THE ALL BLACKS VS THE PUMAS

Too much east – west and not enough north – south.

Don’t “shovel” it on.

Attack – Pass, Run and Support

Given the possession that the All Blacks were able to secure and its retention for long periods of time the points scoring ability of their attack has to be questioned.

If the defence was particularly strong then we could accept the score line but in its performance there were fundamental, attacking errors.

Support lacked depth; in fact players were not backing their speed and were front running in line with or even marginally ahead of the ball carrier. The effect of this is for the passer to rush the pass. If the pass is an offload the pass doesn’t have to travel far but to get it there in time it has to be passed fast and hard. Maybe a gut pass is the answer? It is difficult to cut off.

Frequently the pass forces the receiver to check his pace, reducing his momentum and, because he receives the ball and the tackler at the same time, the receiver can do little with it other than accept the tackle.

The blame for this is not always that of the receiver. Because the pace of the attack is fast the support player is best to run a straight line and come into the space the passer has moved from. The difficulty in this game was that the front line of the attack was drifting with the pass. This means that the support player was running faster than the ball carrier. They could well be on a collision course.

This was aggravated by “skip” passes allowing the missed player’s defender to drift and, because the ball is in the air longer, creating the opportunity to intercept the pass.

If the support player could delay his entry and not be standing in the line, and the ball carrier draws his defender, then the defence will have to decide on their attacker and the free player can penetrate.

More than one support player coming into the space created by the playmaker will overload the channel, draw in the defence and create space across the field. We need depth on the play maker/ ball carrier.

From phase play in particular we have many in the attack line, enough to overload a channel with linear support.

Let’s not forget:

“The space you create is not the space you are running into but the space you are moving away from and the ball carrier must be able to pass into this space.”

This applies to attack from both set pieces and phase play.

Set Piece Attack

Just a thought about the set piece formation.

The formation seems to fall into one of two categories the first is a deliberate pattern before receiving the ball and using the positioning of the defence in response to this. One such pattern is 10, 12 and 13 standing wide and as far from each other as passing will allow. 11, 14 and 15 can stand behind them and enter play late into the space between each of the front line players. The aim is to overload so you have 4 against 2.

The second is to move into position while in motion having stood in a set, decoy position to begin with.

Our Kicking Offs:

As far as kicking was concerned it was great to see kick-offs being contested. I hope they persist with this as, right from the re-start, the opposition are forced to contest possession. Unlike the long kick off, which may be good for territory if an error is made and at this level this is unlikely. More often than not a kicking duel results until either team attempts a counter attack.

All they need to do now is take advantage of deflected ball by having all angles around the ball covered.

Just make it higher and shallower, Dan, so we can get there and leap for the ball with impact.

Kicking in General Play:

In general play there was space behind the defence line that was not used. I have gone on about grubber kicks before so I won’t do it again.

Re cross kick passes just be careful that you don’t create the opportunity to counter attack as both teams numbers are down on the extremes of the field.

Defence:

In defence rush defence suffocated the Argentinian attack. When you have more in the defence line than they have in the attack line you can afford to take away their time and space while at the same time not being completely certain who you are tackling. There are enough to compensate for error. If more than one defender makes the tackle this can lead to a dominant tackle and a turnover.

I think I did see the outside defenders getting up early and turning the attack back infield where this rush defence can work well.

A rush defence will not work if we are standing on the offside line, as we are unable to generate pace into the attack from a standing start.

The longer the attack has the ball the more vulnerable we become them having more momentum and us conceding the gain line.

Maul Defence:

There are many ways of defending the maul from stopping them before they start to not participating, which depends on the ref’s interpretation of the situation.

I would like to think we could do enough homework on their lineout to use 2 assisted jumpers in the lineout and the best leaper as a free agent at the tail. The aim is to force the overthrow and to just get something on the ball that erodes their control of the ball. Others are to attack the seam between the ball carrier and the support.

Whatever you do have some variation in the bank to create uncertainty and make sure all are committed to the option called.

Conclusion:

In conclusion the pleasing thing was the priority put on field position, possession and patience while creating anxiety with the pace of the game. Just be careful, don’t think the back and forth movement of the ball results in the fatigue of the defence. The movement of the ball is one thing; the movement of the defensive player within the defence line is another.

Referee/ Law Issues:

1. If the kick-off goes into touch on the full can the ball be immediately thrown in? Can this be between the place it went into touch and the halfway line? Are the options only a re-kick, the scrum on halfway or a lineout on hallway?
2. The sleeping giant is the definition of a ruck and the referee’s intolerance of messiness. The simple solution seems to call “illegal” entry when the “offender” has entered directly behind the ball. This is most prevalent when the ball is moved so that the majority of the players of the team in possession are not where the ball is. The second issue is where there are no longer any defenders involved and the third where there are no players on their feet or those who are, are not bound over the ball. If the Law is applied as written not only will the average punter be mystified.

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