Analysis: England’s perfect kicking game

Adam Kyriacou

Our analyst returns this week and shelves the TMO debate in favour of focussing on England’s perfect kicking game against Wales last week.

There were many talking points from the hard fought England vs Wales game on Saturday. Most of social media has focused on whether or not Gareth Anscombe was denied a try in the first half, one side claim that the full-back clearly grounded the ball and the TMO fluffed his lines, the other side defend the TMO by pointing to the fact that he may have missed an earlier knock on from wing Steff Evans.

There is also discussion, although less frenzied, about whether Wales should have been facing 14 men for the final ten minutes after man of the match, Mike Brown’s, cynical playing of the ball on the ground following a Welsh break. However, these are topics best left to fertile garden of debate, otherwise known as Twitter. Instead, we will be looking at where I think England won the game, kicking.

There were 78 total kicks on Saturday, exactly 39 each. To put that into some context, if you combined the total number of kicks for both of the other Six Nations games on the weekend you’re still two short of equalling the total at Twickenham. The Welsh kicking game was confused and often very ordinary. The English had a simple kicking game-plan, turn the defenders and go for touch when needed.

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We’ll start at the beginning, Wales have had to make a late change to remove Leigh Halfpenny and replace him with Anscombe. You know that defensively this position has probably gone from a strength to a weakness so you want to be testing it. The kick is perfect, just landing inside the Welsh half and forces an early catch under pressure. Anscombe was in the line so it’s Rhys Patchell who was dealing with this. Obviously it’s not ideal that Patchell doesn’t claim the ball, but what really kills Wales is that right wing Josh Adams has drifted way infield.

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That leaves Aaron Shingler as the furthest player on the near side and with Jonny May storming forward into space, the flanker has no hope. The quicker Welsh backs make a decent fist of stopping May from going over for the try but it’s just too easy for England.

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Just a few minutes later, England are back at it again. Welsh line speed leaves a hole in behind their defensive line and in front of the back three which is easily exploitable by George Ford. Adams tries to close down the space but doesn’t get there in time and ends up missing the tackle. Once again, the Welsh defenders are turned and England are attacking broken field.

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This is just a few phases after the last example. Adams has once again been pulled into the midfield leaving the nearside wing open and unguarded. Ford flips the ball over the top and with a more favourable bounce, May would’ve been in for another.

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This is a really nice nudge from Anscombe, it finds the deck and turns the defence, but Danny Care is a hugely impressive kicker and he simply uses the time he has and punches the ball back almost to the halfway line. With a stretched defence the scrum-half doesn’t want to keep the ball in field and finds a safe touch.

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In this clip, Owen Farrell canters through the defenders and that brings up the back three. Most people might want the centre to keep the ball in hand but he sees the space and knows that it’s prudent to take advantage of it rather than try and build the attack. If you’re a fan, you may want to see your team keep ball in hand and never kick, but with modern defences it’s much easier to score from opposition mistakes rather than your own attacking structures.

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This is another example of what Care brings to the side. Wales have put him under some pressure but the scrum-half relieves all of that by pumping the ball back into the Welsh half. Anybody who has played rugby at any level will know the feeling, you’ve snuck into your opponent’s 22 and they deliver a wonderful kick to send you back into your half. You trudge back whilst they jog up the pitch with the momentum swinging violently in their direction.

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This is a wonderful kick. If this is too short, you only have tight forwards on the near side and it’s a perfect counter attacking opportunity. Because Farrell can get the ball over the top of the defenders he takes all the pressure off the kick chase. They no longer need to rush up, instead they can take their time and filter into position. England had a selection of kicking options during the game, and while Wales failed to get a territorial foothold, England were placing the ball wherever they wanted.

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As good as England’s kicking game was, it was made to look better by Wales’ inability to apply any pressure with theirs. This example comes straight after kick off, the good kick chase is expected due to the time of the game, however Gareth Davies sticks it too far and it ends up with a kick that is too long to allow competition but not far enough to really gain any territory.

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This is the same situation but with Patchell instead of Davies. The fly-half is under serious pressure, you don’t often see teams choosing to exit like this when deep in their own half, most will choose to get their scrum-half to box kick it away instead. The pressure gets to Patchell and he doesn’t really find much distance and isn’t able to slow the ball down by sticking it into touch.

Conclusion

One of the key reasons why Wales looked so good against Scotland, was because they were constantly fed possession with a broken field to run against. Teams don’t need opposition mistakes to be successful but it certainly helps. England turned up with a wide selection of kickers and starved Wales of possession and territory. England kicked to compete or they kicked to turn the opposition around and they never let the two tactics get confused whereas the Welsh sometimes kicked to compete, sometimes kicked for territory and sometimes found themselves doing something between the two which was pounced on by England. In the end it wasn’t the TMO or the referee who decided this game, it was England’s ability to dominate field position.

by Sam Larner