I want to kick off 2012 with something that would have been more timely posted in October – my thoughts on the Rugby World Cup.  Despite the time lapse, however, I think the following things which struck me can be lessons on how I’ll approach coaching in the new year – affirming some of my beliefs and giving me new things to think about.

1. New Zealand

I hope some of the bitter sorts who think New Zealand’s win was undeserved, and who unfairly lobbed a lot of criticism at the referee, have had a chance to cool down as I believe they were truly justified as winners.  Not only because they had the players – and back-up players! – to do the job, but because their preparation for the tournament is what – in my opinion – got them there.  I’ve just recently finished reading Clive Woodward’s book, Winning!, on how they won the 2003 Rugby World Cup.  In it, he outlines all the structures put in place in order to instil both a winning culture within the minds of ALL people involved with the team, from coaches, to staff, to players, to the wider training group who didn’t make the cut.  He also underlines the importance of infrastructure in supporting everyone’s needs.  I’ll talk more about this later when I synthesise my notes on the book, but it appeared to me that Graham Henry followed that same sort of mentality.  Clive talks about surrounding himself with the best staff and players and developing a culture of winning, and that is something that was obvious within the All Blacks over the last two years or so.  Assistants Hansen and Smith are top notch, and they all seemed to contribute, even switching roles at one stage.  That, to me, shows a team that is truly functioning within.  They also have maintained pretty much the same core of players for the last few years.  Others have been tried and those players put pressure on the incumbents to do better.  Those who earned their place – like Piri Weepu – were rewarded, though there was immense faith placed in the old guard – like Ali Williams, only recently having come back from his Achilles injuries.  Like England was between 2001-2003, New Zealand have been virtually unstoppable over the last two years, and any bumps along the way only served to teach them lessons and make them stronger.  (Anyone who remembers how they exited RWC 2007 and survived the 2011 final, with many of the same players, can see how they grew.)  The lesson here is that team culture, coaching structure, and total club buy-in is immensely important, and I believe can even elevate teams beyond those who are arguably better on paper. 

2. Half Backs

I’ll write more on this later, but the play of Piri Weepu and Kahn Fotuali’i in particular impressed me as they often played what one pundit called the 9 1/2 position – doing the work of scrum half, but also often finding themselves in the ‘stand off’ position.  What this allowed the All Blacks and Samoans was to have more width, get away from the condensed defence around the rucks, and get their most creative players in more space with more strike options around him.  I’m convinced this comes from Rugby League, which I know Weepu played at school, and assume Fotuali’i has as well.   In that sport, the hooker does most of the passing from the play-the-ball (oddly enough, he wears 9 – coincidental?) and the half back and 5/8 play in wider, often inter-changeable, positions.  More on that in a forthcoming post …

If you want examples of great traditional half back play, however, watch BOTH Japanese 9s (Fumiaki Tanaka and Atsushi Hiwasa), and their partnership with fly half James Arlidge.  To me, they were the best in the tournament – ever-present at the break down, and with speedy, accurate passes.  Some teams, like England and Australia, have great 9s who can make little darting runs, but they were rarely effective doing so as international-level defences are incredibly focused around the ruck.  When they did, it also left a ‘slow ball’ situation at the next break down because their passer was trapped at the bottom of it.  When I talk about the “9 1/2″, I’ll examine how such a team needs forwards to be decision makers and/or passers to make up for that.  The Japanese, however, were always on-hand to make the pass and did so without delay, hitting their forwards on the run, rather than relying on the static pod system a lot of other teams use.  This not only accounted for their relative lack of size, but also kept defences from getting organised, providing Japan with a lot of ‘go-forward’ ball and opportunities to make things happen.  I’ll definitely be focusing on this in the new year, and maybe a combo of both styles if the team is receptive to having the forwards pass more and, essentially, playing with two decision makers in attack.

3. Game Changers

I made a note to discuss ‘game changers’ months ago because CBC radio was doing a series on people who did just that around the time of the Rugby World Cup.  I made a note to discuss both the South Africa / Samoa game and the Ireland / Australia shocker.  Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten much of the specific details of both games, but do remember the important parts.  Simply put, both Samoa and Australia went into half time with a major hurdle to over-come.  Samoa were down 0-13, but were playing well and – as they often do – were intimidating in the loose and had weapons all over the park, in both the forwards and the backs.  Australia were definitely the better team on paper, but the Irish are a clinical and powerful side and were bullying the Aussies, who are more open field flair and less about playing the gritty tight game.  Both teams emerged from the changing rooms at half time with contrasting mentalities from each other.  I’m not sure how much of it was down to coaching decision / in-decision or by the players themselves deciding to step it up / not, but Samoa came out firing and won the second half 5-0, while Australia kept doing the same old thing and ended up scoring no points.  Both teams lost, but one would have expected that from Samoa – who could have won the game, while Australia should have beat the Irish.  The difference was, I think, in the decision to make a tactical change / affirmation / clarification at half on the part of the Samoans.  They identified their strengths versus the areas the South Africans were looking weak (from memory, I think it was the midfield – in particular, they used a simple loop to beat the Fourie’s blitz, and slipped inside him for their try).  They matched their muscle and kept the South Africans on the back foot and denied them possession.  Conversely, again from memory, the Australians kicked away a lot of their possession and continued to try and muscle up to the Irish, getting bullied in the process via their rugby league style defence.  I’m a huge fan of Aussie rugby, and kept wondering why they weren’t trying to play the game wider as a few forays into that territory yielded in positive results – but then they’d go back to kicking away the ball and trying to do slow drives in tight with outmatched forwards.  The lesson is to be analytical during the first half and not to be afraid to make a big change of strategy, tactics, or personnel at half to capitalise on anything learned.

Regarding the contact area, my philosophy these days is to not get bogged down in ‘un-winnable battles’ on the ground (unless the counter-ruck is on) and go for the steal in the next tackle.  If there are no attacking players immediately present to set up a ruck, however, then going for the steal is a MUST in my book…

As for your situation, I think I could put it simply by saying that both defenders HAVE to release.  The person actually going to ground can get up and play the ball from any direction, while the ‘tackle assist’ player must come through the gate.  The tackle assist still has to release the tackled player, be on her feet, which should be supporting her body weight.  Technically, I think she also needs have shoulders above hips, but that one’s not called too strictly by my observation (that said, I ALWAYS teach my players to adhere to “shoulders above hips” because it’s just safer that way, so they’re not exposing neck/back to the player coming to clear out).

Here’s the relevant bit of Law:
Law 15.4 THE TACKLER
(a) When a player tackles an opponent and they both go to ground, the tackler must immediately release the tackled player.
Sanction: Penalty kick
(b) The tackler must immediately get up or move away from the tackled player and from the ball at once.
Sanction: Penalty kick
(c) The tackler must get up before playing the ball and then may play the ball from any direction.
Sanction: Penalty kick

And

Law 15.6 (c) Players in opposition to the ball carrier who remain on their feet who bring the ball carrier to ground so that the player is tackled must release the ball and the ball carrier. Those players may then play the ball providing they are on their feet and do so from behind the ball and from directly behind the tackled player or a tackler closest to those players’ goal line.
Sanction: Penalty kick

I’ve read a fair bit of debate on the two-man tackle technique, which has come from Rugby League.  If you’re trying to stop the ball close to the try line, first-high / second-low makes sense.  (In League they do this to slow the play down because as soon as a tackle is made the entire defending team, apart from the tacklers, have to retreat 10m.  If they went low and quick, there’s a good chance they’d be caught on the back foot).  In other places in Union, however, I think low and quick by the first into contact is best as such a tackle usually places the ball on OUR side allowing the ‘tackle assist’ player to come in and poach the ball.  I think both have their place – Ireland have been stopping teams in their tracks with the high hit first in the RWC – and their big, aggressive forwards are good at stopping the ensuing drive.  I wonder if high / low, though, reduces the likelihood of a poach because the ‘high’ defender is working against the ‘low’ with regard to bringing the player down and forcing her to release.  That’s just my opinion.  Either way, getting the player down quickly, releasing and getting to one’s feet (or rolling away) and challenging the ball is about dominance.  Nothing frustrates me more than the lazy high challenge – or the ‘ball room dance’ technique, which gives the opposition a chance to form a ruck because the process of going to ground takes longer.  A quick, dominant tackle contest can catch them well out of position and give the defending team the advantage. 

Here’s an example of a drill I use:

… after the technique is sound, I move to providing a support runner or two to increase pressure on the defenders to get the timing right.  When I do that, though, it’s important to have someone ‘reffing’ the situation so cheating isn’t reinforced.  The trick in the whole process is to determine WHEN the tackler touches ball VS. WHEN the ruck forms.  She only has rights to the ball if the ruck hasn’t formed first.  (My favourite drill to practice this is to have one attacker run against four defenders.  Not all are going to get involved in the tackle – two at the most – and the other two can work on getting in position for the next phase and communicating this.)

Love this bit from the Green and Gold Rugby Blog:

“Perhaps the most novel approach so far comes from South Africa, where the Stormers’ players have taken to clapping their hands in an effort to show they have released the tackled player before attempting the steal…weird huh?  If you’re attempting a steal and you know it, clap you’re hands…I can’t see it catching on.” 

[I think it's a smart idea - takes a split second and makes it obvious to the ref!]

In this clip you can see some examples of how very brief the ‘release’ has to be (though I think the one at :43 is iffy … ref might have got that one wrong).

And some more here, with some clear-cut, and others maybe a bit debatable:

… hopefully you don’t mind a bit of Bon Jovi!  

1. Ball in two hands.  The first sport I played seriously, and it’s commonplace in that game for ball carriers to ‘tuck it away’ and just run.  In rugby, there are people beside / behind you to pass to in order to keep the play flowing.  Keeping the ball in two hands not only allows you to get the ball away quicker (rather than, first, having to grab it with the second hand – even fractions of a second count!), but it also keeps the defence second guessing.  After watching a lot more rugby, I realised that defenders would hesitate in front of the ball-in-two-hands attacking player, not being absolutely sure of what he was going to do.  Conversely, a player who ‘tucks it away’ isn’t near as likely to get a pass off – unless his name is Sonny Bill Williams! – so defenders are more confident rushing to complete the tackle.

2. Preservation of space.  In football, the ball carrier’s only job was to gain as much territory as possible – essentially by himself, with the help of some planned / spontaneous blocking.  In rugby, it’s not an individual effort and the game is best played if contact can be avoided.  Creation of space through deception, like a switch run, came quickly to me as it reminded me of the running / blocking lines of football, but preservation of space is, I think, unique to the continuity of rugby.  If I can’t immediately get through right here, but there’s lots of space to my left – along with a team mate – I’m better off holding a straight line to keep (or preserve) the defender here and make a timely pass to put into space my team mate over there.  In football, a running back would probably try and turn that corner himself.  A couple of years ago, I was delighted to see footage from an old football game from the leather helmet days in which three passes were made from the line of scrimmage to the wide receiver.  The quarter back passed to running back, who broke the line and passed to a slot back; he drew attention from the defenders and passed to the wide receiver who scored in the corner.  I’d have LOVED to play football in the 1920s or 1930s, especially when the forward pass was relatively new and not widely used.  The opportunities for a tactically minded coach / player must have been limitless!

3. Predictable defending.  This one came quite early.  If I stand in a certain spot, or make a run at a certain angle a good defender is going to mirror that.  If he doesn’t, well then great, I’m gone.  But even if he does, my alignment can provide opportunities for others.  For example, if a player closer to the ball than you has incredible quickness, standing a little wider in alignment will draw the defender wider (a good defender, that is) giving your quick-stepping team mate more room to beat his opponent to the outside.  If the defender doesn’t slide, you have that advantage.  It also doesn’t stop there.  If your team mate makes a ‘half break’ into the space, but draws the attention of your defender, then call for the pass as your man has just created an opportunity for you.  Defenders act and react to attacking players, providing opportunities.  If they don’t, your job is even easier.

4. Diamond support.  Support is one of the principles of the game.  It’s essential for continuity, another principle.  One person in support is good, two great, but three is wonderful.  Instead of shuffling the ball in a draw-and-pass motion, which allowed the defence to close down space, I favour a quick pass to not only get the ball to someone with plenty of space in front of them, but also with plenty of support around them.  From a scrum, one of my most favoured attacks is a strike run via the outside centre – who I like to be not only fast and quick, but also with a keen eye for space and tactical sense to set up his/her team mates if the situation warrants.  Not only does the outside centre channel have lots of space available on the left and right, but there’s also another centre, a winger, and a full back in support – at least!

5. Space behind committed defender.  I’m surprised it took me so long to figure this one out, given the predictable defending and preservation of space aspects came so quickly.  Essentially, the defender committed to either a ball carrier or a support option should be an easy target to attack – not the player him/herself, but the space behind.  Example 1:  Fly half makes a straight run at his opposite number, fixing him in place.  Inside centre makes a sudden angular run at the space behind the defending fly half and calls for a short pass, slipping in behind him.  This is called an Unders Line, I suppose running ‘under’ the defensive coverage.  The opposite, an Overs Line, involves a sudden angular run by the ball carrier, not the support runner.  This is made easier, as mentioned above, when the supporting player has provided enough width for the ball carrier to make such a move.  A good defender should probably stick with his man in this situation and rely upon his inside man to cross cover the sudden line break, allowing the ball carrier a better chance of getting away.  If not, and the outside defender has to step in and help, the ball carrier needs to be wary of his support and get the ball away as he’s just created a two on one.

1. Provide two or three objectives that should be the focus of the drill. Beginners benefit from a few simple ones, while veterans can still be confused by too many. Where teams have a mixture of experience, give the veterans different, more advanced, objectives to work on.
2. Address different learning styles: explain technique and drills clearly, point out key aspects in a slow demonstration, and invite kinaesthetic learners to be in that demo group. For complicated open drills and dynamic scenarios, let everyone run through it a couple of times and check understanding before increasing intensity. Ask and field questions. It’ll take time, but save time in the long run.
3. Balance correction and intensity. Often, specific technical aspects – such as passing – should involve low intensity and much room for correction. Conversely, developing unit skills should be done with moderate to high intensity and with not as much correctly. Team play often involves very little, if any, coach input as team leaders should be given the opportunity to assess and learn from their own actions.
4. Planned progression can enhance learning and understanding. For example, if you want to work on your back line’s ability to work together in breaching a flat defence, you can start with passing drills to focus on quality, 2 v 1s to work on timing, 3 v 2s to practice unit skills, alignment, timing and communication and then finish off with a full 7 v however many defenders you want. This can take up a large chunk of your practice time, but the links between technique, skill, and game sense are made more clear and players should be able to move from being told what to do, to thinking for themselves and self-correction in a shorter period of time.
5. There is no shame in going back a step or scrapping a plan altogether. We learn from mistakes, but few of us learn from frustration. If something’s not working, don’t be afraid to admit it and go back a step. Players will respect you more and appreciate the opportunity to realise success before trying to climb the mountain again. It’s always a good idea to leave a “skill” area set up off to the side of a dynamic scenario – if the 7 v 5 game isn’t working for one or two specific reasons, take five minutes to re-focus on those areas, and then get back to the game.

Here they are:

1. Watching the Ball – Very early in my career, I realised I could bring stuff from other sports – and have never stopped, should I hear / see something I think I can bring to the rugby pitch.  I was never more than a blocker in football, but I remembered my coach telling the receivers to ‘catch with their eyes’ – meaning, keep your eyes on the ball until it’s secure in their hands.  It’s exactly the same on the rugby field.  When you see a player on tv dropping the ball in the open field, it’s almost guaranteed that his eyes were elsewhere before he secured the ball.

2. Thinking About the Target – My passing got a lot better when it was stated one should think about the target before the pass is made, focusing on that spot during the follow-through.  When I became a Touch player, and got to handle the ball more often, my passing improved – leading the receiver, rather than putting it right to him – as I thought about and focused on where he’d want it.  In addition, making that flick pass in heavy traffic is actually quite easy when one has an end-point for the follow-through in mind even while the ball is in flight!

3. Visualisation – Building on the last point, my goal kicking improved after reading an article by kicking guru Dave Alred, who talked a lot about visualisation.  I’ve since learned this is key to any closed skill – and explained why ski aerialists always did those funny arm swings – as there are things that require not only extreme focus, but sometimes can’t be seen if you’re to perform the skill correctly (i.e. keeping the head down well after the ball has left the tee ensures the body follows through the kick; leaning back to watch the ball fly takes the momentum out of it).

4. Flat, ‘Attacking’ Defence – when I first started playing, I don’t think there was as much focus on a ‘flat line’ defence as there was in the 2000s, after the Wallabies won RWC 1999 with rugby league defensive structures.  The flat line, ‘attacking’ aggressively closes down the space in front of the attacking team and provides them no obvious gaps.  Simple, but effective.

5. Economy of Effort – today I was reminded of lessons learned from heavy defeats suffered as a player, one coming during a 70-or-so to not-much loss to a touring Welsh side.  They continually had several players extra out wide and even then I realised we were committing way too many players to the break down.  If the few who got their first worked their butt off, or declared the contest lost, the rest could take up defensive positions elsewhere.  It’s a tough concept to get across sometimes, but to some players who feel they need to contribute, I say, “Be lazy!  Don’t go to every break down.”  I stress more clearly, though, that you have to have trust that the first few people there will do the work needed of them and that we need to have more players on our feet than they do so we can outnumber them on defence – and try and get the ball back in the next tackle contest.  Defence can be very tiring if players do not conserve their efforts for the winnable battles!

If you’ve got flashy backs with good handling and speed and they’ve shown not to be the best of tacklers somewhere in the backs, it might be worth a shot.  But a safer option is to organise a few forwards to re-start this ‘slow ball’ situation with a powerful drive into the defensive line.  The tactic in question is often referred to as a Pick and Go or Pick and Drive, both of which involve a player playing the ball from the base of the ruck, never leaving a low body position, and driving into a gap into the defensive wall with at least one team mate assisting the drive.  This is an especially good tactic close to the goal line as it is hard for a solitary defender to resist the power of two attackers with a low centre of gravity driving in unison on one spot.  Note the Chiefs doing this expertly in this clip:

This is also an effective means by which to assist a player who’s not gone into contact looking for an offload and especially if his / her body position isn’t going to allow them a solid go-forward drive, as in this series of photos:

The ball carrier has gone into contact a bit high and side ways. She has two defenders to face who should dominate the ensuing tackle contest.

The first support player has 'hammered' onto both the ball and the body to secure possession and maintain a forward drive. The second player has 'latched' on to the first and is helping the forward drive.

Forward momentum dominance brings them to ground even before the referee declares it to be a classic 'maul', and a solid seal is created over the ruck by the two supporting players as they continue to drive over the ball carrier.

In the first photo, without support, the ball carrier was likely to have been caught behind the gain line with defenders in a dominant position over top of her, ready to steal the ball.  With support ‘hammering’ and ‘latching’ to both secure the ball and maintain a forward, drive possession was not only maintained, but they gained quite a few metres in the process.  If you look at the third photo, you can see that a few defenders have had to retreat so quickly that they’ve opted to turn around.  None are on the forward foot ready to go.  A quick ball to the left from this ruck would catch them disorganised and on the back foot – a great attacking platform.

From a relatively advantageous position, the defence is now faced with having to get back on side, reorganise, and scan for threats.  Again, if the ball is already OUT before this is done, then the defence will under more pressure and the attacking team has regained the initiative.  I’ve heard some criticise this tactic as teams often gain little ground, and some even get caught behind the previous gain line!  I’d argue, however, that the point here is not to gain ground, but to disrupt and manipulate the defence so that the next phase can be run against un-ready and disorganised defenders.  In the above case, just three players were involved in this, leaving 12 to be part of the next phase.

Where I see fault in pick and drives as a tactic is when teams use too many in a row – and sometimes that can just mean two!  If momentum is there and defenders are not, then there’s a strong chance for that coveted line break which will turn the entire defence.  In most cases, though, teams are drilled to protect that area (as discussed in the Defensive Organisation article) at all costs, and so numbers will converge on that spot – opening definite opportunities elsewhere.  With my teams, usually two good pick and drives is enough to cause utter disarray in the defensive line and give us some opportunities out wide.

In the following clip, the Welsh have organised themselves quite well at the tackle contest and are on the front foot.  Instead of playing too wide, the hooker steps in to pass to a pod of players standing just outside of the A-B ruck defenders (a weaker, and more useful spot to hit it up at this level).  Quick possession is secured and moved to another forward just as the Welsh are setting up and the All Blacks elect to try the short side, again quickly, which not only causes the Welsh to retreat even further, but opens width for more than 2/3rds of the All Blacks to go on the fourth phase.

This sort of planned and determined structure is a simple way to achieve the ultimate goal of disrupting and manipulating the defence so that subsequent attacks can be launched against an un-ready and disorganised defence.

In this final article on defensive structure and execution, I will add something for those teams that are already doing this well but that could use greater focus with regard to individual responsibilities.  Why even greater focus?  One of the great factors in winning the Attack v Defence battle is the quest to have more of your players on their feet in a given phase than they do.  Referencing back to playing to the principles of the game article, one could consider the ruck a ‘failure’ to achieve all of those (arguably apart from continuity if the ball has emerged on the attacking side) and as such the defending team should NOT look at the next phase as simply preventing the other team from scoring, but see it as an OPPORTUNITY to win the ball back.  Well structured and continuous attack is what wins games in rugby, but organised and determined defence will win us the ball back and allow us to then enjoy possession.  So I tell my players that not every ruck needs to be contested – the tackler and one person to have a go is often all that needs to happen when the team in possession has ample support present.  The attacking team usually sends double that into contact – even at the highest level! – to ensure possession and have numbers in the tackle contest to resist any sort of counter ruck.  If one does the math, we should then have more players in defence than they have to attack and here is where we should determinedly aim to win the ball back even before a tackle takes place!

Borrowing again from the excellent NSW Rugby document “Effective Team Defence” from their Coach Education Series (2004), the following diagram lays out specific roles for those three players in front of the ball (at least) who are crucial to the integrity of our defensive line.

Before I even start discussing the roles, note how the diagram infers a slight stagger to the defensive line and how D3, D4, and D5 are aligned on the inside of their opposite numbers.  This demonstrates a classic drift defence, which seeks to shuffle the attacking team to that imaginary, but vital 16th defender, the touch line.  I believe that slight stagger also invites the wide attack, but as I’ll outline in the positional responsibilities, cuts off inside passes once they run out of room.  This sort of defence, sometimes called “open gate”, is often seen in sevens.  It’s lower risk than the outside-in “blitz” defence, but still requires much discipline should a dangerous winger get the ball in space.  But our hope is to shut down the attacking team at this midfield junction, and here’s how:

1. D3-D4-D5 are going to ‘attack’ as a unified defensive wall providing no clear holes to the attacking team.  Obviously their roles, and the roles of other players in the line will change if the ball moves, but for this explanation, let’s assume that 12 is going to take the ball to the line.

2. D3 is in what the Waratahs call(ed) the Hustle Channel.  By maintaining his line speed with the rest of his D4 and D5 team mates, he’s likely to force the attacking 10 to pass the ball on.  He needs to maintain this pressure at least until the ball is passed again so there’s no chance a pass inside can breach the defensive line.  In ‘hustling’ the ball away, he forces the attack wider, hopefully flatter (i.e. with less time and space in which to attack as they wish), and away from their source of support.  One of my biggest pet hates is players who run sideways with the ball as they’re effectively doing this for the defence!  Ideally, the defenders will each become the ‘hustling’ player within a flat defensive wall, forcing the ball / players to be shipped wide and eventually into touch.

3.  Let’s say that 12 has taken the ball to the line, and that D4 is going to at least wrap up the attacker.  TRUST is incredibly important if we want to play efficient defence.  If D3 and D5 do not trust D4, then they might squeeze in to ‘help’ make the tackle, providing passing / offload opportunities to 12′s supporting team mates.  [I'll discuss this type of anticipation in attack in a follow-up article!]  At the point of contact, they must have a quick scan and ‘mirror’ what’s in front of them to prevent the ball carrier from finding one of his support runners with a pass.  D5 especially has the largest responsibility in the Jam Channel, to ensure first that the outer support player is covered.  Even when playing an inside-out defence, this player must still be SQUARE in both hips and shoulders with that person so that he isn’t able to beat D5 around the outside should a pass occur.  If the threat isn’t there, he can step up a bit in hopes of intercepting an offload, or can establish a ‘Post’ position at the ruck and call other defenders over … the following diagram will offer some possibilities for both players:

This is our three-player defensive wall in front of the ball that has to maintain its shape until the tackle is engaged.

Indicated by the red circle is our defensive wall, including the tackler in the middle, a defender on the inside in the Hustle Channel (who presumably was instrumental in seeing 10 make a deep pass to 12) and one on the outside in the Jam Channel.  In this case, it is fairly obvious that 12 is going to smash into them, and there are plenty of defenders on both sides so they’re excused in being a bit condensed.  Indicated by the blue and green circles, however, are the two threats that the Jam defender and Hustle defender have to be aware of.  Should the Hustle defender step in too early to help in the tackle, and 12 get an offload to 10 (green circle) on the inside, he could slip right through the middle.  The Jam defender also has to be wary of the player of the player circled in blue who’s coming in fast to support.  As discussed in the previous article, which used a series of photos to demonstrate shape, this team is well situated to cover any line breaks …

But as the ball had started from a ruck fully 10m away from where it now is, the defending team will want to make this the tackle they dominate and from which they regain the ball.  With immediate threats not present, and ‘Hustling’ and ‘Jamming’ defenders on both sides, the two such players in the red circle should be able to step in and try a double tackle and rip the ball or jackal over the ball once the tackle is made or establish a quick ruck to win the ball.  This is the sort of decision that individual players must make for themselves in the split second that contact is initiated.  I like to train this, at a basic level, with a 1(+2) v 4 drill whereby an attacker has a go at 4 defenders in a confined space, with two late support players.  The defenders must take away the space while maintaining their shape and communicate / decide on their roles as contact is initiated and the tackle contest unfolds.  Then, hopefully, they can apply this level of trust, discipline, and communication into a full game situation, still at training so we can work on this concept in a more realistic context and make corrections as needed.

The buzz phrase over the last few years has sought to focus teams on maintaining a ‘flat line’ defence.  I try to avoid this as I do not want my team to take that phrase too literally.  Indeed, if there are players out of alignment – whether ‘shooting up’ too early in advance of their team mates, or lagging behind creating a ‘dog leg’ in our defensive line – a clever attacking player will either attack the space or put someone into it.  But the risks of playing absolutely flat can be almost as costly.  Often I see teams which only have the full back in a position of depth when they yell “Up!” and come forward on defence, with the wings up flat with the other backs and no ‘sweeper’ in behind.  What I demand of my players is that the players in front of the ball – at least three, more if there are more attackers in the space around the ball.  This ‘wall’ is the only flat line I really care about because it provides pressure and offers no clear holes to attack.  With the other players still coming up, but lagging behind ever so slightly, we have several DEFENSIVE LAYERS that can cover line breaks and kicks over the flattest and hardest pressing part of the line.  Take note of this in the following screen captures from a game between Biarritz and Ulster:

Here we have a defensive line which is flat and 'attacking' the team in possession as they play the ball. Despite there being no attacking players in the 9-10 channel, the defending team still has A-B-C fringe defenders in place.

As the ball reaches the fly half, the greatest pressure is on the midfield channel.

The object here is to prevent any breach through the midfield and exert pressure on the next receiver, hopefully catching him well behind the gain line (almost fully 10m away!)  Note how there are three defenders in this channel with one lagging behind slightly.  He might have missed the cue, but the line integrity is already good and he can act as a cover defender / get in place for a steal for any big crash into that channel.  It’s hard to spot, but this is a line of pursuit that I give to the scrum half.  His main job is not to make a tackle or even get involved in the ruck, but to cover in case there is a line break or a chip / grubber.  As this is where the next tackle contest is likely to occur, it’s also important for the scrum half to be there to communicate how his team should contest / defend it.  Note how in the first picture there were NO blue players in the ruck at all …

This is a very noteworthy element to modern rugby – that not every tackle contest is actually being ‘contested.’  It’s a controversial point with older players, but often at this level you see just the tackler and one other defender go into many rucks.  The object here is to only get involved in the contests where the potential to win is high.  Too often, defensive teams at the amateur level do as their predecessors did and pile 4 or more players into a ruck that’s already lost, leaving fewer players to face the next attack.  I stress to my team – and especially the scrum half, full back and centre(s) as defensive leaders – that we should only be contesting ones we might be able to win.  What that leaves us for the next phase, as is the case in the above photo, is more defenders on their feet than attackers.  It’s from this next phase that we hope to catch the attacking team behind their gain line and without enough support to win their own ball back.  [Tactically speaking, Ulster might have been better off giving the forwards a short ball or chipping over deep for the centres as it would seem they're about to be caught well behind where they started!  The defence has all the initiative in this example.]

Contact is about to be made behind the gain line allowing other defenders to take up new positions, crucially, on the front-foot, while attacking players have to run backwards or come from the wide channel to help.

Here, Biarritz managed to stop Ulster 7-8m behind their original start point.  With the tackle made and about to be contested for, that player behind the front group of three can make the call as to whether they want to contest – the Wallabies, I know, use the phrase “Flood it!” to get the fringe players to pile in and drive over the ball.  Should an incredibly timely offload be made to a looping player, the wide defenders will not be too far forward to meet the challenge presented by the over-abundance of white players out there.  [This would be a great call right now for Ulster as their crashing centre is in danger of turning over the ball!]  What I mean by ‘not too far forward’ is that if they had come up flat with the three in front of the ball, they’d probably have to adjust to be onside, which would probably involve a bit of back pedalling given forward momentum of both teams.  If the offload and cut out pass were to come, the attacking team would be able to take advantage of static / retreating defenders – not just their numerical advantage.  And should the ball not be taken into contact, the left side of that front three would start a drift defence to shepherd the attackers toward the sideline.

Had the defending team been absolutely flat in this case, not only were the kick options available, but should the ball carrier step his man or simply run over him to breach the line, what happens next?  This would present a golden opportunity in attack as the full back is no where in sight and the line-breaking centre would easily gain 20+ metres, hopefully linking up with his team mates funnelling through behind him.  Without these layers, it’d probably end up being a 3 v 1 with the full back – and likely a try.  With the layers in place, any potential option is covered.  With regard to training this, a lot of game-related, full field practice is required and with plenty of numbers.  Players have to be in constant communication with each other – as mentioned in the previous article – with regard to who needs to do what and when.  This ‘front three’ pursuing group will change in a heart beat – meaning in these photos above, one of the outer backs would have to step up quickly to join the group already up, and some players from the right side would have to take a pursuit line to end up further across and deeper should the attacking team get really wide and penetrate.  [This is why I love attacking the wide channel, as even if we get caught, the return phase will usually see backs against forwards in the open field!]

I’ll cover those specifics about who does what and when in front of the ball in the next article on defensive organisation.

Have a look at the Green and Gold Rugby Blog for Mr. Dwyer’s further analysis of this wonderful counter attacking team try.

It’s been a while since I watched England footage from this era, and especially when I compare it to lacklustre England teams of late, I’d forgotten how exciting they can be!  The stereotype was that they traditionally trampled the ball forward a few metres at a time via the forwards and relied heavily on the boot of ace kicker Jonny Wilkinson.  I think, however, these highlights will show some things they were also wonderful at what legendary Loughborough coach Jim Greenwood called ‘Total Rugby’.  [His two books a MUST for any coach, and someone that Woodward credits for opening his eyes to a better, more dynamic style of rugby.]

Things to watch for in these clips:

1. Forwards carrying powerfully, with support.  Ball being moved away from the tackle contest (ruck / maul) QUICKLY, before defenders have time to re-align.  Forwards also getting involved in the back line, effectively passing rather than ‘dying’ with the ball in contact when there’s space and men to spare.

2. Balls being passed just before or from contact – to someone who’s almost definitely calling for it (not thrown away in hopes someone will be there), maintaining the continuity which NEVER ALLOWS the defence to get organised.  These runners are also taking the offloads very close to the line and running through spaces at pace.

3. Passes being put IN FRONT of runners so they do not have to adjust their speed.  Wilkinson’s famous for his boot, but he has a lovely long pass, as does Greenwood, Catt and Healey. EARLY / DEEP PASSES allow the speedsters time and space to take any line they choose and LATE / FLAT put people through the gaps.

4. Support runners hitting the line at pace, with PERFECT TIMING.  Support runners also ALTER ANGLE OF RUNNING to take advantage of defenders out of position or not focused on what’s going on around them.  (This one isn’t as obvious to someone who’s never considered how running angles work before, so have a look at any of their tries which seems to come from a change of angle, rewind and assess:  a) Which defender should have picked up that player? and b) Where were their eyes and hips facing?  It’s often that they’re looking inward, at where the ball came from, and not forward, in alignment and in communication with their team mates, focused on the threats in front of them and trusting their team mates close to the ball.)  These are great opportunities to take advantage of Unders / Overs lines and tell the ball carrier you’re doing so, thus making his/her job of distribution easier!

Jonny’s still a great fly half, but that team benefited from having quite a few intelligent, tactically minded players around him who made the entire team smarter and more aware.  If you didn’t get to see them the first time around, I hope you enjoy watching them as much as I did – and do again!