The spine hasn’t had the opportunity to play off the back of a decent hooker yet. AJ played a lot of 6 coming through the grades, it isn’t an unfamiliar position to him. I believe the solution is coaching. With JC at the back and Booth there is more kicking options than just passing the ball to Sexton (which is all we had with Clarke at lock and AJ at the back). This has placed a lot of pressure on Sexton especially when receiving slow ball in the middle third of the field.
I’m not sure where they see Foran fitting in next yet but I see no reason to treat him any differently to Smith if our halves start to perform in the back end of this year.
In saying all of that, Foran to 6 and AJ to centre would be a dramatic improvement on Herbert.