I agree with Skippy. And of course this is precisely what we have seen from Pocock - a huge amount of tackling and breakdown work. Turnovers happen and we all want them, but the real value Pocock brings under current rule interpretation is in defense by tackling and slowing the attack.
His work rate vs the Boks was staggering - 50 1st three to breakdown, 32 of those on attack. Add his tackles and tackle assists and the man is an engine. I confess to not really appreciating it fully until I re played the game later.
For those interested, theres a quick cut out on my blog about the team's stats. For me it highlighted the importance of our defense that day by Pocock and McCabe, and gave pause for thought about the idea of running McCabe /Fainga'a as an 'offensive' defense as tabled by a number of peeps here. That said AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) wasn't the slouch some might have thought on defense. Fair to say we can be pretty happy with our defensie stakes at Centre moving into the RWC, esp adding Horne into the mix as an option.
Looking forward to Scotts analysis of the workrates if he has had time to do them, particularly the dominant tackle stuff.
Back to the 7 issue - McCalman might not have set the world alight on attack, but his defense was very solid. If the worst happened, you could do worse than having him on hand and calling on Beau.