Analysis: The Lions’ line-speed
With the Lions still a memory and the Rugby Championship looming, our analyst decided to look at how the Lions’ line-speed managed to hold the World Champions in check and how Australia, South Africa and Argentina might be able to do the same.
During the 2016 Rugby Championship, the All Blacks scored six bonus points from six matches, against the Lions they never got beyond four tries. In the Rugby Championship, the Kiwis scored 38 total tries, unbelievably, that’s 6.3 per match, they scored just five tries in the entire Lions series.
Somehow, the touring party managed to halt the all conquering All Blacks in their path. That was largely to do with their quick line speed, which prevented them from dictating where the ball went and how quickly it got there.
There are broadly two schools of thought; one says that you shouldn’t rush up against a team as good as the All Blacks, because you leave yourself exposed if the rush isn’t perfect, the other says that by not rushing you don’t create a dog leg but you also don’t pressure the attack and so they can pick their way through you. The first group would see the below example and be justified:
Argentina have decided not to push up in this situation, that puts huge pressure on the outside defenders because they have to defend width as well as depth. With a blitz defence, they would be much closer to attackers and that makes the defence’s job significantly easier.
Compare that to the Lions’ approach above, the travelling side start this play on the 10m line, before Beauden Barrett has even distributed the ball they’re at least 10m off that mark. That significantly reduces the angles that the All Blacks can attack with and the surprise that they can add to their play.
Let’s look again at Argentina, they conceded 57 points in this game, they’re camped on their 5m line, this is prime blitzing location. The fact that nobody does means that the ball can get all the way out to the wing. The reliance on individual players who rush up makes the job easier for the rest of the team, but when it doesn’t work, and that will be often, you cut your own inside support. They end up pushing Israel Dagg out in this example, but the ball gets wide with too much ease.
There’s none of that for the Lions though, in exactly the same situation, they come flying off the 5m line and turn this simple flat (forward?) pass into an upright crash ball. It’s interesting to note that this opportunity comes about because of a crossfield kick, we’ll look at them more closely later on, but they are the potential undoing of a blitz defence.
Compare that effort with Australia’s from the third Bledisloe test last year. The first two players look good, they come out and cut down the space very quickly, but as soon as the ball goes beyond them, they’re out of the game and there’s a Kiwi overlap. This is much much worse if Dagg doesn’t knock it on.
The above example is another clip from the Bledisloe Cup game. There’s no overlap here, there’s no reason why there should be one – but the defence is slow to close the attack down and the ball gets all the way to the far side of the pitch where there’s an overlap. It’s just some mishandling again which prevents this from being a big gain of yardage.
What has been clear in the above clips is that the teams, apart from the Lions, didn’t gamble and go for the blitz that would have stopped the All Blacks but could also have led to the floodgates opening. It’s not really a gamble though, it’s a bit like saying that someone who is sentenced to life in prison is gambling by trying to escape, you do nothing, you lose. At least by trying something different you have the possibility of upsetting the odds.
Compare all those previous Australia and Argentina clips with this Lions one. Now, caveat, this is taking place in a much narrower part of the field, but, Owen Farrell’s line speed forces the All Blacks to the outside, but the fact that Anthony Watson has come up on the wing, rather than hung back like the Australians, keeps them in a narrow section where the likes of Mako Vunipola can put the hits on.
In the clip above, the lack of an outside threat means that Jonathan Davies comes up on the outside corner of Dagg to steer him back in towards Sean O’Brien. This time, Watson stays back because Barrett comes around the corner and so an overlap or, crucially, a chip through mean it’s not wise to rush into the line.
In this example, there’s an overlap, but Jonny Sexton doesn’t bother about the outside man, he’s fully focused on the penultimate one, confident that the inside press of Jamie George will make Barrett’s pass too difficult. Either, he will attempt it and Sexton will be able to get across or he won’t even try – as ended up being the case.
Yes, big overlap here, but the Lions rightly calculate that they can get to Barrett before he can exploit that space out wide. In a snapshot, this looks hugely risky, but the ball is very unlikely to get out that quick with a well executed blitz.
I mentioned earlier that the cross-field kick is the hot knife to the butter of the blitz defence. No defensive system is without flaws and the fact that the defenders come up so quickly exposes a lot of field behind the line to kick into.
In this example, Farrell can ignore the outside defender because the ball shouldn’t get that far, but it will with a perfectly placed kick. What complicates this is that Vunipola is the inside defender and can’t get across quickly enough to close down the inside attacker. If Farrell just sprinted across the pitch, the Kiwis would easily move the ball one inside and Vunipola would be stranded.
This last example is basically the same, Elliot Daly is stranded on the wing when his inside cover goes up quickly to cut down the options. Barrett produces another wonderful kick to brother Jordie and the All Blacks get their first try. The real weakness of the blitz is that if you don’t get to the play maker quick enough there are holes that can be exploited around the pitch.
Conclusion
The Lions are made up of some of the most talented players in the world, the starting XV in any of the Tests is better than Australia, South Africa or Argentina can muster at the moment. Let the debate start over that statement. However, they are stuck together in a relatively short space of time, yes they’re great rugby players, but they can’t be burdened with overly complex defensive game plans given that they have just four games, roughly, together as a team.
This is great news for the three nations who will take on the All Blacks in the Rugby Championship. Australia have just one team in the Super Rugby play-offs and, as of next week, that will be the case for South Africa as well. They have time to develop their defence, and given their recent success, the Lions defence should absolutely be the starting point. It’s a defence built on a team blitz, not individual rushing defence, and it’s proven to be successful against the All Blacks.