The Most Effective Rugby

The Guru's coaching column

The Guru, great and experienced. watched a match in silent awe and pays his respects.

It was with considerable awe and respect that I watched Toulouse lose to London Wasps on Sunday 23 May. I enjoy most of the Southern Hemisphere Super 12 rugby because it is open and the backs see much of the ball while I find some of the European rugby very much dominated by forward play, which fills me with sadness for the outside backs, who spend their lives forming lines of defence, tackling forwards, clearing-out , rucking and sometimes mauling.
 
There has been much criticism from the North of the "fancy" rugby played by the South, and the South tend to yawn on observing the North playing, as South Africa and New Zealand used to, the subdue and penetrate game with an enormous emphasis on defence and retaining possession at all costs. But then, too, I find the obsession with keeping possession exists in the South as well. (How many times do we not hear Australian commentators waxing lyrical over the eleven phases that went into the creation of a try?)
 
Indeed. we must keep possession. We cannot lose the ball through tackles, poor hands, poor throws-in, kicks-off, poor passing and so on - but does that mean we must take no chances? Some would say, yes; I say , no! What a boring stalemate rugby would be if both sides were determined to risk nothing - and it happens. The tactics are to play in the opponents' half and to wait for a penalty or an error, forced or otherwise. Mostly they try to force errors through pressure and so we have two unimaginative sides hammering away at one another waiting for the chink in the armour to appear. It is rather like two tanks smashing away at each other. The one thing you cannot chance is playing wide because then, if there is a tackle, there are not enough players out there to retain possession through clearing out, rucking and mauling. So, this game has become just that - a game of rucking and mauling, clearing out and kicking for position when not being patient and retaining possession. How dull!
 
It is now broadsword against broadsword and to hell with the rapier! The easiest way to keep possession is not to venture out of your comfort zones - keep playing close to the traffic, the forwards; come back inside, exploit the inside channel, go to ground at the hint of a tackle and ruck the ball out to do the same again - that is patience, a very popular word with modern tacticians and coaches.
 
I say to hell with the ruck and the maul, to hell with patience and keeping the game close, in fear of losing the ball and the game, to hell with shallow-lining backs and playing the ball back inside, to hell with going to ground at the hint of pressure. Keep the bloody ball in the hand, play it wide, support the ball carrier so that he may pass - yes pass, not go to ground to enable you to obstruct , sorry, I mean clear-out, the opponents. Run your angles, use your feet to confuse the defence, put the passes together. Why do we not count the number of passes made by a side in one movement as phases rather than counting rucks and mauls as phases?
 
That is why I loved the Toulouse-Wasps game; it was stirring stuff and that ball moved through hands, French hands particularly. They played the game that I love to coach; they run off the ball when without it to provide a variety of choices for the ball-carrier. They are prepared to give that pass in the tackle, the best pass in the game sometimes, that coaches and many players have been indoctrinated into labelling 50/50 or even 60/40 - you know, the passes that MUST NOT be made. You can hear the coach shout: "For ##**#* sake, how many times must I tell you not to pass a 50/50 ball - go to ground, you oaf, keep possession!"
 
The irony is that it is the coach who is the oaf!
 
I believe that if you learn to pass before and in contact while still in control of the ball, if you learn to support after passing the ball to give options to the ball-carrier, if you learn to support from depth but also at times to take the short, flat pass, if you learn to keep off the deck, YOU WILL INEVITABLY BEAT ANY DEFENCE PATTERN EVER INVENTED. The trouble is we have allowed ourselves to be brain-washed by the defence-minded rugby league game and we have forgotten the thrill of that game of flair we used to indulge in and that has made all the difference. RUGBY IS BORING- except when Toulouse play!
 
When you go to ground or maul, you slow the game down and thus allow defence patterns to be set- that is why so many cheats go into rucks to try to slow the game down. I am tempted to mention names of players who indulge in such (some of whom have even captained their national sides) but I will refrain.

When you keep the ball in hand and move it around there can be no set defence patterns that are watertight after the first phase play. Some argue, and I am amongst them, that 1st phase ball is one of the best balls to play off because the players are fixed and focussed in position so the introduction of a variation is more likely to be successful because of the space. When you go to ground, you are going to win the ball; the opponents therefore short-number ruck (or maul) and the rest of their teams spreads across the field, each one taking a defensive channel and thus your space is no longer. Speed up the game by keeping the ball in hand, not in mauls, not in rucks, then you will have space.

It seems to me that we no longer want space because we do not know what to do with it!