Really young teams don't have fixed 6's, 7's and 9's mate.
In my experience, for players between 13 and 20 most teams do one of two things:
- Put their star players in 6, 7 and 9 ... so they get lots of touches and win lots but everyone else gets starved of the ball (a.k.a. the Cam Smith or Shaun Berrigan approach), or
- Put their best passers in 6, 7 and 9 so that the ball finds its way to the better ball runners.
I don't think I have ever seen a back rower who was good enough at passing to consistently put guys in holes or throw 10-15m spiral passes both ways to a guy on the chest when shifting. Sure - at rep level there are probably some guys like that, but at rep level they are hand picking from hundreds or thousands of kids. If you took a random sampling from the local u16's in your area I reckon each team would have maybe 3-5 guys capable of doing it and maybe only one of them would not be playing in the spine. At the NRL level the only guys who can do it are transplanted halves. If it was such a common skill Wade Graham would be a run of the mill back rower.
The real real young ones don't, I know that. I wouldn't even call that age group rugby league TBH.
I played my entire life, I played rep footy, played in the Sharks ranks. Never were the star players put in those positions just to get extra touches and win games. The best players I played with were backrowers who among other many qualities could pass the ball.
Maybe in your under 16 games the best passers get put in those positions ''some times'' but still I disagree. If the best passer is also the biggest player on the team, he is still not playing 6, 7 or 9.
So now your idea of being able to pass is ''consistently put guys in holes or throw 10-15m spiral passes both ways to a guy on the chest when shifting''. This isn't grid iron where you stand and pass to someone in space. The 6 and 7 especially need to be able to run and get to space also, have a step, have vision, be able to kick (bomb, grubber, down town). But in your eyes if you can pass you are a 6, 7 or 9.
I think we are talking about 2 different levels of footy, you are talking about club level, teenagers. My experience with club level is it is mates that want to play with other mates (many who haven't played a game in their life) and just have some fun. Basically 80-90% of team are useless.
When you start talking about older age groups and reps, you must have the real characteristics of a half or hooker.