Why we are seeing so many tries in top flight this season
Hfans want more attacking ambition from teams, and rules changes are making for a more gung-ho league
We cannot underestimate the impact no relegation will have on clubs’ two and three-year plans. We might not see relegation again until the 2024-25 season. Thinking about my work coaching at Maidenhead in level five, where there is no relegation this year given they are restructuring the leagues, all we are doing with selection is picking as many of the youngsters as possible with energy and pace, to try to turn them into first-team players for when winning does matter. Removing that relegation trapdoor does things to players, supporters and coaches, which means you now have two years to transform yourself into the All Blacks – an all-court, all-conquering team.
The Premiership feels this year as if it has adopted a Top 14 mentality, where the Champions Cup, the biggest prize in European club rugby, is seen as a “nice-to-have” rather than an “all-in” approach. Of course, if the opportunity arises, teams still want to win the Champions Cup, but selection for European matches can sometimes play second fiddle to the quality of the domestic team you put out. Teams are making sure they are often prioritising their best sides for domestic displays. This will certainly add to the quality and try-scoring in the Gallagher Premiership.
At the same time, having watched Harlequins come from fourth last year, it is clear you do not need to finish top in a 24-match league season; the top four gives you a shot. You might not need to roll out the big guns for every round to make the play-offs. You ensure each week that your team are full of fit, hungry players desperate to showcase their talents, aligned with the fact that when making those changes, the amount of errors within a team can go up.
You can point to the time of year and better weather as a reason for teams showing more attacking ambition, even if it was pretty wet last weekend.
Teams are taking to the field with a summer-style ambition and we still saw 26 tries across the six matches.
The seven-point gamble now seems to be a consistent strategy – ignoring three points and going for tries. It seemed like a rarity when Exeter kicked a penalty last week for only the third time this season.
It has not quite become Kevin Keegan’s mantra – “You score three, we score four” – but defensive coaches must be tearing their hair out, if they have any left. It is a bit like trying to pin jelly to the wall with the amount of innovation going on, and without that claustrophobia in the league of players and coaches fearing bad results leading to relegation.
I know it is a different sport, but if a manager loses four Premier League matches on the trot he is at risk of getting sacked. No team in the Premiership are going to sack their head coach if they lose four straight games, with no relegation and long-term plans having been sold to owners.
Law tweaks
Referees are being brutal, in a good way, with players lying on the wrong side of the ruck. The benefit of the doubt is now with the attacking side, but it is swings and roundabouts. I remember one Heineken Cup final where
Clermont destroyed Toulon in Dublin, yet Toulon ended up winning because they won countless defensive breakdown penalties through the likes of Mathieu Bastareaud. Speed of play is everything for referees and defensive sides are having to offer up faster ball rather than risk penalties and yellow cards.
One benefit of the 50:22 law trial is that more players are dropping back to thwart kicks, which is creating more space for attacking sides to exploit.
And this might be tangential, but getting held up over the try line now results in a goal-line dropout for the opposition. Teams such as Exeter used to thrive in those situations, getting scrum after scrum, staying in the corner, wearing teams down, and when tries and yellow cards would be conceded after 10 minutes of territorial suffocation. Now there is a focus on getting into the 22, and getting out with seven points. I would be interested to know how much the number of five-metre scrums has dropped with that law variation.
Tiring defences
Last week when Exeter faced Sale, the Chiefs were battered physically. But it was a bit like Muhammad Ali’s “Rumble in the Jungle” because Sale exerted all that effort and punched their way to a standstill. Sale might point to the Rohan Janse van Rensburg red card as the reason they struggled and lost, but with the try which Henry Slade scored before halftime, the Sale forwards were glacial in terms of their speed to the breakdown because they almost had nothing left in the tank after some monstrous defence. People are getting better at ball control and are happier to absorb blitz defences, absorb big hits. Rush defences cannot come consistently at you for 80 minutes, and teams are now learning how to manage that.
Sale must have conceded almost as many points in the second half this season as they have scored in the first half. Sale’s defence, that all-consuming press, you cannot maintain it. Exeter are masters of ball control, riding those defences out, and they then took Sale to the cleaners in the second half. It was a masterclass in patience, one which others can certainly match. The blitz defence is a powerful weapon, but ball control the other side of it is much improved and teams are able to withstand the onslaught and then take their chances.