One has to feel for Wales as they were outstanding on the weekend. I got pretty upset with the Springboks as the match progressed but in retrospective one has the give credit to Warren Gatland and his Welsh side.

I had some sort of an Aha moment during this game in the sense that I developed a deeper appreciation of the impact of the new rule interpretation on the game. The most important thing of the modern game is structure at the breakdown. The emphasis has shifted from set piece to the breakdown. Where previously forward dominance was dependent on structure at set piece, forward dominance now depends on structure at the breakdowns. 

If you’re good enough at the breakdowns you can control the ball for 80% + of the game, essentially taking the opposition out of the match. The new rule interpretations makes it very hard for a defending team to force a turnover against a team with refined cohesion and structure at the breakdowns. It also means that if your team does not have structure and cohesion (group awareness and synchronicity) at the breakdowns you are not going to be in the match.

It’s all about micro skills at the collisions and with flat defensive lines it’s about having dummy runners, using flat and delayed passes as well as blockers and off-loads to shoulder runners on attack. On defence it’s about isolating the ball carrier or dislodging the ball by tackling in on the arms.

We rely too much on Brussow to create turnovers and should work more in groups to isolate ball carriers and create turnovers. Secondly our supportive runners are either too late or too flat (over running the ball carrier) when we take the ball up. Wales were very good in getting between supportive runners and the ball carrier once the ball carrier breaks through the defensive line. Basically if you miss a tackle move or fall into the line off the oppositions’ supporting runners. Also if you tackle in on a ball carrier try and get your body between the ball carrier and the incoming traffic. This allows your team mates to get their hands on the ball.

Where teams have previously spent hours to refine line-out and scrum cohesion the emphasis has clearly shifted to the breakdowns. Micros skills for the breakdowns on attack and defence are different and just learning or rehearsing what you need to do when you tackle or get tackled is not enough for the modern game. Once the micro skills have been rehearsed (for defence and attack) team drills at faster and faster pace and with variety in how they challenge the players need to be done in order to develop group awareness and synchronicity at the tackle area.

Our problem on the weekend was clearly that we are behind the ball game in this area of the game.

My two main observations over the weekend were firstly, that most of the tries was scored from off-loads (not the SA v Wales match but in most of the other matches) and secondly that the gap between the minors and the majors has narrowed. The gap has narrowed because if you can hold on to the ball (have structure at the break downs) you can get into the game and essentially take the opposition out of the match. Tonga was able to derail the New Zealand run-away in the second half by getting their hands on the ball and just hanging onto it. Japan had a belter against France while England looked out of sorts against Argentina for the same reason, namely Japan and Argentina being able to hold on to the ball and draw France and England into trench warfare.

One gets the distinct impression that the media doesn’t always appreciate how much the game has changed and what the impact of the new rule interpretations arre on the game. French coach Lievremont was interrogated by the French media (see here) while Martin Johnson tried to silence his media with some pragmatic remarks about winning is all that matters (see here). The new word in the rugby Articles of New Zealand rugby scribes is ‘bumble’ -everyone (that is France, England, South Africa) bumbled on the weekend. This is clearly rugby scribes that don’t fully appreciate how minor teams use the new rule interpretations to play ‘negative’ rugby disguised as attacking phase rugby.

A consequence of the new breakdown interpretations is that minor teams can now draw strong opposition into a phase after phase breakdown contest because it flattens the defensive line and makes it harder for the better teams to run around them or to punch holes in the defensive line. Where the backline has 5 meters of space at the scrum and line-out that space is cramped in to nothing once you go into phase play.

Everyone raves at the moment about Wales and how good they were against the Springboks but to be frank it was mostly ‘flap-flap’ stuff. Considering the amount of possession they had there were only one or two occasions during the entire match where they actually looked like they could score a try.

Why?

Because you can’t score tries with flat ball. What you do accomplish is that you succeed in taking the opposition out of the game by holding on to the ball. It is a ‘positive’ form of negative rugby. I don’t like it. If I want to watch ‘flap-flap’ flat defence trench warfare, I’ll watch league.

South Africa had the ball for only about 21 minutes of the whole match and looked dangerous every time they had the ball. In fact we would have given Wales a good old thumping if we had better structure and cohesion at the breakdown.  Why did we look more dangerous? We ran the ball up from set piece and therefore are better able to either punch holes and/or create space out wide than Wales.

This is in essence the difference between the All Blacks and most other teams. The All Blacks play from set piece. They have starter moves from set piece and do not play ‘flap-flap’ league hybrid ball recycle rugby. They attack from depth with starter moves from set piece, using decoy runners. When they recycle they use a system of punching holes with loose forwards or their big centres running from depth onto the ball and then off-load.

Australia does the same thing and they gave Italy a thumping in the second half because they started to run from depth with speed onto flat lying Cooper and/or Genia either sniping around the fringes or drifting sideways to draw defenders out of line before shifting the ball to angled runners coming with speed from deep onto the ball.

South Africa got drawn into the ‘flap-flap’ flat lying trench warfare by Wales and lost their momentum. Alberts, Hougaard and Bismarck made impacts because they came on and started running from depth onto the ball.

I was disappointed in the Bok performance on the weekend but believe they are on the right track. They need to speed up the support at the tackle area and make sure they support in numbers and from depth (so that they don’t over run the ball carriers). We had two turnovers against us at crucial times in the match and both of them were due to the first support player(s) being too flat, essentially over-running the ball carrier as they went to ground and secondly the next wave of support players arriving too late.

The ball carriers also went into the contact far too upright, trying to force their way through the tackle instead of being patient, going in lower and just placing the ball.

Lastly I believe the Springboks need to keep working on starter moves and run the ball from set piece with decoy runners. Once they get into a trench warfare situation it might be a better option to kick the ball into space –for instance after two or three recycles or when you don’t get fast front-foot-ball anymore.

The box kick is not the best option in such instances – the trend used by New Zealand, Australia and by Wales on the weekend – is to use a flat low grubber into space forcing the defenders to turn around. Wales scored their third penalty as well as their try after just such low tactical kicks which forced our wings and fullback to turn around and race to the ball with attackers breathing into their necks. It’s a lot harder to field those ball than a high box kick because with a box kick the defender waits for the ball and he normally has players firstly that position themselves between him and the incoming traffic and secondly that stand and wait so that he can shift the ball away from the contact point swiftly or who can blow-over to secure the ball if he gets tackled.