Scrum-half passes

Kind, execution and effect

The Guru, wisest of coaches, talks this time about the scrumhalf's passes, how to do it and the effect of his passing.

I have dealt with the standard scrum-half pass off the ground and that differs little from the pass a scrum-half will give from a line-out or a maul except that then he receives the ball in the air; this sometimes gets the scrum-half to stand up on his pass with the result that the pass lacks power, floats or loses direction. It is essential that he observe all the basics: foot going out with the pass, thigh back, arms parallel to the ground with his head down over his arms. Ninety percent of scrum-half passes that are wrong happen when the scrum-half stands up on his pass. If his pass is a little behind his fly-half, the fly-half will have to change direction because he will have to twist his body to take that pass and that will pull him inside; should the fly-half have to reach upwards, he will slow down, offer a lovely belly target to his opponent and lose passing time as he will have to lower his arms to make a decent pass himself.

As I have often remarked, rugby is a game of consequences- one poor pass from the scrum-half will lead to a concatenation of unsatisfactory options taken by succeeding players, forced on them by the original bad pass.

Pivot pass:

Most scrum-halves are right-handed and have weak left hands; often from a line-out they are asked to pass long distances. They find this difficult off the left hand to the right-hand side (obviously the opposite from natural left-handers) and so they pivot on the right foot and with their backs to the line-out pass off the right hand to the fly-half and in this way gain a longer pass off the right hand. There is added length owing to the momentum of the pivot, rather like a discus thrower gaining momentum as he spins before releasing his discus. Some purists will blanch in horror at the thought of the scrum-half's passing "blind", for he will have his back to the loose forwards and see only his fly-half, but as long as no time is taken over the pass, there is very little danger of an interception. At the line-out the scrum-half must place himself facing the near touchline with the ball between him and the touchline; on receiving the ball he pivots, as I have said, on the right foot swinging his left leg around towards his fly-half, once again applying all the parallels of the standard pass.

Dive pass:
 
This was very much in vogue in my playing days but the standing pass has overtaken it mainly because of the fact that the scrum-half remains on his feet and thus in play. Most players can pass longer distances standing than diving but I have seen some prodigiously long dive passes. I was interested to see a few scrumhalves using the dive pass in the recent World Cup games. It is useful when you are in a tight spot and have people reaching out for you. Your dive takes you away from them; it is also useful when you are chasing a ball moving away from you on the ground. It is a quick pass which you can spin or not; you would spin the ball if you wanted distance but a quicker shorter pass would not need spin.

Let us say that the scrum-half is passing to his left. He puts his right foot down behind the ball as his hands cup it on either side with wrists cocked, fingers stretched backwards towards the right foot. As he touches the ball his eyes move across to his fly-half. Naturally, he will be crouching. He drives of his right foot, if he is being chased, into his dive or he takes a pace on to his left foot and dives off that - preferable for distance but sometimes there is not time for that extra pace. The thrust comes off the leg into the dive, which goes out in the direction or line of the fly-half. He dives forward and up he flings his hands and arms out towards his fly-half, with the ball leaving his hands as the arms unbend and become fully extended with the wrists un-cocking as he straightens his arms. As he dives off the ground, he leaves his hands and arms behind and straight, until he actually delivers the ball If he gets no height from his dive, his pass will be a bad one and if he does not move forward in his dive, he will not achieve length, nor will he get length should he bend his arms excessively in delivering the pass. The straighter the arms the stronger the pass.

As the scrum-half dives he arches his back to give himself more power, which has the effect of lifting his pass too high; to counter that he must try, in his dive, to be as parallel to the ground as possible. To achieve that he gets his driving foot (and thus leg) high off the ground. I am sure you have all seen those classic photographs of diving scrum-halves in mid-air, everything in line, pointing in the direction of the fly-half, hands, arms, body and legs; only the head is up with eyes fixed on the target. When I see a good dive pass, I am always reminded of those wonderful hunting dogs, pointers, poised, everything lined up towards the prey.

Reverse pass:

I once brought in a passing fanatic to coach my scrum-half and he insisted on working on the reverse pass; I did not object though I was somewhat sceptical; my misgivings were justified as early in the following match my scrum-half flung out a reverse pass which sped past and behind the fly-half, nearly reaching the fullback. The marauding vultures from the other side leaped on the ball in high glee, ending up behind our posts with the ball buried beneath their bellies. Despite this nasty experience, I believe the reverse pass should be part of the scrummy's armoury. The scrum-half crouches, as always, placing his feet as if for a normal pass , weight on the ball of the left foot as if, let us say, he were going to pass to the left with his right foot behind as normal but instead now of throwing arms and left leg out as he would do for a normal pass, he moves his hands and arms in the opposite direction, to the right across his right hip, pivoting over his right leg; the ball is moved by the wrists moving towards the right hand side and the man to whom he is passing. This all sounds very complicated but it is not. Stand up right now without a ball in your hands and go through the motion described and you will see how easy it is. Now do the same thing but this time pass left. You will see that there is not much change in stance except, perhaps, that the left toe now points to the right. It is easy to practise and fun, too, I strongly advise that the passer be able to look at the man to whom he is passing and that it not be a blind pass that he gives. It is a quick, clever pass that very often takes the opponents by surprise as it is something of a dummy as most expect the ball to be moving in the opposite direction because of the initial actions and the stance of the passer.

Next article will focus on the general play of the scrum-half.