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The Guru's lament

Thursday 09th March 2006

And thoughts on counterattack

The Guru, the wisest rugby coach in the whole wide world, reflects on changed attitudes in rugby football, prompted by thoughts of the Super 14 and the Stormers and counterattack.

In 2003, Richard Beard, an author who has written several books, produced another entitled Muddied Oafs; Stephen Jones described it as: "A rich and pointed and yet loving trawl through the heroic undercard of rugby."

John Inverdale says of it: "Richard Beard's journey to the heart of rugby captures the soul of the game … Hugely enjoyable."

It certainly is, especially if you have played the game yourself.

Beard's sub-titled his book "The Last Days of  Rugger". In it he describes rugby (and the concomitants of it) in the various clubs around Europe for which he played. The book rings wonderfully true. There is much about it that I found very enjoyable yet sad - what I felt is suggested by his sub-title, "The Last Days of Rugger" and fingered by Stephen Jones's words "rich and pointed" as well as John Inverdale's "journey to the heart captures the soul of the game." But then, I am a romantic where rugby is concerned, especially coaching.

Does modern rugby, professional and other, yet have a heart and a soul? Is it still rich? Is this not what Stephen Jones is getting at when he uses the word "pointed"? And what about the author's condemnatory "The Last Days of Rugger"? I love the word "rugger" (from which the word "footer" was derived, I believe); it smacks of something wonderfully amateur, young, clean and pure and brings to me the image of enthusiastic, earnest and dedicated university and schoolboy rugby players who play for excitement, joy, with pride, honour and dignity, to win. Have we lost all this, as Richard Beard suggests? Is this what professional rugby has done? If it is so, then we have slaughtered rugby.

Pull yourself together! You are here to write coaching articles, not to snuffle and snivel wetly on about bygone days! Stop whingeing!

What started me on this line of thought, long after I had read the book, was having to watch the Stormers play the Highlanders last weekend - I suppose I didn't have to watch it, but, you know what I mean; I felt trapped and had to watch the whole game.

In fact, it was worth it but I could see that the Stormers did not relish playing rugby - there was no zest, no one smiled, laughed, took a chance; boy are these guys drilled! They looked brain-dead. They have become automatons.

But those Highlanders! It seems all their players can pass with accuracy and sympathy; the ball always landed up at the right place- in front of the player who took it, so he ran straight into it as it nestled into his outstretched hands.

What I enjoyed most was the way their players passed before and actually in contact with huge effect- they got the ball away, most often when the defence was focussed on the ball and not the ubiquitous support. Then again I admired the fact that they dominated the tackle situation because they used their feet and did not merely run straight into the tackler and go to ground - that is how they got their passes away, passes that the Stormers would no doubt call 'fifty-fifty passes' and therefore deem the ball 'unpassable', follow orders and flop to the safety of the turf. 

Most of all, the Highlanders enjoyed the contest- it was apparent fun and they had a fling. Must have good coaches!

Many sides in the Six Nations and the Super 14 use the kick as a counter to almost everything. There are indubitably good kicks but, sadly, there are also bad ones; perhaps I have been unlucky to have had the misfortune to live through the bad ones. Hell, there are a lot of them! The Zephyrs - sorry, I mean the Stormers - seem adept at the art, from up-and-unders to misguided touch attempts, grubbers to chips ahead. Their poor old fullback is given the bird every time he touches the ball, probably because it seems to move automatically from his hands to his feet and nine times out of ten that results in effective counter-attack. 

And that is why I am writing this - we as coaches must surely work harder at perfecting counter-attack than at almost any other aspect of the attacking game for there is an awful lot of ball given to you free from useless kicks  - it is jam on the house. Take it, gobble it up, enjoy its sweetness. There is nothing more exhilarating than good counter-attack - remember the famous Barbarians game with the All Blacks so many years ago, before we adopted American Football style?

The poor old Stormers' fullback is hamstrung due to the fact that his wings are never back to support him - nor is anyone else. He has two options: to kick or to run until, like a limpet mine, he finds an opponent (the Stormers are good at this), smashes into him, then he goes to ground, keeping (slow) possession for his side. He cannot pass as there is no one to pass to.

We talk about the front three, the three loose forwards; they are a massive force in a game of rugby. There is also a back three, the fullback and two wings, and boy, can they be frightening! Remember David Campese or are you one of those who regard him as a loose-nut? What about Pieter Rossouw? If the front three are clever, it is almost impossible to mark them as they have free reign in attack and the same applies to the back three. Mix the back three with the front three in attack (not always possible) and you have such potential for incision that I sweat just thinking about it. These six make up two pressure points that you as a coach cannot ignore. Work them in attack.

There is other counter-attack too, from stolen scrums, kick-offs, line-outs and turn-over ball from all other phases. If you act quickly in counter-attack, you will always catch your opponents unprepared in defence. Make it a rule: attack from turnovers. It will be an effective attack, incursion, call it what you might, more often than not. Think attack, think joy and adventure, fun, initiative as did the muddied oafs (some still do) and don't help to make these the LAST DAYS OF RUGGER!