Hello Cobbers,
I hope you have recovered your sleep and emotional equilibrium after the weekend. As a number of others have noted, it’s the hope that kills you isn’t it?
Regarding the weekends matches, I watched a replay of the Wobbs vs AB’s relatively late on Saturday night, and nursing a sore shoulder so knowing my uncomfortable shuffling in bed would just aggravate the wife, I then just kept punching on through with Saffas vs Pumas, Paddy’s vs Dagoes, Jocks vs Frogs and Taffs vs Poms. What was interesting was that 5 test matches straight pretty much reinforced the same thing to various extents, but it was especially obvious with the Wobblies vs All Blacks and the Jocks vs Frogs
If you watch the first half of the Wobblies and the second half of the Jocks, the biggest thing that gave the Wobbs and the Jocks their front foot attacking advantage over much more ‘superior’ opponents was the speed of their 9’s clearing the ruck. In-particular for the Wobbs, Tate McD’s ability to clear quickly to Flash Gordon even compensated for both Tate’s normally sub-par passing and some poor option-taking by Flash.
Why/How were those 9’s clearing so quickly? It wasn’t simply because the 9 wanted to. There were 3 things at play:
- Their Carriers bent the line. Rarely were their primary Carriers going to the line to then lose the contact by being too high, or not taking a softer shoulder, or dropping too early. This meant the opposing defensive line was denied the ‘jolt’ collision to upset the attacking flow. This ‘getting the shoulders through’ also then made the Cleaners job easier.
- The 1st Cleaner was generally fast, accurate and went BEYOND the ball, confident they could do so as the 2nd Cleaner would housekeep the ‘plate’ area left behind. This both removed the Jackal opportunity and shifted the offside line. This simultaneously gave the Carrier space to place the ball ‘long’, away from reaching hands (prawn ball) and subsequently gave the 9 a ‘clean plate to clear’.
- The Distributor (be it Wee Finn Russell or Flash Gordon or the Pig-Pod Pointman) was calling early. So the 9 didn’t have to ‘stop the flow’ and ‘Meerkat’ about looking for options. He could if he wanted to, but the option to go fast was there on a platter.
As a result, if you watch the ruckspeed of the Wobblies and Jocks, you could literally count ‘Tackle 1 2 3 Gone’ and the ball was away. Their ruckspeed was consistently around 3-3.5 seconds. And it made all the difference to the impetus of their attack.
By contrast, then watch what happened when Nic White came on with Quade for the Wobbs. The Wobbs lost all their ruckspeed. For various reasons we stopped winning the collision as the AB’s ran a better bench and fatigue took away precision decision making, so our Carriers weren’t bending the line as effectively, so our Cleaners were having to work harder and were inaccurate, which then made the plate messy (eg Whitelocks 3 steals). This loss of impetus then also fed into Nic Whites existing predisposition to Meerkat. So the cumulative impact of all those inaccuracies meant our ruckspeed went from around 3-3.5 seconds to about 5 seconds which simply allowed the AB’s time to reset defensively. This drove the loss of impetus and kicking etc.
Compare that to the AB’s ruckspeed when Aaron Smith came on with their replacements – they became what the Wobbs were in first half. The rest was history.
What are the lessons in all that? There are 2:
- Defensively, I think the play is moving away from massive collisions to more of a focus on tackle efficiency behind the gain line. Clearly big men and still favoured, but Defensively we must get up early and put the man down quickly. If we deny the Carrier the advantage line and allow zero post-contact metres, this denies the Attacker front foot ball. Then they can’t get ruckspeed and so must plod-play or kick.
- Secondly, in attack, it’s all about ruckspeed ruckspeed ruckspeed. Carriers with deep support (not wide support) on a smart line sets the scene for accurate & effective Cleaning. That, along with the early calling by the Distributor, will all combine to give the No9 a ‘clean plate to clear’.
Thus, we keep possession and are back playing again before they can realign. Simples eh?
Nutta’s Team of the Tourney (wrap-up)
Part of me contemplated using the 4th weeks matches in the mix, but that would not be a consistent approach. So I kept it as it was, comparing the 3wks results. But I also took a bit more of a liberal ‘authors licence’ in pulling together a slightly alternate team based on how I feel they would fit together as a comparison.
So without further ado…
Nutta’s Selections
Kwik Komments:
- Whitelock played a game for the ages on the weekend, but as he didn’t play in the tournament proper, he wasn’t up for selection.
- Sam Cane gets the Captains armband, but I’m not overly impressed by any No7 right now.
- Cinti also played a cracker on Saturday, but it was out of selection window. So 13 had to go to Luke Am given he was the best 13 of the Tourny after Sticky was hurt.
- I think Flash Gordon may turn into something quite special. But I still can’t help but feel a pang of frustration and loss about Noah Lolesio.
Chat around the campfires:
Banner pic – a fantastic moment when Quirindi Lions mother and daughter combination of Erin and Georgia Moore took the field together in their 29-25 win over Scone.
Plus their were lots of country rugby finals were being played last weekend. In two competitions that I know of:
- Southern Inland Preliminary Finals – Wagga Waratahs defeated Wagga Ag College 23-12 in the 1st Grade fixture, which means Tahs meet the old foe Wagga City in the Grand Final this coming Saturday (go Tahs!). Wagga City will meet Tumut Bulls in the Reserve Grade Grand Final while Griffith will meet Waratahs in the Women’s GF and the Hay Cutters will meet Wagga City in the 3rd Grade GF. So in all of that, well done City with three teams making the Big Show but good luck to all.
- South Coast & Monaro competition – Hall Bushrangers defeated ADFA 12-5, Jindabyne Bushpigs defeated Bungendore Mudchooks 34-12 and the Crookwell Dogs knocked over the Taralga Tigers 29-17. All that means is that next weekend, Jindabyne Bushpigs play ADFA at Jindabyne and the Crookwell Dogs will face Hall Bushrangers at Crookwell, with the winners of each going through to the Grand Final the following weekend.
- Play hard all. Run straight. Tackle brave. And fill your boots for the honour of your town & folk.
A big shout-out to the Orange Emu’s ladies last weekend who offered players and matched numbers with the struggling Forbes Platypi ladies to make a match out of the circumstances.
Plus I know the Gulargambone Galahs Old Boys (the Galoots?) played out a poetic draw against the Dubbo Rhino Old Boys out at Gilgandra.
A late edit upcoming event for those in the Sydney Inner West area on Wednesday 16th August:
And lastly for this week, with great sadness I acknowledge the death of 5yr old Alfie Darby of Dural Rugby last week. The wee man was with family at a juniors rugby day in Collaroy, on Sydney’s northern beaches last Sunday, when he wandered off and was struck by a car. It’s just so bloody sad and heartfelt condolences to any and all touched by this tragedy.
Go fund me: https://gofund.me/4859150f
Have a rippa rita day Comrades and feel free to comment below…
