It has been impressive to watch the All Blacks coaches in action this week as they set to work on the detail of an area that is increasingly deciding the outcomes of test-match rugby.
Two weeks ago Samoa used the counter-ruck to destroy Australia’s search for quick attacking ball, something South Africa failed to achieve with disastrous results in Sydney last weekend.
While every club side in New Zealand spends hours on the breakdown, they do not do it with the impressive accuracy and thought of the country’s top side.
Article by Toby Robson – The Dominion Post
After dispatching Fiji 60-14 at Carisbrook in Dunedin last Saturday, the All Blacks admonished themselves for their lack of effectiveness at the contact area. The ball was slow to emerge on attack or turned over as Fijian defenders were allowed to linger at the tackle, while opportunities to counter-ruck were missed.
Part of the problem was that the All Blacks played a wide game from set piece, but did not send all of their forwards to the breakdown. For such a plan to be effective it requires a total buy-in to ball retention and after watching the All Blacks train it is clearly an area in which they plan to improve.
“You try and work on weaknesses in some areas,” halfback Piri Weepu said yesterday.
“Most teams go out wide and the old cliche is backs can’t clean out and protect the ball, so our main focus is to protect the ball no matter what number you are wearing.
“Everyone has to do their jobs and know their roles so come breakdown time everyone is protecting the ball and reading the situation when we are able to counter-ruck.”
Such focus takes accuracy and good decision-making to be effective. The sight of foraging openside flankers such as Richie McCaw snaffling turnovers at the tackle has become rarer this season. Instead of going for the ball, tacklers are trying to get to their feet then take the “metre” or the space beyond the ball. That provides an opportunity for their team-mates to counter-ruck and drive past the ball in numbers.
Commit too many players to a failed quest for a turnover though and you get caught out on defence. It’s that balance the All Blacks appear to be working hard to get right. It is a detail within the structure of how they plan to play in coming weeks, but it may not be the focal point in a month’s time.
You get the feeling this team want to be able to play whatever style their opposition presents, but it will be interesting to see how much is held back when the cup campaign begins. That’s not in terms of intensity or effort, but in how much they plan to play the game.
“Last year in particular we came out and provided a different way to play footy and then two or three weeks later everyone else was playing the same,” Mils Muliaina said this week.
“You have to come up with a few new things, but being World Cup year you have to make sure you don’t leave too much in your back pocket. “It is kind of difficult. Particularly in this environment you don’t want to be experimenting too much. You want to go out with the expectation that you just want to win and you don’t want to be holding things back but you don’t want to show your cards too early.”
You just to be smarter in your approach to the breakdown as to what your role is going to be i.e. cleaning out, support, dummy half or attacking line.I have seen too many times players heading to the attacking line when the opposition is threatening at the breakdown. You should be able to see early if you have enough support at the breakdown or not. Unfortunately some forwards aren’t the brightest.
The new approach in New Zealand on attack is the off-loads and to move the ball as quickly as possible away from the contact point namely to avoid going into contact. Thet recognise the crash ball (hitting the ball up in channel 1 or 2) as dangerous in terms of losing possesion.
So they try and spin the ball to the centres sitting deep with decoy runner to block the incoming defenders. The centers, fullback and wingers then attack with speed from deep and use offloads. When they do take the ball up around the fringes they also try and use offloads instead of hitting it up.
When the ball goes to ground the approach is to play through or beyond the ball. This is the thing that we complained a lot about last year namely the Owen Franks technique of running past the ball and then stand in the way of the incoming opposition. The tackler gets up and step forward (instead of rolling away) and in doing that he essentially becomes a blocker. The opposition has to clear him before they can get to the ball and this isolate the ball carrier and this allow his team mates time to get their hands on the ball stealing it or forcing a penalty.
It is a form of obstruction but they get away with it becuas the atckler has the right to get up and go forward.
The latest invention is the two-on-one-tackler approach as illustarted in the video clips. This came about to stop off-loads but also prove more efective in creating turnover than the ‘fetcher’ type flanker approach.
@ McLook:
So when is someone going to “take-out” that tackler standing in an “offside” position in such a way that he’ll really think twice next time.
Surely it doesn’t take a doctorate in Rugby tactics to see these things, analyse what’s happening and put together an action plan to counter it?
Or do I see things too simplistically?
@ Scrumdown:Problem is that it’s not only the tackler the get’s up and step forward over the tackled opponent but also your props like Owen Franks running past the collision point and take position beyond it and act as a type of blocker.
I have been watching this area with some interest since the trend started in 2010 and there have been a number of big hits but somehow the likes of Owen Franks never get hit in that ‘off-side’ positions. I am waiting (or should I say praying) that someone will sort those ‘off-side’ blockers but it never seems to happen.
It’s like using the boots in the old days to clear the blockers of the ball. Some really hard hits on these blockers early in the game is certainly required, I think, just to set the tone namely that you are not going to tolerate it.
Don’t know how that little face found it’s way into the previous post. It wasn’t done on purpose. Somehow it sprang in where the p of problem should have been.
5@ McLook:
Hehehe. That’s the problem with us “middle aged” IT challenged people.
I’ll just consider it “writers licence”.
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