Penalty Moves Inside the Opponents' 22

The wisest of men, our Guru, gives some tips on what to do with penalty moves when you are on the attack and seek that winning try.

1.  Let us assume you are on the left of the posts.  You group your tight forwards in a fairly tight-knit bunch as though you are going to set up a rolling maul. Hooker is in the middle of the bunch, in front with the ball. The backs are lined out to the right; the loose forwards are behind the flyhalf fairly close together.  The hooker taps the ball and runs diagonally to the right, towards the opposing backs.  By running at the backs, he will pull some of them in to tackle him and the opposite forwards will also be forced to chase him, fearing the setting up of a maul.  Before a tackler can reach him, but not too early, the hooker goes to ground as his forwards ruck over him taking their arriving forwards with them so that the ball quickly lies sheer and clear for the scrumhalf who can now play either to his backs as we hope to have pulled a couple of them into the "ruck" or you play to your three loose forwards (who have the blindside wing outside them) as they run as a close trio to the left hand side of the ruck.  Timing is important- everything must be quickly done except prior to the penalty's being taken when you make sure everyone is in the right place.  You can see all the possible variations on this very simple move.  You can keep your two flankers more or less behind your flyhalf but put your No.8 on the other side to the left of the forwards so now you can either dummy to your flanks and play to No.8 who runs close, straight and to the right of the set-up ruck or you can dummy to your No.8 and play to the left to the flanks- you could also skip the No.8 as he runs dummy and play directly to the backs.  You can also put all three loose forwards to the left as in the original and play to them on the left but they run different angles from one another- two run towards the forwards while the other moves behind and across them to take the pass; remember he has the blindside wing with him.

2. Let us for the fun of it now move to the right hand side of the posts for our next penalty (all these penalties can be taken anywhere reasonably close to the line). We are 20 metres in from the right hand touch 15 metres from the line or even closer. The scrumhalf has the ball and five metres inside him and lining flat (but not so flat that the pass from scrumhalf to him is forward) is The hooker. The props and the locks line to the right of The scrumhalf on the touchline side, fairly deep; the loose forwards line to the left of the hooker, fairly deep. Lining off the hooker with flyhalf wide, on the open side, is the backline. I am going to give the most successful option first (a friend of mine uses this in his senior side and I have seen it fail only once) but, already, I think, you can work out all the possibilities- they are enormous. The scrumhalf taps, passes to the hooker. The scrumhalf, follows his pass to take a return pass from the hooker who is stationary. The props and the locks run diagonally as a dummy to the left of the hooker. Two is facing his halfway line. The tight forwards run early so that they pass the hooker before he passes back to the scrumhalf. In the mean time the loose forwards run to the right of the hooker and as The scrumhalf passes behind the hooker he takes the pass from him and transfers to the No.8 who cuts straight, close to the hooker on the touchline side while the flanks run wider but together as a dummy.  The No.8 moves close late so that initially he is with his the hooker flankers but as they approach scrumhalf, the No.8 straightens while the flanks move wider. This sounds terribly complicated but it is not.  Get a pencil and a piece of paper and draw it out as you read this and you will soon see what is happening and the many possibilities. Another option is to play to the two flankers and use the No.8 as the dummy in the move just described. A third option is to play to the tight forwards and use the loosies as a dummy. Then a fourth option is to use the tight forwards as the dummy and play straight to the backs.

3. A simple option is to take a tap and play to your backs and put the three loose forwards behind the outside centre. Outside moves wide as three loose forwards come through straight to take the ball in a close knit unit.

4. Finally, for this session, set up sort of "horse-and-cart" system. As I understand it this is still legal if you do it this way.  A reliable forward in the van of the tightly knit group of forwards, on the penalty spot, taps the ball and closely followed by his pack he runs towards the opposing forwards. Just as he is about to make contact he lifts the ball high, turns and brings the ball down to safety in his hands in front of him. By now his opponents have grabbed him but his own forwards at low body angle have come in around the ball, in tight scrum formation and they push him over the line.  As long as the ball carrier is played first by the opponents- by first I mean before his own side binds on to him, this manoeuvre is legal.  Terribly simple and very, very effective.

I am sure you can add variations to all these.  The art is, I think, to keep it all straight forward.  Have two or three penalties up your sleeve and perfect them in practice.  Walk through them 10 times or more until everyone is sure of his job.  Take your time in the match in setting up the move.  It, like a scrum, is a set move so there is no need to rush it. In this way, you can concentrate the opponents where you want them and create the gap where you want it.