying hard – or winning a lineout, or being at the heart of a driving maul or scrum.

By comparison, a fly-half will struggle to be as ever-present, mainly because defensively they are much less involved. Instead, these days they are more strategic and work more as distributors or tactical kickers, rather than as running 10s or first receivers. Their main role is to push and pull the defence out of alignment, and then to scan for space or mis-matches before launching a strike move.

So, second row is more obviously impactful in the pro game, and you can see this in the way that Wales have struggled without Alun Wyn Jones, and likewise how inspirational Itoje is for England, James Ryan for Ireland, and Jonny Gray for Scotland.

There is an automatic respect for locks, because they are big men, and usually one of them will have to go non-stop for the full 80 minutes – which is a lot harder for men of their size than it is for a 14 or 15 stone centre.

However, fly-half remains the iconic control position. They are the tactical kickers and distributors who decide where to attack, as well as dummy, score tries, and kick goals. But in England, where it is more of a territory game, they are more about giving direction to their team – which in the Premiership is very often about kicking – and that is something a second row cannot execute.

The control factor usually prevails in the Six Nations fly-half selection, where England's Owen Farrell, Ireland's Johnny Sexton, and Dan Biggar of Wales are your safe generals, who won't rip the opposition apart with running, but make very few mistakes, and know how to turn up the pressure.

The other side of the coin are 10s like Scotland's Finn Russell and France's Romain Ntamack, who are running risk-takers. All of them are match-winners in different ways, with Sexton, Farrell, and Biggar more likely to win with a goal-kick, where Ntamack and Russell will do it with a pass.

We all love fly-halves with flair, but the truth is that in the Six Nations coaches tend to go for good commanders and organisers ahead of game-breakers. For instance, where Stephen Jones used to be picked for Wales, and Ronan O'Gara by Ireland, 10s with attacking ambition often struggled to build a legacy after they broke through, as was the case with Danny Cipriani and James Hook, and before them the All Black Carlos Spencer.

Sometimes in rugby we seem to remember one bad thing against ten great things we forget. Sometimes we also get fly-halves who get away with being commanders as well as game-breakers because, like Dan Carter, they are great risk assessors.

The only thing is that they still rely on second rows to give them the ball.

JEREMY GUSCOTT