Analysis: Rugby Trends, Part Two

Just before Christmas, Sam Larner brought you the trends of 2017 part one. With the hectic festive rugby period now over the second part is here.

In the first part we looked at the 1-3-3-1 attacking shape and the use of backs in the lineout. I would recommend reading that first part, if you haven’t already, because it introduces how rugby has changed as a whole in the professional era. This week, we have two more trends picked by experts in the sport.

Two attacking Lines

Chosen by Ben Ward, Director of Rugby at Ealing Trailfinders in the English Championship. Ben is a former Trailfinders player, part of the team who rose from tier 6 to pushing for top spot in tier 2 (English Championship) in ten years.

Introduction

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At the risk of being banned from appearing on this site again, I’m going to start with a clip from rugby league. If you watch any rugby league, you will have seen this set-up; two lines of attacking players stood with around 3m of depth between them. Each ball carrier then has two options; pass it to forward most player (hard line) or pass it away from the defenders to the back option (soft line), if the soft line player gets the ball, he then has the same options himself, as you can see above.

In rugby union, the process is very slightly different because there’s a ruck. You can’t just run one player in by themselves, so you will often see pods of forwards operating as the hard line and distributing backs being the soft option behind.

From the Expert: “The attacker with the ball has to have vision on the defender in front and also the defender who is marking the flat runner (hard line). The first job of the playmaker is to attack the line, stay square and keep his hips pointing forward. This means that the first defender can’t push off and help the second defender. By doing this, the second defender now has a problem. He has the flat runner to deal with but also the runner in behind (soft line). We talk a lot in our attack about making a defender turn his hips in. This makes it very hard for him to recover and leaves gaps in the defensive line.

Our playmaker stays square and attacks the line and the first defender. The flat runner has to angle his line to attack in behind the outside shoulder of the first defender. This gives the second defender a decision to make. If he stays for the attacker at the back our playmaker should pass to the flat runner cutting an angle. If the second defender turns his hips in then our playmaker should hit the deep runner out back. Both players are ball carrying options and run to bust, not to block defenders. The playmaker has the most important role to stay square, attack the line and read the hips of the second defender.”

Examples:

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We’ll start with this example from Ealing in their 72-12 demolition of London Scottish from earlier this season. As you can see, the decision maker takes the ball to the line and distributes from that point. The hard runners have to blast through the line to put the defenders on the back foot, but most importantly, to turn the second defender’s hips inwards. Ealing get through the gain line on this play and then score easily on the next phase once the defenders have been drawn in.

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This clip from the all Kiwi; Blues vs Chiefs game in Super Rugby earlier this season, showcases one of the key developments in rugby since it became professional, a passing prop. Nepo Laulala, the tighthead prop is the decision maker who puts Damian McKenzie through the hole and in for the try. The seam between the defensive forwards opens up because McKenzie angles his run towards the far sideline and then straightens up, the inside defenders were expecting the forward hit up and the outside defenders were anticipating the ball going wide, nobody accounted for McKenzie going straight through the middle.

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Two final examples, this one from the Italy vs Argentina Test earlier in the year. The first hard runner, we won’t call them dummy runners as they should always be anticipating the ball, doesn’t really do his job and doesn’t draw the attention of the outside defender. However, the next hard runner flies at the line and is able to halt the drifting defenders who are otherwise easily closing down the space open to the Argentinian wide players.

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If you like the idea of two lines of attacking players, how about three? Wasps employ that tactic to put Christian Wade through to score here. Elliot Daly’s hard angle stops the drift defence in its tracks and as the wide Quins defender rushes up to cut down the options, Wasps have a third attacker on the shoulder, Marcus Watson, who canters through the massive hole.

In all four examples, the attackers break the gain line or better because the hard running lines of their team-mates broke holes in the defence which prevented the drift from getting across.

From the Expert: “Defences have changed this season with the adjustments to the tackle laws. There is less chance of a turnover at the breakdown so teams are spreading more in defence. This means it’s easier to keep the ball in attack but you have a bigger wall with more numbers to penetrate. There has been a shift from over the ball sevens, to more ball carrying sevens as teams need to dent the defensive lines.

Teams use a forward pod, with the options of popping the ball from the pod to the playmaker, for a couple of reasons; genuine options to latch and carry and to get the ball to first receiver and cut out numbers in the defensive line and also reduce line speed on their playmaker.

When we use these pods and play out back to our playmaker we are looking to turn a defender’s hips in or make the defender commit to a tackle on one of our runners. Also teams have more numbers around the breakdown and the spacings between defenders can become bigger the wider out you go. We want to get to those bigger gaps to make it easier to manipulate defenders and attack the space.

To defend these pods, some teams allow the scrum-half to roam and jump out at the playmaker out the back of the forward pod. So the defensive line is set with the nine in behind covering chips but he may take a running start/gamble to add an extra number to the line and rush up on the playmaker out the back option from the forward pod. This may spook him and mean the forward pod carries or he may get him man and ball.”

Line Speed Killing Chips

Chosen by Glenn Delaney defence coach of the Highlanders Super Rugby franchise. Glenn is originally from Timaru, NZ but had playing stints in Japan & England before becoming Director of Rugby at Nottingham, Forwards Coach at London Irish and Head Coach at Canterbury in New Zealand.

Introduction

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If you hadn’t noticed, defensive line speed keeps getting quicker and quicker as fitness continues to improve. This is problematic for attackers because it reduces the amount of time that moves have to develop and therefore the options attacking teams have. There’s a pay-off with any defensive style of play though and the negative side of a high line speed defence is that it creates a big gap between your back three and the flat defensive line.

If you’re more football manager inclined, think of this like the gap between the defenders and the goalkeeper; a big gap between those two units makes it easier to defend the rest of the pitch (you condense the space elsewhere) but leaves you vulnerable to a ball over the top. If you narrow that gap, you give the opposition space in the rest of the pitch but reduce your risk at the back.

As the gap between the defensive line and the deeper defenders increases, the room to land a delicately placed chip also increases and this is a tactic that teams are using more and more to turn the defenders and put a halt to the super charged rush defences.

From the Expert: “Playing against a high line speed defence changes the amount of time you have to execute the skills required to attack. The alignment of the defence normally comes from your outside, which reduces the wide options, rather than a tradition drift which aligns on the attacking player’s inside. The attacking kick option is a good way to defuse line speed.

The space in behind the defence is normally covered by a sweeping half-back or a backfield player. They may have a lot of ground to cover to field the kick, but your attacking support players are moving forward quickly and can get behind the front line defensive press and create a great attacking opportunity.

This isn’t the only way to challenge a team who play with high line speed, teams will look to split the field and play the short side against a press. Often there are mixed ability defenders together here and teams tend to be conservative on their short sides.  The issue is if an attack gets to the edge of the pitch down a short side, they will then face a full line on the second phase! Attacking around the ruck can also be effective. In essence, if you strengthen your defence in one place, there will be areas that are not as secure.”

Examples:

If we look at the Marcus Smith example above, the chip works because Quins have a numerical advantage on the near side and so the Saints can’t afford to drop anyone back to sweep. The through grubber is a threat which holds Harry Mallinder deep and the young Quins fly-half takes full advantage of the space immediately in front of him.

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In this example from the end-of-year Tests, Wales scored their second try of the game thanks to a chip over a rushing defence. You’re probably aware that chip kicks aren’t favoured in this area of the field, play is condensed in the red zone and the back of the dead ball area becomes almost another defender. However, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea, Aled Davies, the Welsh scrum-half, and Steff Evans, the near side winger, shot to the blindside pulling the opposition winger with him, this opened up the space for Dan Biggar’s chip over. This try is capped by a sensational pick up from Hadleigh Parkes for his first ever Welsh try.

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This example shows the Hurricanes attacking the short side, they don’t have an overlap so the Rebels are rushing up hard, unfortunately they’re leaving their full-back woefully left behind and despite a long chip, it goes more than 20m, it’s gathered relatively easily by the Hurricanes for the try. In the Welsh example, there wasn’t anyone sweeping in the gap which led to the try and in this example there was a sweeper but he was too far away from the action to cover the chip when it came.

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We’ve seen a chip working with no sweeper and with a deep sweeper but in this clip the defence haven’t really done anything wrong. The Crusaders have sweeping defenders in place and their line speed is fantastic, they cover around 13m before Lima Sopoaga chips the ball. If the Highlanders don’t chip this, they end up getting stuffed behind the gain line. However, they turn that situation into not just a clean break but a fantastic try as well. The Highlanders turn the Crusaders’ weapon, their line speed, into a weakness by completely bypassing it.

The chip kick works because it is a win-win-win situation; if there’s no line speed then just keep the ball and go wide, if they rush up but have sweepers then smack it in behind and gain territory and if they rush but don’t have sweepers just dink it over and play with broken field.

From the Expert: “Fast moving threats in attack will always cause issues for defences. The attack has the upper hand as they are making the decisions and trying to manipulate the defensive system. Playing against organised aggressive defences requires great skill execution and good physicality.

When you do chip the ball ahead, there’s always the risk that you might lose it. Transition from attack to defence is the weakest point in a team’s plan. Having defined rucks gives certainty to roles and responsibility. If there is unstructured attack you are relying on teams getting organised quickly and slowing the ball down. Inevitably you will concede yards on turnover defence. Slowing the attack and herding them to where you want them to be is key in order to regain your defensive system.”

Thank you to all four experts who provided their time and, most importantly, knowledge and experience to these two articles. One of the great joys of this job is being able to talk to fascinating people about the details of the game that we all love and so I am incredibly grateful to Ben and Glenn for this piece and AB and Matt from part one for allowing me the opportunity to do that.

Finally, a very Happy New Year to all Planet Rugby readers!

by Sam Larner