Analysis: The importance of the tackled player
Our analyst Sam Larner returns to Planet Rugby and this week highlights the work of the tackled player, focussing on the Tyrrell’s Premier 15s final.
The more rugby I watch and the more rugby I play the more convinced I am that the work a tackled player does on the ground is crucial to their team’s success. I began playing again after around five years out with injury and although the passing and other skills came back quite quickly the skills that took a long time to resurface were keeping hold of the ball and presenting it in contact.
I once heard a rugby player being interviewed, I’m afraid I can’t recall which one, and he said that more than 50 percent of generating quick ball is what you do after you’ve been tackled on the floor. You might have a horde of back-row players descending on the ruck but if you just flop on the ball and make no effort to place it in an easily accessible location for your scrum-half you’re just simply not going to be able to generate quick ball.
That is the reason why teams increasingly look at ways to get their players in condition to generate quick ball by dominating the tackle and working on the ground. That includes the typical things such as core strength and contact training but also things like dreaded judo sessions. Win the contact, win the breakdown, win the game – it’s pretty simple.
Saracens Women faced Harlequins Women in the Tyrrell’s Premier 15s final on Saturday. Saracens had lost just once all season, to Quins, and ended up fairly comfortable winners 33-17. However, one of the most noticeable themes of the first-half was how the Saracens were able to continuously dominate the gainline by generating quick ball.
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This is one of the first rucks of the entire game. Hooker May Campbell gets flattened in this tackle but notice how she works on the ground to ensure that the momentum isn’t lost. She rides the contact to ensure that she falls towards her support, then stretches back to get the ball as far away from Quins as possible. If you play or coach you will be familiar with the long ball placement or pencil placement. The idea is that as soon as you are tackled you turn fully towards your own goal line and stretch the ball as far as you can with a perfectly straight body. The benefits are that of course the ball is closer to your players than the opposition but also you reduce the size of the ‘gate’ that anyone looking to pinch the ball needs to come through. Of course, now the gate barely exists as most referees have just given up trying to force either attackers or defenders to come through it.
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Winger Sydney Gregson was given a lot of rubbish ball to do something with early in the game and this is no different. She has to cut in to keep the play alive. She doesn’t dominate the tackle but she does adjust her body position on the ground and puts a stop to Quins stealing the ball before they even have the opportunity to attempt.
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Once again Saracens get beaten in the tackle, here it’s fly-half Zoe Harrison. She gets hit back and is at risk of being counter rucked as her support has to get back and enter through the gate – although, as mentioned, find me the referee who cares about that anymore. Look how Harrison twists during the tackle to land on her front and then works to get the ball back as far as she can. It’s not going to be quick ball but Saracens keep hold of the ball again under pressure.
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Smashing through a defensive line sounds like a recipe for quick ball but actually, especially if you’ve beaten players, the would be tacklers behind you have the effect of slowing down your supporting players. Sarries’ number eight Poppy Cleall makes a nice carry to get comfortably over the gainline but when she is tackled she is at risk of being turned over. Instead she actively bounces off the ground and then stretches as far back as she can. It’s once again an example of how Sarries were able to either break the gainline or get hit behind it but the work they did on the floor generated quick ball regardless of the situation.
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Later in the game Cleall again gets over the gainline and again winning the ball back is not straightforward. Cleall places the ball, it then comes under threat from a Quins player so she stretches even further back to ensure it’s won cleanly. It might be exhausting to do all match but as long as you know that when you hit the deck you still have plenty of work to do then your team will keep hold of the ball for longer and the opposition will suffer.
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In this penultimate example once again it’s Cleall that I am highlighting. She’s noticeable because of her excellent carrying but it’s her work on the ground that I was really impressed with. Obviously during a match there’s a number of things that prevent you from getting pencil straight and as far away from the opposition as possible but if you put the effort in to get like that then whatever the result is it will be better than if you just lay still. She stretches out with one hand to get the ball back but crucially she is also setting that ball up in exactly the perfect position for scrum-half Georgie Gulliver. She’s not just sticking it into a forest of legs she’s actively making it easier for the next phase.
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Look at this final example, it comes from a break made by lock Rosie Galligan who then pops it inside to flanker Lauren Newman who ends up getting tackled. When Newman is tackled we don’t quite see the same level of ball placement as we did in the other examples, this is likely because of the close attentions of the Quins players. But, look what that does to the speed of ball. Sarries need to throw extra bodies in to clear the ball out and when the ball is playable it requires Gulliver to fish around on the floor for it. The attack continues and Saracens do create a try scoring opportunity but you can’t help but feel a long ball placement, one person to clear out and the ball on a plate for Gulliver results in another try almost immediately.
Conclusion
There are so many elements of a rugby game that you can focus on and which lead to success or failure. One of the ones that I don’t think gets enough attention is the work done by tackled players. Think about a game of touch rugby, how many tries are scored in a warm-up touch game compared to the real game on Saturday – significantly more. Part of the reason for that is that there’s more space in touch because of the fewer players per team but a big part is that when you are touched you get to just ‘chicken scratch’ the ball between your legs and generate instantly fast ball. The closest you can get to that speed of ball in a contact game of rugby the more tries you will score, it’s a fairly simple equation really and one that Sarries women showcased on Saturday.
Image credit – RFU collection via Getty Images