Sam Warburton explains how other teams are ‘catching up’ to All Blacks’ ‘superstrength’ and the Warren Gatland ‘tough love’ he recommends for England
The All Blacks run out to take on Ireland and, inset, Steve Borthwick's England
British and Irish Lions legend Sam Warburton has given his seal of approval to the improved level of attacking rugby produced in the new Nations Championship.
The former Wales skipper said that he found the array of matches fascinating across the three successive July Saturdays and concluded that other teams had now caught up with what he described as traditionally having been the All Blacks’ superstrength – the ability to create clean breaks.
He also revealed the brutal way that ex-Welsh boss Warren Gatland put an end to Liam Williams’ glut of on-pitch cards, suggesting that England head coach Steve Borthwick must adopt similar measures and show tough love to his players if there are to draw a line under a run of 14 yellow cards and one red in their eight matches so far in 2026.
Providing his review of the Southern Series, which ended with France leading the Northern Hemisphere table on 12 points, one point ahead of Scotland, and the 15-point South Africa topping the Southern Hemisphere table on points difference ahead of New Zealand, Warburton gave a glowing verdict on the three rounds of matches. His only criticism was the level of travelling for some of the European teams.
“Nonsensical…”
“Some of the travelling involved was draining and at times nonsensical, and it is obviously a competition that is weighted in favour of the southern hemisphere teams in that regard, because when they come up north in the autumn they will not face anywhere near the same amount of travel,” he wrote in his latest column in The Times.
That criticism aside, though, Warburton was thrilled by the style of rugby produced, vindicating his belief a few years ago that the game would overcome the ugly, kick-heavy emphasis that existed at Rugby World Cup 2019 and during the 2021 British and Irish Lions series in South Africa.
Of the 18 recent matches played in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, South Africa, Argentina and the UK, Warburton focused on the 10 most competitive encounters and concluded that rugby had transformed for the better, delighting in how much free-flowing play was generated.
“In those 10 matches, the winning side always made more metres and more clean breaks. It sounds obvious, but that may not have been the case in 2019, when kick metres were more important. Winning teams are now making an average of 15 clean breaks per game.
“When I was playing, if the opposition team had done that to Wales and opened us up as much as that, our defence coach, Shaun Edwards, would have been going mad. Sides making more than 20 clean breaks is now quite normal. It is a massive change, and a great thing in terms of entertainment.”
Doling out the congratulations for this altered emphasis, Warburton congratulated World Rugby for what he described as beneficial subtle tweaks, like the goal-line drop-out instead of a scrum when the ball is held up.
“It was no surprise to find that every winning team was more effective in the opposition 22, and also that when those clean breaks were being made, teams were scoring nearly 40 per cent of the time. That was always New Zealand’s superstrength – their ability to convert clean breaks into tries – but the rest are now catching up.
“With Wales, we used to aim for 90 per cent tackle completion when I was playing. Losing teams these days are often coming in at below 70 per cent, and even the winning teams are somewhere between 81 and 83 per cent. Games are so much more open and broken up now, and even the great defence coaches such as Shaun and Andy Farrell have their hands full.”
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Warburton went on to reference how winning teams had a speed of ruck ball under three seconds for 50 per cent of their rucks, had better lineout launches and high kick metres from fewer kicks before he dwelt at length on the penalty count, highlighting that winning teams averaged about 10 penalties conceded per game and losers an average of 12.
“Most of the penalties conceded were for offside, which makes sense because teams falter in that area when they cannot cope with the speed of ball. Good attacking play and speed of ball put defences under so much pressure,” he reckoned.
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“Sometimes, players just make silly mistakes. Much has been made of England’s poor discipline, but some of their yellow cards – I am thinking here of Tommy Freeman and Guy Pepper against South Africa – were so unnecessary.
“Maybe Steve Borthwick needs to show some tough love to his England players. I remember before Wales played Scotland once when our head coach, Warren Gatland, suddenly produced a montage of Liam Williams’s yellow and red cards.
“It was a bit awkward, but Gatland finished by saying that Liam would never play for Wales again if he carried on doing that. It was a strong message for sure.
“The winning teams this summer averaged 0.4 yellow cards per game, the losers 1.2. Cards are hurting England massively.”
Warburton concluded by stating there was no single answer over why teams are better able to attack these days, but he highlighted huge improvements in the handling skills of forwards.
“Forwards are so comfortable playing the ball out the back, whereas I know in my time so many players in that position just had to truck the ball up because they weren’t confident enough of making that play.
“Nowadays any player who has the ball has probably four options in attack — carry, a tip pass inside or out, and a pass out the back. Getting the ball into space is so much easier when the skill sets from No1 to 23 are so much greater.
“The result is that we are seeing much better spectacles. The Nations Championship has undoubtedly added to that.”