Andy Richards
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The Kiwis in particular have always been at the cutting edge.
Also, sports science has pushed the boundaries and taken us to a whole new level of excellence.
Now some coaches are naturals at being innovative – I’m not one of them. I find it much easier to look at all the information available to me, sort the wheat from the chaff and then come up with tactics and ideas that are suited to the player pool that I have available.
One of the sources of information that I like to use, is to look back to the past and see if there are any lessons to be learned from the way the game was played years ago – retro rugby, so to speak.
The intensity and physicality of the battle at the scrum now means that it can be much harder to win clean ball.
The 10-yard gap now between backlines at the scrum makes it even more important for loose heads to attack opposition ball, make the opposing tight head go back and therefore deny any room for the No8 to attack to the right.
To negate this, a modern trend for many teams is to put the ball in as soon as the front rows come together. In years gone by, this was used as a great attacking weapon; especially close to the opposition try line.
I once saw Scotland push England over the try line at Twickenham by putting the ball in and driving as soon as the front rows engaged.
Because Scotland had previously secured ball from the scrum, waiting until after the engagement, the English back row were all hanging off waiting for the No8 drive.
The Scots instead of waiting to put the ball in, did so straightaway and caught the bigger English pack off guard.
We can learn from this by picking and choosing our moments to use a quick put in at the scrum rather than doing it all the time.
If you want to learn lessons from the past about creating space in the back line, then look no further than the Australian backline of the 1980’s. Campese, Lynagh and the Ella brothers had a knack of unbuttoning organized defenses from set piece play by flooding the midfield.
They sometimes stood in two lines, 10, 12 and 13 in the front with 11, 15 and 14 behind them. If the opposition moved to counter this, they simply kicked to the corners making the defense turn and scamper back.
Eventually the opposition would defend with the back three lying deep and that’s when the Aussies would strike; the front three acting as playmakers with the back three coming on through gaps at pace.
Back in the day, attacking the blindside at a scrum was a certain try-scoring opportunity. But these days, there doesn’t seem to be the space. #8s are inclined to go even if the wheel is against them and tend to hold on to the ball too long as well.
Eightmen like Wayne Shelford and Dean Richards simply got a tap from their #9 who ran wide. The pass was given early; the scrumhalf would already be past the blindside flanker and then had a simple two-on-one with the defending winger.
If, like me, you’re not that creative, innovative or good at coming up with new ideas of your own, then really there are many lessons to be learned from the past.
Rugby is still a very simple game and more often than not you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to be successful.
