Fly-half play

Life as a No.10

This week our Coaching Guru has a look at fly-half play, including all the basics, as well as the role of a scrum-half, who has the power to make his No.10s job a lot easier.

Here I am going to talk about the basic things a fly-half must consider; however, I believe that the better a fly-half is and the more experienced he is, the fewer guidelines he will need as he learns to play his own game - the game that suits his particular talents. I believe this of every position. As a beginner, player or coach, you need guidelines but the farther up the line you move the more the game becomes an expression of your soul. I fear the modern game is becoming stale as everyone copies and there is not enough individual flair. I think of the South African and English backs in their recent encounter where the only try scored was by England centre Greenwood off a flanker's charge down of a very slowly taken kick - not that the guilty South African No.10 received a lightning pass! Backs of neither side could engineer a break of any sort nor did any backline player look threatening. Admittedly, the same cannot be said of some of the New Zealand, Australian and French backs. The Japanese have also taught us some lessons about enterprising play! However, let me leave the World Cup.

When we talk about backline alignment we talk about depth and angle. A line can be deep and flat, for example. Generally, it is the fly-half who will decide (or the coach, sadly) whether to increase his line's angle or flatten it, obviously depending upon the situation.  He must also decide whether to line close or far back from his scrum-half. From a line-out he will tend to line flat himself, ten metres from the line-out and outside the 15 metre mark (outside the opposing No.8). He will take a flat pass from his scrum-half, (the fly-half) running on to the ball quickly. His outer backs will be flat on him also ten metres, or just more, deep. His intention here is to cross the gain line as quickly as possible, perhaps beating the opposite 8 by lining where he does and, of course having, initially a 20 metre gap between him and the opposing backs- so he has space to manoeuvre.

His depth will depend upon what he wants to do - conventionally the farther away from the source of the ball you want to cut the line or strike (for example, bringing the fullback in) the deeper the fly-half stands to take the ball. By taking a flat ball he signals his intention to cross the advantage line himself or by playing to a flat inside centre, blindside intruding wing or forward lying off him.  If he wants to strike wider, through that intrusive fullback, let us say, coming outside the outside centre, then he, the fly-half, must create the space for that through his alignment and depth and that of his outside players. There are, of course other variations that can work such as dummy switches, skip (cut) passes, dummy runners and so on. One thing he cannot afford to do is to dither- remember the old saying in this game: It is better to do the wrong thing quickly than the right thing slowly.

Much will depend upon the sort of ball he is receiving from his scrum-half and that the scrum-half receives from his forwards.  It surely is better for a fly-half to receive a short quick pass than a long floating pass! Obviously a long, quick pass is even better but all depends upon the circumstances and a good fly-half will adjust to each circumstance

How does he take his scrum-half's pass? He can run towards it from wide, run away from it from close or wide ( the latter is inadvisable) or he can start wide and run at such an angle that he takes the ball at a run that is at a right angle to the line of the scrum-half's pass (a similar principle is used by some forwards from their own kick-offs - they run at a right angle to the line of the kick to make it easier to take the catch). Each line of run has a purpose. If you want to play a wide running game it most often suits the fly-half to start off wide and to run at right angles to the pass. Then, if he is taking a flat (not short) ball from his fly-half, he will find himself running straight; if he takes a deep ball he will find himself running slightly across field but his pass to his centre ( who will be running straighter) will be an easy one.

It is important, too, that in his line of run, especially from a scrum, that he consider the opposing scrum-half, flank, No.8 and fly-half in defence. Should he merely set-off across the field he is going to have chasing across in cover all four of the aforementioned fellows whom he has not committed or "fixed" in position, as some coaches prefer to say. His line of run and depth must as often as possible tie up these defenders so they cannot merely drift across field in defence - here of course there are many variations which will do the trick, such as a dummy scissors with an inside centre. There are occasions when you can get away with it - let's say you are going to pull off a double skip pass to the fullback coming in outside your wing. The ball gets out there so quickly that these inside players in defence cannot possibly cover across in time to prevent the full back getting away. I coach my sides never to give the opponents and easy scrum - mess up their ball however you can and the most obvious way to do this is by wheeling the scrum away from the fly-half (you must also know when it is dangerous to do so for you may well be putting the opposing scrum-half away on a break!); what most fly-halves do in this situation is to line directly behind the scrum to receive the ball from the beleaguered scrum-half.

One other thing for a fly-half to consider is his speed. Taking a flat ball from a line-out, he would be going full tilt; if he were going to give a skip pass, he would slow down to give himself space and balance to throw out the skip (especially if it is a long one- if it were a short skip he would take small strides, slow down to pull the opponents onto him). If he is going to kick, he would want his scrum-half to pass directly to him, not in front or behind, and he would line accordingly. Depending upon his intention, he would also vary the speed with which he would run on to his scrum-half's pass - think of the kick, cross-field and for the other side; cross-field you would take the ball running, short-side probably almost standing still.

It is obvious then, that scrum-half and fly-half must, like twins, know everything about each other and scrum-half must understand what his fly-half wants in every possible situation - not easy.