The impact of the Laws of the game on the declining need for forward specialization has led to players having to have a range of skills. This has led to the professional era, after 20 years, ushering in the multi-skilled player.

The irony of this is that the French had a term for this when they had a host of these players. They called it polyvalence. The pity of this is that they seem to have lost confidence in their mode of play while others have embraced this concept. They have followed the example of others close to them. Their coach went to Sale to learn. This would seem to have been prompted by the financial need to win, the inclusion of overseas players in their leagues and these players seeking superannuation payments and longevity, longevity through prescriptive rugby.

The other unions haven’t embraced the polyvalence concept consciously. Especially in New Zealand it is a matter of pragmatism to get the job done while at the same time always wanting to win with some style.

In some premier unions it is a matter of players being selected for specialist roles, when the need for this has declined, and these players having little more to offer. This limited need for specialization is obviously the case at scrum and lineout.

As we all know, while these may generate lengthy periods of continuous play, there is not enough of either of these in a game for this to be a major reason for selection.

Some unions see scrum and ruck as the means of winning and it is to their discredit that they aim to trade on the confusion on the part of the match officials at these aspects of play to use their goal kicking skills to win.

During last years Super rugby season it was widely known that some teams just let the post tackle and if the whistle went accept whatever was ruled on. I guess the teams thought the losses and gains would balance up in the end. At the vary least they did not die guessing.

There is a trade off here because the more specialized a player becomes, especially in the tight forwards, the less their ability to perform other roles. They may lack the application or they may just not be able to perform them.

As for the remainder of the team the players have become interchangeable and it is truly a case of the nearest teammate performing the role no matter what the situation.

This is exaggerated when we play continuity for more than 3 minutes without a stoppage.

And so the menu of skills has increased and the confidence to   use the skill has done likewise. All players seem to enjoy having a go. But to be a polyvalence player the menu needs to be extensive otherwise limited skills may force poor decision-making options.

In the RWC kicking did play a part but not at the expense of continuity. If a kick to touch is made into the grandstand so a quick throw in is not taken it gains little distance. If it can be caught in touch and thrown in it is no different than a kick for territory that remains in play.

Kicking made opponents aware of the need to defend down as well as across the field. This was demonstrated when Ben Smith was sin binned in the final.

The accuracy of Foley and Genia showed that 2 “full backs” could not cover the territory and possession and field position led to two tries and Australia back in the game.

The second of the 2 tries occurred because Milner-Skudder kicked and had to chase. The Australians kicked to the space he vacated and scored.

Prior to this I thought it looked like a blow out could be on the cards.

A further repercussion of polyvalence by some but not others was in winning the race to the gain line and playing beyond the gain line in both attack and defence.

What has emerged is the ability to exploit miss matches. These can be in having the agility to make a tackle on an evasive carrier or of having evasive skills and being able to offload. Players being in a pre-planned formation are making this predictable to a degree in both attack and defence.

To take this a step further I think I am reading it right to say that players of complementary skill are pairing up across the field so the miss match is not so extreme.

Examples of this are, in defence, #5 and #12 together with #12 going low and #5 at the level of the ball as they double tackle. Notice I didn’t say #5 was tackling high.

In attack #6 in a truck and trailer formation with #11 on the edge to receive the in field offload.

The momentum created and the skill to further exploit the advantage has become a key element in regaining possession and in carrying the ball to score.

In the late 90’s I was coaching UCD in Dublin trying to get linear support into the game to draw in the defence creating space where the defence had been drawn from. Our warm up using this support against our reserves distracted the coach of the Northern Ireland Rugby Club, who we were playing against. All that happened in the game was that his team replaced our reserves and they were unable how to cope with it. It.

It seems to be naturally emerging in games in teams whose players are not programmed to accept the tackle. The first period, of varying duration is used to pound the defence and to tire them as the have to reload to move into attacks that get over the gain line. The attacks are those boring 1 and 2 pass attacks running more at the defence and getting over the gain line. The advantage is that, in creating a nominal ruck offside lines force the defence to retreat. If they do it slowly the next gain line can be broken. It all depends on the speed of delivery. If they don’t reload they are caught offside, unable to move forward to tackle and easily beaten by an attack that is running onto its passes threatening the defence.

This is unsuccessful if the attack stands flat and is forced to receive a pass standing still to avoid a forward pass being made.

As fatigue takes over the space on both sides of the tiring tackler is stepped into and through and teammates are getting killed in the rush to receive the offload and move the ball so that the defence cannot get a fix on it.

A good indicator as to who is getting on top is when the attack is able to use this form of support. In the final it was in the 36^th minute.

The attacks that failed to reach the gain line had their run/pass options eroded and they were forced into the kick and chase option.

Getting back to polyvalence it may be a case of some unions just not having selection choices, their players may not be good enough to cope with this style of play although it should be some thing they intend to work towards. This results in damage control, playing close quarter rugby to keep the score down. The teams that did this played a forward oriented game so as not to expose the limited skill of their players.

One position in which specialisaton has led to all players adopting it’s skills is the open-side flanker. It was recognized that Australia made great gains playing Hooper and Pocock, similar to George Smith and Phil Waugh, while, if Richie had been injured they would have brought on Sam Cain replacing like with like.

Other union’s don’t seem to recognize the role of these players and the example they set for the rest of the team to duplicate their vital role. South Africa had Brussouw in the recent past while England had Winterbottom, Back and Robinson and France did have Rive many years ago.

Too often size is the prime consideration and the loose forwards are the smaller locks with some speed. It seems to me their aim is not to win the game but to bully the opposition into submission. For much of the pool games this seemed to be the emphasis but, for some reason, post pool play was expansive.

This often applied to the lesser unions as they were missing speed and evasion in the backs, or is their style most easily played to using forward oriented attack that seldom goes beyond the second receiver?

It has taken Argentina some time to move from forward domination and Hugo Porta’s kicking skills to including exciting back play. They were able to penetrate but too often the penetrator lacked support. A pattern is needed here because the difficult part, the penetration, has been achieved. Once again all they need to do is to get some trailers following the truck to receive the offload and not fan out where the defence can cut off the pass.

After being perennial attendees it would seem that rugby lacks appeal amongst North America’s better athletes and can’t compete with the professional sports, at least in 15’s.

Will changing the IRB’s name to World Rugby do this?

Without knowing the details there was bound to be “issues” that led to the disappointing results from the three Pacific Island unions, if not at the tournament, then in the years developing the teams. It has occurred in every RWC and was bound to occur again.

The tipping point amongst these three teams has become even more fragile as the team has been made up of players playing overseas who have been educated if not born overseas and the domestic competition is unable to develop the best talent.

Add to this a growing cultural divide between the high performance, professional environment the players are used to and what the dysfunctional union administration imposes on them. Playing in professional teams in which they are in a minority and often “impact” players the pattern of play prevents them from playing to their national strength.

They play to a conservative model.

The irony is that that these teams historically have played the way the game was played in the post pool games.

A further factor is the lack of continuity in appointments. At least part of the responsibility for this lies with World Rugby’s regional union FORU whose high performance experts from Australia, with little international rugby background, do not maintain a stand that prevents this from happening. You could become suspicious about this as if these unions ever get their act together they will be post pool teams.

I should add that the major reason for the lack of continuity is because, when a head coach is appointed, the loyalty of his village, district, church, secondary school and extended family is guaranteed, as is the hostility of the rest of the rugby fraternity. The one advantage the overseas appointee has is that he will at least know that all oppose him.

If we are to identify the situation in which polyvalence produces the greatest award it is in transition when defence turns to attack. The momentary depression by the attack that now has to defend compounded by the enthusiasm that triggers play when defence becomes attack creates more than its share of tries.

The other term that explains the direction the game is going is Kaizen.

This is Japanese for continual improvement. It was a concept that was brought to Japan by Demming, the Harvard academic, after the US rejected his views. It became the basis of the Japan Economic Miracle since 1946.

While it has taken some time Eddie Jones has broken the mold as the game-winning try exploded the RWC into action. It is to be hoped that Eddie’s sabbatical with the Stormers recharges his batteries and he can return to continue the good work.

There is not one aspect of the game in which the Japanese are not able to perform. All right there are some ex-patriots but take a look around they are not the only ones. Look back and we all came from elsewhere at some stage in the past.

Back to Kaizen.

Out of pragmatism New Zealand does it. The big consistency that results in results is process and the process is kaizen. A process is essential, a consistent process to get the job done. But it is more than that, it is a process that is consistent, that is fine-tuned but in its basics doesn’t change. This means that when the talent, the raw material is fed into the model the best possible result emerges.

Rubbish in: rubbish out. Assumptions without verification and you have a wobbly result, a suspect result. If we play to what is in front of us but not know what we are looking for the results will be suspect.

If we have outcome aims, even performance aims but no process aims we don’t have a way of achieving the first two.

It we are watching performance and come to conclusions that their scrum is not too bad, their line-out is OK, their attack pretty good, conclusions that are based on generalities and vagueness, the end result will be suspect.

So we marry a game-planning model based on kaizen to the astute and accurate observations and practical skills of the selector and the coach and we are in a position to optimize the performance of the skilled athletes we have as we continually review until 2019.

One last query.

Given the success of the maul when will it be used in general play?

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