SEVENS BASED ON THE SEVENS WORLD SERIES

ATTACK

Gaining Possession

Kick offs:

Both the 10.01metre kick off with sufficient height to allow chasers to contest the ball and the long kick off into the corner is being used. The long kick off requires a 6 defender chase line as anything less can concede an overlap to the attack. Even though they are deep inside their half this can lead to the overlap being used to gain considerable territory and even a try.

When making a recoverable kick off when the kick is down the centre of the field there are 2 disadvantages. The first is that the ball, in its flight is moving away from chasers giving them less time to get to the ball. The second is that, if the receiving team wins the ball they have both sides of the field to attack.

I feel it is better to play to one side of the field and have those contesting the ball coming from touch so they are able to run towards the ball. The reason for this is that if the defence regains possession they can only play in one direction across the field and, if the attack retains possession there will be less defence straight ahead.

Line-out:

If the ball can be thrown in straight and caught by an unmarked player who is standing on the ground do it. The throw need not be pre-planned but done once this option becomes available. Don’t jump if you don’t have to. Use the 10metres of space to put a man in space, after all their 2-3 players will find it hard contesting the whole 10metres.

If you want to lift at the line-out use split second timing so the thrower can use the jumpers hands as a target. This will avoid the overthrow.

Penalty Kicks:

Until now penalty kicks have been tap kicks or the territorial gain expected of the kicker has been limited. Increasingly penalty kicks are used to gain territory so long as the team has a reliable line-out. Teams are using kickers who can gain large chunks of territory. Maybe the spiral punt will come back into fashion.

Creating Space

Attackers are drifting with the ball so that the last receiver can be “gang” tackled and the defence can use reverse drift defence to stop the reverse attack. This is because, until a ruck/maul is formed there is no offside line. As a result the defence can position ahead of a line across the field through the ball.

So to combat reverse drift defence, form a ruck to establish offside lines. Other options are to overload the channel where the ball is and to use the kicking option behind the defence to the far side of the field.

Teams are increasingly becoming aware of the space behind the defence and whether there is a sweeper to occupy this space or not. A kick into this space is most frequent when a team has fast chasers resulting in them becoming more willing to kick and chase. The kick is not looked on as a turnover necessarily.

When the ball carrier takes up the space to the defender the pass to the next attacker often results in the player being tackled at the same time as they are catching the ball. The pass must be pulled back to recreate this space and the receiver must be deep enough to run onto the ball.

Retaining Possession

Players on the fringe (a wing position) are taking the outside gap and being forced into touch conceding possession. These players must be able to cut back inside to remain in the field of play.

The longer the pass and the greater the number of potential receivers that are missed out the greater the time for the defence to adjust to what the attack is doing.

Post tackle to avoid infringements that frequently occur in contesting the ball why not form a ruck and make sure you have a player in the “#8” role to control delivery of the ball.

When play starts from a scrum or line-out the play should initially go wide but, if it continues in that direction, the defence will outnumber the attack. By going 2-3 passes wide will allow those in the scrum or line-out to reload and the play can be reversed using them to creating numbers and options.

Penetrating

When a ball carrier goes forward to get over the gain line he should draw the defender and run before stepping. By running at a defender the ball carrier will hold the player. This will then enable the ball carrier to step drawing the tackler away from the space. Support players should run down the space to make them available for an off load. They must be deep enough to adjust to the offload or the ruck. If they are too flat they will overrun the ball and be out of play.

Under these circumstances asses to lateral support, as opposed to linear support down the channel, can be intercepted.

Attacks that come from depth, accelerate onto the ball, commit the defence by running straight and recreate space with the angle of the pass will create space to penetrate.

By running straight and doing your homework as to where their defenders predominantly go in the defence line you are able to set up miss matches.

Supporting

To create space for the offload the support player should come from inside the ball carrier with the support player on the outside drifting wide to take the defence away from the space. Should the defence stay close to the ball carrier the player who has drifted wide should be passed to. To prevent the intercept the receiver should increase his depth and run onto the ball.

When the inside support gets the offload on the ball carrier’s outside shoulder the outside support then needs to come down the channel, as should other players, to provide linear support to continue play.

Unless the penetrating player has outright speed he may have to go and meet the support or hold things up so the support can get to him.

 

DEFENCE

Contesting Possession

Line-out

Unless the ball can be won don’t jump at the line-out as it delays your line-out players from joining the defence line. Just be careful to not get beyond the 15metre line until the ball is off the gain line.

Kick-Offs

Defend 360° around the shallow kick off to gather deflected ball.

Denying Space

Each defender assumes responsibility for the defence in their lane across the field whether it is 7 lanes or 6 plus a sweeper system.

Defenders shuffle with the movement of the ball but don’t cross over or go ball chasing, as this will create space for the attack when the movement of the ball is reversed.

The defence line must close down space by defending inside out as a unit to limit the time the attack has to perform their best option.

The defence must move forward as a unit. If a player gets ahead of the others in the defence line, a gap is created.

Tackling the Ball Carrier

If a defender needs support to complete the tackle the attack will have numbers if and when the ball is delivered. This will be prevented if the attack has to commit more players to retain the ball.

When there is over-commitment the defenders’ options is a maul turnover or pulling back as soon as it is realized that possession cannot be won.

Regaining Possession/ Attack

At the post tackle the tackler doesn’t have to come through the “gate”. Other defenders can contest the ball standing, so long as they are on their feet and have entered from behind the ball. However reality is that the chances of infringing are high and can be based on marginal decisions by the ref. It may be better to tackle low, counter ruck to slow down the delivery and to seek a turnover from a dominant tackle when this arises – you may have to be patient.

Check on the ref’s call that the post tackle has become a maul as this can result in the defence committing more players only to find, if the maul goes to ground, it is not a collapsed maul but a ruck. When this occurs a whole new range of infringements can be called and, if the attack delivers the ball, they could well have an overlap or a speedster in space.

 

FIFTEENS BASED ON THE SIX NATIONS

ATTACK

Gaining Possession

Scrum

Penalties are being “milked” at scrum by one team entering slowly so that the opposition hyper-extend and lose their power.

Kick-offs

There is increased use of the long kick off with a defence line that chases hard and is aligned to each other.

Going Forward

Run / Pass Options

The mistakes in attack are no different than you find at all levels of rugby. All right the defence is stronger but the fundamental of attack, of passing, of using support and so on, should be seen to be being used.

However once the set piece has been won they settle for one pass attacks with the ball carrier crashing the gain line.

Initial receivers are drifting across field as they go forward. This is taking away the space and alignment of those outside.

Against a “stacked” defence line (defensive numbers greater than attacking numbers) from a post tackle/ ruck they appear to be passing the ball along the line until a ball carrier does a hit up. Support has to come from the side as there is no support in depth.

The predominant attack is to use “crash” ball to get over the gain line and then moving the ball the same way again to outflank their support.

When the attack comes from depth the defence was held as they were unsure what the attack was going to do. Shallow attacks were not getting over the gain line.

Decoys seem to be ahead of the passer so they can’t receive the ball. Surely they are offside and their line is obstruction.

Re the use of decoys the defence doesn’t seem to be distracted. It just drifts onto the second wave of attack coming from behind.

Ball carriers seem unable to draw the defender and either step and accelerate into space followed by an offload or pass to the next player in the line. The only time a defender is drawn is when the ball carrier crashes the gain line.

Late in these games fatigue results in an increase in scoring opportunities. Prior to this few attacks are constructed to play to the space that is created because the ability to play to what is in front is limited.

Kicking

At this level it is not too much to expect each team to have a left and right foot kicker to exploit space behind on their preferred side of kicking.

There is increased use of the kick and chase especially the grubber kick. When this is made in front of the defensive line there is a risk of the ball rebounding.

There are frequent kicking duels until touch is found in a better territorial position. There is a need to apply pressure to reduce time and space using a chase pattern and a receipt pattern for the return kick.

 

Supporting

On the few occasions linear support is used territory is gained and points scored.

Continuity

They seem to think that the maul from the front of the line-out has to remain square so they are resisting the roll of the maul infield. This enables runners to run at the inside backs and the defensive forwards are taken out of play.

Mauls are being collapsed slowing down the delivery of the ball. This allows the defence that has been drawn in, to then fan out and join the defence line.

There seems to be no protection for the halfback to clear the ball especially from rucks. Maybe a dive pass is what is needed.

Apart from set pieces the length of the pass is not great.

There seems to be a lack of awareness of the significance of the gain line in determining momentum and the direction of the play following the ruck.

Roles at the breakdown are poorly defined and there is a need to know the cues and the actions so that roles are not duplicated but are complementary. This especially applies to providing protection and controlling the delivery of the ball.

Applying Pressure

The most significant aspect of scoring is the points arising from penalties at scrum and at the post tackle. This can be a reflection of pressure but equally it can be due to the difficulties of playing within the Law and the difficulties in refereeing them.

When a team scores there is not discipline at the re-start to re-establish field position. Teams tend to play with the ball in their own territory risking turnovers and penalties from which the opposition can score.

DEFENCE

Contesting Possession

Line-out

There are few challenges in the air at line-out.

Kick-offs

Players who catch the ball from a shallow kick off are running away from support and can be easily tackled leading to contestable ball.

Going Forward

The stacked defence line allows designated defensive players to break the line and attempt an outside-in spot tackle or an intercept.

Applying Pressure

Tackling is just above the level of the ball allowing the ball carrier to use leg drive to get the attack over the gain line.

They don’t seem to think the low tackle will make the ball contestable. Maybe the number of infringements at the post tackle is so great they are reducing the risks. Penalties from this phase of play can be significant in the final score.

If the tackler, who is trapped in the back of the opposition ruck, wants to avoid the penalty, maybe he should hand the ball to the opposition halfback??

Preventing Territorial Gain

This is a mixture of “jackalling” and counter rucking. These are also the source of most penalties.

Supporting/Regaining Possession

There is minimum commitment at the post tackle.

In defending a maul they are either keeping the ball up after a dominant tackle or splintering off attacking players to break up the maul.

Counter Attack

There appears to be no pattern to counter attack apart from the “up and under” or taking it into a ruck.

There seems to be little idea as to how to use close quarter turnovers to clear the ball to space and counter attack. More often the ball carrier charges into the players who are where the ball was turned-over resulting in a new contest for the ball from where it has just been won.

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