Analysis: The beautiful miss pass
Our analyst Sam Larner returns this week and is looking at the fine art that is the miss pass and how it was used last week in Super Rugby.
We’re on the verge of having some rugby again in the Northern Hemisphere. Just a few short weeks until the season starts again and you don’t need to get up early to watch the games. Before that though, we have the small matter of the Super Rugby final this weekend after a pair of excellent semis. The final will once again be a battle between New Zealand and South Africa to decide who will take home the title.
One thing that came out of the two games on the weekend was the use of the miss pass. If you’ve ever had the misfortune of throwing a miss pass that didn’t work out you may still be scarred by the criticism that came after it. You might still wake up in a cold sweat with shouts of ‘keep it simple’ running through your mind.
The miss pass has become the thing that you don’t do, unless it works in which case it was a great pass. There’s something to be said about how we focus so much on outcomes and not enough on the decision; if a miss pass is bad then it should always be a bad option, not just a bad option when it goes wrong. The games this past weekend presented some great miss passes and maybe it’s time to start reappraising the pass we all love to hate.
Conventional wisdom would suggest you shouldn’t throw this pass, instead you should go through the hands to try and find a spot to attack. The problem though is that most sides don’t have a player like Bryn Hall who has the ability and confidence to throw this pass. The reason why it works is because the defence softens as it gets wider. Watch any team defend the fringes close to their own line and they will be in a three-point stance ready to chop down any pick and goes. The closer to the line you get, the easier it gets for the defenders because they can blitz without worrying about what happens behind them. This play works though because the ball gets into George Bridge’s hand so quickly that none of the benefits of defending so close to the line are present and it’s then a simple one on one against a forward.
Compare that with this example from earlier in the season where the Crusaders played the Highlanders. Again, there’s the option to go through the hands, fix the two defenders and then ship it out wide for an easy try. The fundamental question though, is why do two things when you can do one? The pass gets there so quickly that it’s a guaranteed try.
Again this is from earlier in the season in the same game and it’s another miss pass from the base of a ruck on the goal line. There’s a two man overlap and you could get there by passing along the line but you’re then just adding to the complexity, why not just fling your miss pass over the top and take the defence out of it?
This example might look a little low key compared to the three we’ve seen previously but this makes the try. Kurtley Beale is tracking across the pitch, we’re told you shouldn’t do that, which is another oversimplification but for another article, the hard line of Tolu Latu fixes the end of the line and the miss pass creates an immediate two on one. As soon as Ned Hanigan is free it’s an easy run in for the try. As Beale cuts across, the players running a potential switch stop the defence from drifting with him and one pass unlocks the entire defence.
This is the same try but from behind the posts, you can see how Beale drifts quicker than the defenders and all of the sudden there’s nobody left at home. There’s a huge disconnect between the final two defenders and that means that what should have been a relatively easy thing to defend turns into a nightmare and the ‘Tahs score an easy try.
This isn’t the best miss pass you’ll see, it’s floated and allows the defenders to drift across and shut down the space, it’s not as clear cut an overlap as some of the examples above. There’s two reasons why this works though, first of all the ball gets into the hands of a star player who can make things happen and the second reason is because the pass is floated it forces the Lions’ defenders to over commit and Israel Folau can step back against the grain, it helps that he’s up against two forwards and he simply splits them in half.
This is the penultimate example and might be the first one that matches what you think of when you think of a miss pass; a long fizzed pass that cuts out a bunch of potential attackers. This is really a wonderful pass, it is so flat and so fast that Ben Lam is able to stay on the outside of his counterpart. He skips round the defender, this is a simple one on one where the attacker has the advantage because they have more width. Beauden Barrett stays on the inside and his presence stops the inside defenders from getting across and gang tackling Lam into touch, or at least down.
We know that the best way to score a try is to score it when you’ve broken through and this pass points towards that. There are enough support players that the ball carrier could go to ground and recycle but this is the percentage pass, there’s no defenders out there, a bounced pass will still find the target and it’s an easy try to walk in.
Conclusion
The reason why these players are so good at this skill isn’t just luck, they have been allowed to practice it in an environment where failing at a skill is okay. Think back to that time you tried to throw a miss pass, it didn’t work, and you got yelled at by your team mates, how long was it until you tried it again? All too often in rugby the outcome is seen as the most important thing, if you want someone to throw that four man miss to score in the corner then you have to accept that sometimes that doesn’t work and that’s especially true whilst someone is learning a skill.
The other thing to point out, and the main reason why the miss works and why these long miss passes will increasingly be seen as a major skill, is linked back to what it’s like to play or watch a game of rugby. If you’re watching your club play you might see a winger in 20-30m of space and you know that if you could just transplant the ball there then he would score, or at least gain a load of yardage. The problem with a normal pass though is that even if you’re exceptionally good at it, it’s hard to go through the hands three or four, or more, times without drifting a bit and that allows the defense to close down those 20-30m of space. The miss pass ignores that though, you pick the ball up and you get it straight to the winger in the space without bothering with the intermediate attackers. Yes, the long floated miss pass that gets to your winger at the same time the defender does, should always be consigned to the dustbin but if you can develop a decision maker who has the ability to produce the kind of passes we saw above then you’ve just made it a hell of a lot easier to score tries.
