There is a school of thought that seeks multiple phases of play as a path to breaching opposition defences. This is a mistake – remember the Brumbies of some years back who, in the final of the Super-12 against the Crusaders, achieved a number of periods of play with more than twenty phases each time. They failed to score from any of these and lost the match. Multi-phase plays, almost by definition, rarely ‘ask difficult questions’ of the defence.
If a team can achieve a number of phases, with each one asking a difficult question, then a try is almost inevitable. There is a massive difference between the two approaches. Will Genia’s try in last week’s win over New Zealand is a case in point.
In my Coaching Manual, I stress the need to continue to maintain pressure on opposition defences. “The prime aim of the arriving player/s should be to continue the advance of the ball towards the tryline…..This could be a transfer to another forward arriving at pace, or to the scrum-half…..These actions must be completed without hesitation. We must not have a stop-start attack.”
In the case of Genia’s try, the period of play lasted 2.5 mins, with 9 phases of play. Although the play at every tackle contest was not optimal, there was little “hesitation” and the arriving players did “continue the advance of the ball towards the tryline.” Regular readers will already know of my paranoia for “numbers at the tackle contest” and “urgency of realignment”. These factors, accurately executed, gave the Wallabies the try.
The play began with a 5m attacking scrum to the Wallabies. Samo went right with Genia, but the All Blacks closed down the play. Elsom, then Pocock arrived quickly. With slow ball, ALL of the forwards arrived AND drove forward. Hallelujah! (This is a first for the Wallabies in many years.)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-ZNPgiI-kA[/youtube]
Phase 2. Alexander steps out of the ruck and takes the ball forward with Faingaa.
Phase 3. Moore goes forward with Kepu, Vickerman and Samo.
Phase 4. Horwill goes forward with Alexander and Elsom.
Phase 5. Genia to Pocock, Genia on the loop, wide to Cooper (poorly executed ‘drifter’ play with McCabe as decoy), back inside to AAC. Faingaa, McCabe and Pocock add to the drive.
Phase 6. Genia runs from the base and dummies unsuccessfully, but this is keeping the tight defence honest. Elsom and Alexander establish the ruck and Horwill, Moore and Vickerman add to the forward drive.
Phase 7. Horwill drives for the line with Pocock and Cooper attached.
Phase 8. Alexander continues with Elsom and Vickerman attached.
Phase 9. The Wallabies backline realigns to pose a massive threat to the All Black defence. Now we have a structured backline – Genia, Cooper, Ioane (coming from a blindside wing starting position), Beale and AAC – attacking an unstructured defensive line – Weepu, Mealamu, Franks, Thorn, Smith, plus another. The All Black defenders actually outnumbered the Wallabies attack, but the huge threat posed by each of the attackers caused a total ‘over-read’ and Genia took advantage.
The simplicities of the (i) numbers at the tackle, (ii) the leg-drive and body-position of the arriving players, and (iii) the exemplary realignment of the talented backs asked continuous questions of the defence. Eventually, under continuous pressure, the defence came up with the wrong answer.
By the way, the All Blacks did the same to the Wallabies defence in the second half.
