Should I play winger or flanker?

[palms4299]

17 yrs old, 5'11, 78kg.
Naturally strong and bulky but also athletic, reasonably fast.
Have played 6,7,8,11,12,13,14,15.
Next year I want to be in our 1st XV and my best chance is at winger or flanker (open gaps).
No preference.
I am only 78kg at the moment but I have been losing weight and could easily get up to 90kg if I wanted to for next year.
Essentially I want to train for one position specifically, and need to choose to focus on strength, rucking etc or speed and kicking.
At the moment my strongest attribute is definitely strong, fast, direct ball carrying; I regularly bounce players. Decent at tackling and rucking, diabolical passing and kicking but of course could train these (I have until september).
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Larksea]

just my opinion but its hard to know what position is best till you know you have finished growing. While I was growing I went from Prop to lock to flanker then ended up at 13 or 14.
At that size maybe your focus should be on the backs rather than Flanker, but maybe try not to focus too much on one position. Instead focus on skills. Catching, passing, offloading, high ball, kicking, tacking and footwork. The younger the better for developing great skills.

 

[sharkfan]

Well you are bulky, and is good at going route 1 over the advantage line by as you say regularly bumping of players, so perhaps 12 would have been your position. But since only wing and flank is available, I reckon you should go for flank as you will be more involved on the attack and defence.

 

[Peat]

Unless you really love scoring tries, there's simply no way being a winger is more fun than being a flanker.

 

[ALJ]

I think Larksea is spot on regarding the advice on training.

As for position, you should probably be asking yourself what you enjoy about playing the game - the two positions are very different and whether you prefer running in the open space/getting stuck into the tackles and breakdowns/whatever, should really act as your guide as to the position you want to target.

Personally, I was a small openside (5'11" 13.5-14.5st), then moved to six and finally to 8 as I got older and slower - At the top level size seems to matter much more these days for the backrow but for everyone else, if you're good enough, you are big enough.

 

[flanksteak]

Found this thread and thought it'd be interesting (seven years on) to see where this OP landed... his body should be well solidified by now. If he kept up that strength I could see him being a dastardly openside flanker.