No Waugh between Smith and Brussow.

Heinrich Wilhelm Brussow, is one of the "finds of the season" according to Springbok skipper John Smit.

The open side flank role slowly started being defined when the game began moving towards professionalism in the 90's. Traditionally, the only criteria the open side flanker needed was to be the fittest and quickest forward and his main role was to make the most tackles on the field.

As rugby progressed through the past two decades, coaches and players have helped to redefine the role to make it much more specialised, and having a good open side flank can prove to be detrimental to the outcome of the game.

One of the more prominent open side flanker types to evolve is the 'fetcher'. The fetcher is the scavenger, stealing the opposition ball and disrupting the speed at which the opposition recycle their ball at rucks.

Although traditonal responsibilities of being the first to every breakdown and trying to achieve the highest tackle count are still an important part of the open side flankers duties, the legal poaching of opposition ball has become a very useful weapon.

For me, George Smith was the first to truly highlight the importance of the fetcher role on the pitch. Since then Richie McCaw, Phil Waugh and Schalk Burger have added the valuable attribute to their skillset, but none are equal to Smith. The master fetcher has represented his country on over 100 occassions which proves just how good he is, especially when another world class fetcher in Phil Waugh has been competing for the same position throughout.

On Saturday, Smith will come up against his newest rival for the title of master fetcher in Heinrich Brussow. The South African "find of the season" has already upstaged All Black captain Richie McCaw on two weekends in a row, but Smith will prove a whole new challenge. Although Brussow is still a newcomer to the international rugby scene, he is quickly creating a global reputation.

When unveiling their squad, Australia omitted the name of Phil Waugh but have the veteran Smith in the starting XV. Surely Brussow has his work cut out for him, but don't be too surprised if it emerges that Smith's title is under serious threat come the end of the Tri Nations match on Saturday.