Nottingham back rower & Wasps Academy coach talks tactics
This year’s Six Nations has been a hot bed for cunning coaching tricks. Guys like Eddie Jones and Gregor Townsend spend months working out how they can manipulate the laws to gain an advantage, before drip feeding their innovative techniques against their unsuspecting opponents.
They are fine margins but they make a massive difference. Referees and officials are constantly playing catch-up to the tactical masterminds and untraditional thinkers of the game.
The most publicised of recent years was ‘The Fox’. Italy coaches Conor O’Shea and Brendan Venter almost caused one of rugby’s biggest ever upsets when they out-manoeuvered England at Twickenham.
Italy avoided creating an offside line around the breakdown by the tackler reloading to his feet and not being a part of the ruck. Whether you disagreed with or enjoyed the tactic, it was a masterplan – implemented through training, analysis and involving the match day officials prior to the game.
Watching this year’s Six Nations in between playing for Nottingham and coaching the Wasps Academy, I have been impressed by some of the other subtle tactics which often go unnoticed.
Referees are well aware of them and have started to try and manage some of these tactics but, moving forwards, it will be intriguing to see whether the governing bodies reward them as good play and lateral thinking, or highlight them as not being in line with the spirit of the game.
Tackling Defenders
We saw Mike Brown try to get away with this against Scotland at Murrayfield last weekend.
One of the biggest changes to the way attacking teams approach the breakdown over the last couple of years is their attempt to tackle defenders around the ruck. World Rugby changed two key laws around the breakdown which, in turn, made it significantly harder to steal the ball at the tackle.
First, the tackler has to make sure he enters ‘the gate’, rather than simply pop back up and poach the ball. Second, as soon as a single attacking player is bound onto the ball carrier on the floor, a ruck is formed and there is an offside line (thank you, Italy!).
A few weeks into the season, coaches soon realised that it had become a lot harder to steal the ball at the ruck – the new laws heavily favoured the team WITH the ball. Therefore, challenging at the breakdown has become less and less frequent. Instead, defences ‘fill the field’ and aim to get 15 defenders on their feet. This has increased the value of specialist ‘jackalers’.
Attacking coaches around the world found themselves asking – where is the space? How do we create an overlap? When can we get defenders out of the game? The answer was ‘tackling defenders’. In the chaos of the breakdown, who would notice the defenders closest to the ruck being tackled to the floor? The arriving players that support the ball carrier are now targeting the opposition and attempting to clear them out – or effectively tackle them to the floor. Simply, the more defenders on the floor at the breakdown, the less defenders in the D line!
This is not the only offensive advantage of this tactic. It also lengthens the breakdown, which effectively slows down defenders when they are trying to fold round from one side of the tackle to anoth- er – creating plenty of holes for sniping scrum halves to take advantage of or manipulate. Referees are now starting to penalise teams for ‘tackling past the ruck’ but it’s tricky to monitor.
The Double Carry
There are few players in international rugby who can carry the ball in one hand like a tennis ball. Big Nathan Hughes is one of them. He was able to gain a couple of extra yards at Murrayfield last Saturday by using the ‘Double Carry’.
It’s been occurring regularly throughout the opening weeks of Super Rugby (a hot bed for lateral thinking and innovation). The ball carrier is half tackled to the floor, then immediately puts the ball down, pops to his feet, picks up the ball and continues on his run. Two carries in one effort.
By releasing the ball and therefore giving up possession, the ball carrier is no longer a “tackled player”, so they are able to return to their feet and regather the ball. This technical piece of skill is not necessarily due to any law change, but is making more regular appearances. Not an easy skill to defend!
No Defenders = No Maul
Scotland’s forwards weighed in over seven stone lighter than their English rivals in last week’s Calcutta Cup. That’s an obvious disadvantage at maul time, but they’ve found a clever way around it.
This ploy has been around for the last few seasons but World Rugby have not implemented any changes to prevent it. Instead, officials reward it as intelligent management of the laws.
This tactic involves defensive teams not committing any players to a maul, therefore discrediting it as a maul within the laws of the game. When the attacking team transfer the ball to the rear-most player, a defending player is within his right to run around the back of the maul and tackle the player in possession. If no transfer takes place, a Kamikaze mission must be implemented by the bravest defender – tackling the maul head on!
The Penalty Try Restart
It is not just the big-name coaches like Jones and Townsend who have a trick up their sleeve.
One of the most innovative pieces of play this season came in an A League game between Bristol and Bath, with the laws now stating that a conversion is no longer necessary following a penalty try.
After Bristol conceded a penalty try, Callum Sheedy – a young player full of confidence – sprinted to the half way line, kicked off, regathered his kick and scored. Bath were caught cold and had not had time to retreat to position. In this instance, the referee pulled him back, although he had little explanation.
The removal of a conversion after a penalty has drastically decreased the time for the receiving team to get set. Referees have immediately caught onto Sheedy’s idea and stomped it out, but it’s a great example of ingenuity in rugby.
Rugby continues to be one of the fastest moving sports, constantly evolving and developing. The creative minds of some of the best players and coaches in the world will continue to try and adapt the laws to their advantage. I look forward to seeing who comes up with the next genius loophole, whether it be a ground-breaking tactic or a small piece of technical detail.
“Referees are constantly playing catch up to the tactical masterminds and unconventional thinkers of the game”