Mixed Tour 2, O & D lines?

This past weekend I enjoyed a fantastic couple of days playing for Flump at Mixed Tour 2 in Burton-on-Trent (results here). We had a great team – not only quality players but a really fun group of people. I think the rapport within the team really helped us achieve a good standard despite a severe lack of practice / preparation.

Flump on the line (courtesy of Dr Hird)

Props to Blockstack TV who put on an unexpected party on the Saturday night. It really added to the weekend for me and from lots of other people I’ve spoken to. I was less impressed by the Marston’s Pedigree (beer brewed next to the fields) – it still tasted a bit like eggs.
So, to the point of this blog. Something I noticed playing with Flump this weekend and also with Brighton at Open Tour 0. We had a lot of guys down to play (10) and none of them were ‘droppable’. Our captain had the smart idea to split them into O & D lines. On the surface this seems to be a good way to get people lots of people playing well together quickly, however I got the feeling that things were a little disjointed on the Saturday. Unfortunately we lost two of our best players to injury and I was a bit worried on the Saturday night. We went out on the Sunday morning a little hung-over but more ‘streamlined’ as a team. The decrease in numbers seemed to have benefited us as we played a more fluid, comfortable style. We won our cross-over well and continued to play similarly throughout the day.
I recall a similar thing happened whilst playing for Brighton at tour 0 playing. We scraped through the first day playing set O and D lines, mixed things up for day two and won the tournament.
Whilst I’m sure offensive and defensive lines can be invaluable when used for large teams who practice very regularly have a depth of quality I feel that they should be used with caution. At lower levels ie. UK university, or B-tour its probably more sensible to be flexible, calling lines in response to the situation at hand. Trying to force people onto O & D lines may end up keeping valuable players off the field when you need them most. Saying that I think flexibility within a squad can provide a great advantage at all levels; lines should never be set in stone.