The mid air 'step' that Johnson does and a few others before him is great for tiring defenses (ask Kevin Sinfield) and in close 1/4s can either look amazing or gets you KTFO if an opposing forward doesn't fall for it or one comes in to blindside you (generally the latter as a lot of forwards are too slow of thought to even figure out that players like SJ 90% of the time step in the same direction)
I think even the smaller backs are relying more on outright pace and change of direction/body swerve as opposed to a classic side step as this hasn't really being coached for years by the looks of things and probably doesn't come naturally to many players anyway.
Escare has a small full flight step which with his pace is effective, I remember Gareth Raynor's 95m try against Joey Johns' Warrington side and he did one at not far shy of full chat & nearly fell over, still managed to bamboozle the Warry defence and two of their players clattered into each other but it shows that even someone of Raynors size who was about 14.5 stone found it hard to do at real pace.

Most of the succesful clubs have got very good mobile forwards with lots of pace and a decent change of direction.Peter Gentle tried bringing this in at Hull & was ridiculed for it



As for the halves needing to be elusive, they certainly did, the refs let a hell of a lot of high/late tackles go with barely a flicker or even a penalty. A penalty was a small price to pay for taking out your opponents playmaker though and most coaches would be instructing their hitman to do exctly that. I remember Topliss getting ted really badly in 82 or 83 CC semi final in the first few minutes and the ref played on for the first one, 2nd one the Cas player (might have being J.Joyner) properly facked him and toppo stayed down..touchie came on and the ref gave a penalty, not even a warning IIRC.
That's how it was for halves in the 70s/80s, dunno about the before that (i didn't start going to games until I was 9 in '7icon_cool.gif but I expect it was just as uncompromising if not more so...certainly there were a few hardmen of yesteryear that would batter some of the handbag swingers we see now.

It really depends on the nature of the step. Remember the quote, "stay on your toes"? As is usually the case with these old sayings whose origins have receded into the fog of the past - there's a lot of sense here. Most players I see in SL these days whether they be running, stepping or whatever - plant their feet flat. This means their joints bear the full force of any change of direction and should one or both feet be planted incorrectly it's curtains for the ligaments which are the weakest link in the chain. However, we've all seen those players who seem to do everything literally on the tips of their toes. Instead of plunging all their studs into the pitch flat like a rock climber hammering in a piton they appear almost to "skate" on the grass using only the first three or four studs. This technique, which can be learned by anyone with sufficient patience and effort, gives the player enormous lateral agility and - better still - it significantly reduces the load pushed through the knee joint.

We've all seen players with such technique. Jason Robinson is the most obvious example. You NEVER saw him blasting his supporting foot into the pitch before stepping the opposite way. At times he seemed almost to be running on a single stud. I'm pretty sure Robinson never suffered a major knee injury (such as a cruciate rupture), too.

If I had to pick a player today who has a similar technique I'd say Kieran Dixon. I defy anyone to match him step for step planting his foot flat into the turf.

Dave Myers, rest his soul, was nicknamed "Stepper"

Steve Kerry

A bit biased but on his day David Faiumu had the best and probably the biggest sidestep i've seen in Super League !