English clubs’ failure lies in tactical basics
The Champions Cup is a tough breeding ground and teams must adapt to its demands
Fans of English club rugby approach the final pool games of the Champions Cup with little alacrity and much apprehension. From primacy two years ago, the contenders from the Premiership have struggled this year; only Bath top their pool and even they are not guaranteed to progress to the knockout stages.
This competition remains the toughest proving ground of northern hemisphere club rugby and it is where clubs demonstrate their overall maturity and class. You cannot go far with a squad that does not have depth and quality; there is no way of catching opponents off guard or riding your luck to a title.
What then does the success or failure of the clubs say about their relative domestic competitions? It is held by many that the Pro14 and Top 14 tournaments are not the equal of the Premiership.
In terms of consistent excitement and week-on-week attrition that might be true; there are no walkover games in the Premiership. As preparation for European competition and international rugby the contention has little weight. There is no sign that the top Celtic and French clubs or their players struggle with the step up to more rarefied levels of rugby. The truth is that the difference between the best clubs of all three domestic competitions is marginal.
The reasons for failure lie in the tactical basics of rugby and not the organisation of its format.
How rugby is played changes subtly over seasons. The effects of, and remedies to, instant problems are often not apparent at the time. Only with perspective do the issues become plain.
As examples, take the improvements which took place in defensive organisation that came with the introduction of professional rugby. Some of this was due to greater fitness of players but much of it came from rugby league and was taught by coaches who crossed codes. The pod system, where defined groups of forwards took the ball into contact came, partly, as a way of neutralising such defence because it ensures the ball carrier has close support when tackled.
For several seasons the rush defence dominated. Not only did the line speed of defences improve; it was de rigueur for the outside centre to fly out of the line and to hit his opposite number. Although this left space outside, that could only be exploited by using a risky and difficult floated pass to the winger or full-back.
This tactic is still used but the planned and now instinctive use of the drag-back pass to a deep, secondary, runner has made the rush defence less effective.
What was once seen as an almost intractable problem is no longer so. It is always thus. Defensive ploys are developed first because, after all, defence wins matches and requires organisation and commitment, not creativity. When this happens, it takes time for attack coaches to develop remedial plays and the cycle starts anew.
At the moment defences have become more savvy and double tackles stop direct runners and prevent any progress over the gain line and stop the ball being offloaded in the tackle. As such, the way of getting over the gain line and creating momentum has become more difficult. The sides that are doing better in the Champions Cup are those that have found ways of counteracting this tactic most often.
You can still make these crucial yards with one-out, direct, runners but only if you have players like Victor Vito of La Rochelle, Billy Vunipola of Saracens or a number of gigantic forward ball-carriers like those of Montpellier. Otherwise you have to have more sophisticated carries which pose questions of defenders and make them unsure of which player will carry the ball into contact; Leinster are a prime example of this.
In the Premiership, Exeter have been able to beat defences by repeated carries which, through their frequency, wear down opponents and eventually make it impossible for defenders to get back into position to make tackles.
They are finding that in Europe this is not enough. Not only do defenders slow down the ball and give their team-mates the time to re-align, they are also fitter and more organised.
This is a topic that this column has highlighted several times this season and, if it is becoming trite to read, there are no apologies. At the moment this is the most pervasive problem for attacks to solve and until they can do it with frequency their efforts will be stymied. The English clubs that have struggled have either to get a sufficiently dynamic player who can break the gain line on their own or they have to get their players to carry more intelligently.