THE DIRECT WAY

Not his way

The Guru - wise and idealistic as ever - talks about the "direct" approach to playing rugby, in a scathing way.

I have been considering Jake White's comments on having to change the style of play of the Springboks in order to match the English at home at their own game. He talked about running at defences rather than running into space - at least that is the way I read it. It is true that with modern defence methods being what they are, spaces are not as obvious as they used to be but I argue that that is because of the way we play. Of course, if you are going to go to ground rather than to pass, the opponents are going to put fewer men into the ruck in order to establish a line of tight defence and there will be no gaps. The longer you take over providing the ball for the scrumhalf, the tighter that line of defence will be, for time means just that for both sides. Thus the defensive side has time to establish good solid lines with no gaps. Now, what option have you other than to run straight into your opponents, subtract as many as possible from the game by smashing into them, going to ground and recycling the ball?

It upsets me to see a scrumhalf standing over a ball (which to my mind has emerged from the ruck) stick his neck out of his shell, tortoise-like, slowly rotate his head on his tortoise neck, tortoise-like, then with great deliberation pick up the ball in two movements to feed some big prop who runs short to take the ball "up" and to ground. Should any opponent spot that the ball is out and dare to come around the edge to take possession of it before the scrumhalf does, he will be penalised- is this game not becoming ridiculous? What are we playing? American football?

What saddens me even more is the number of good coaches who have given in and now produce the same sort of rugby, sneering at the running game as being "fancy", talking about "over-elaboration", hiding their inability to produce all-round displays and all-round players under the guise of playing to their strengths. Sometimes, it is indeed true that you have not the running backs who can crack the line and crack-on the pace and therefore you make more use of the forwards but cannot a forward learn to pass a ball to another forward? MUST we go to ground? Can we not learn to support and keep the ball in hand because there is depth in support?

The trouble is that the way we do things in this new game is PONDEROUS. There was the day when rugby players were quick, agile, thinking fellows but now the coaches do the thinking and the players are mere automatons - AND I AM NOT JOKING! The trouble is that they, the players, become brain-washed and themselves believe that the automaton way is the only way. It is, after all an easy way to coach and to play and no one can blame you, the player, for making the wrong decision because all you have to do is "take the ball up" and "go to ground" and for #*+#'s sake DON'T PASS THE BLOODY THING. A brain is a waste for a modern rugby player but for the fact that it gives him a little extra weight (sometimes very little) something the modern coach wants desperately, even on the wing!

Here is the modern game plan- this is a real one employed by a man who felt that he had no real stars in his side- and it worked to a very large extent.

1. Forwards must go forward at all costs.

2. Vary the line-outs using off-the-top ball.

3. Control ruck and maul ball.

4. Use short ball around the fringes to suck in the defence and give the backs good ball "on the front foot".

5. Halfbacks must direct matters organising defence and distribution.

6. Inside centre "takes the ball up" in first phase.

7. This gives his outside men more space to use their skills.

There it is, simple. What then do you have to coach? Rucking, mauling, scrumming, lineouts, control of the ball on the ground and in the maul, running into opponents, going to ground, retaining possession, running off short ball and recycling to feed wide only when you have cleared out the opponents, centre learns to take crash ball up from first phase, so scrumhalf and flyhalf learn to pass accordingly. Naturally, restarts will have to be practised, too.

This is a good game plan because there are very few loopholes and there is very little chance of anyone taking the wrong option or making the wrong decision. I am not mocking; I am stating a fact. I should say that the majority of coaches around the world coach this way (except, perhaps in Japan where, because players are not as big and heavy as they are in the West, players use their skills and run the ball from everywhere).

If you are involved with schoolboys, you will find that the majority of parents like the "American football" way and they will undermine the coach who coaches for skill and flair and gives the players the right to choose options. If you coach in clubs, you will probably find that your players have been brought up to the restricted game- I did. If you are a provincial or a national coach, you are lucky because you can select whom you want to coach (unless you are in South Africa) but I bet you are another one of the conservative men in grey flannel suits! I do know that I do not want to coach this way any more than I want to teach English by means of a computer - but I leave the choice to you with the attached game plan.