England attack have used pace and precision to step up to a new level
Use of first-phase strike moves has given the champions a lethal edge, writes
Acouple of years ago, when the influence of rugby league defence coaches was at its peak in the northern hemisphere, there was an argument that there was simply not enough space on a rugby field for back lines to flourish. That was never a school of thought to which former England coach Brian Ashton subscribed.
“If you look at Twickenham, there are probably about 8,500 square metres of space if you include the in-goal areas,” Ashton said. “On that pitch for 80 minutes, there are 31 people occupying one square metre at any one time. You can do the maths.”
The space always existed; it just took coaches with the imagination to recognise it and the players with the skills to exploit it. The realisation that horizons needed to be broadened undoubtedly occurred when the 2015 World Cup semi-finals became an all-Rugby Championship affair. In the past two seasons of the Six Nations, there have been significantly more tries per game, clean breaks, offloads and defenders beaten. Kicks from hand, meanwhile, have dropped. Teams are having a go and being rewarded for it.
Another key indicator of a team’s attacking ambition is the number of tries scored from first phase – coming directly from the set-piece, turnover or kick return – which account for 36 per cent of the total tries scored in this year’s tournament. Three of those tries came from English line-outs in the first half of their 61-21 destruction of Scotland last week.
The cogs in this machine were virtually identical: Courtney Lawes winning the line-out, George Ford and Owen Farrell pulling the strings, then Jonathan Joseph making the killer incision. The execution of those three tries certainly received Ashton’s seal of approval.
“The pace, power and precision of the England midfield was the best demonstrated, irrespective of who they were playing for a long time,” Ashton said. “It also vindicated the policy of using two playmakers in midfield to open up space and release the attacking runners.”
There is a slight irony that the influence of rugby league, long blamed as a pernicious influence on attacking play in union, is in part responsible for the blossoming of England’s attack. “It is interesting that Ford and Farrell come from junior rugby league backgrounds,” Ashton said. “Their understanding of space and how to manipulate it is much further developed. That is a real art.”
Another interested observer was Nick Mallett, the former Italy and South Africa coach. Although there was criticism of the Scottish tackling in those three first-half tries, Mallett argues that first-phase strike moves can be virtually impossible to defend against. Take the second try, finished by Joseph, for example. View a replay and you will see that at each point in the move, the Scottish defender is presented with two moving targets. A mistake is almost inevitable and so a gap appears that Joseph is put through.
“The key elements are that everyone must run in a way that looks like they are going to get the ball. Those are not ‘dummy’ lines because they are all potential recipients of the ball,” Mallett, who is part of the Accenture Analysis Team, said.
“Then the decision-maker has to select his option according to what the defender is doing, not according to what is pre-called. It looks so simple and you think ‘what’s happened to the defence’. In all those tries, the fly-half, the inside centre and Huw Jones were all presented with numerous problems. They had no idea who they were meant to be tackling and once you sow that confusion then it can be so effective.”