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 NZ Rugby World column, February - March 2005
We finished the year on a high with the All Blacks taking the French apart at Stade de France. It struck me that the two teams were playing completely different games. The French were playing classical Rugby Union with backs aligned deeply, running onto the ball, creating space out wide after four or five forward phases. The All Blacks were attacking vertically in straight lines, committing the tackle, off-loading the ball into gaps adjacent to the tackle area. Not dissimilar from the angles and techniques practiced in top class Rugby League. As 2004 came to a close the top three rugby nations were New Zealand, Australia and England. All nations with strong League cultures and nations with increasingly close contact to coaches and players in their domestic League codes. The codes are becoming closer and closer with essentially only line-outs, contested scrums and kicking ability now separating the two. |
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Over the past four or five years Rugby League coaches have gained employment all over the Rugby Union world for their defensive expertise. Now the emphasis has switched to attack. Sharper lines of running, more spatial awareness, less rehearsed moves and earlier instinctive attack from phase one or two is the best way to break down the highly prepared defensive screens found in top level Rugby. And that’s what we’re now eager to pick up from the Leaguies. |
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The UKexperiment is an intriguing one with the Leeds Rhinos and the English National Team coming together for a League oriented game not involving full contact. Smith held similar sessions with the ACT Brumbies when he was coaching the Parramatta Eels and maybe should be given credit for some of the amazing dummy runner and off-load skills the Brumbies showed in last year’s Super 12. The game itself was held behind closed doors but a leak from an observant school-boy said that Leeds won! No scrums, no line-outs – just lots of straight line running and rapid off-loading at tackle time. Don’t talk about Wilkinson or Hodgson. I reckon the Rhino’s Danny McGuire is the best first five in the UK And just to complete the picture the session was overlooked by Malcolm Phillips, a centre I played against almost 40 years ago, John Spencer who I played against 35 years ago and Simon Halliday, the exBath and England centre. All three were bastions of the English establishment and in my day would have been banned for life had they ever stepped foot at Leeds Rhinos. Now they’re there learning! |
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In the global world in which we live, competitive advantages get swallowed up in less than 100 days. Our brilliant coaching innovation in the past would have led to five or six years of victory and supremacy; now with microscopic video scrutiny competitive coaches can break down all our innovation and, if they’re smart, can immediately dream up their own counters and their own innovations. I’m sure Robinson’s Leeds initiative was inspired by England’s pedestrian lateral running into people in the Fall internationals, and turned into action by repeated study of the AB’s sublime Stade de France performance. |
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Whether the English will be able to match us in this area will depend on whether they can forfeit some power, discipline and rigour and pick players with flair and instinct. New Zealandhas an ingrained advantage in that our players are born with more flair, ingenuity and instinct than the average six foot eight English lock forward. Over the past decade or so England has become a power through force of numbers, detailed preparation, massive commitment and total physical discipline. They have played the game their way and we have at times been out-muscled and out-powered. Graham Henry and his coaching team have now developed a game that we are best suited for physically and mentally. A game that requires dexterity, quick hands, feet and minds, constant support play, the subjugation of individual ego, agility, intuition and unorthodoxy. In the Northern Hemisphere speed, free expression, and risk have been eliminated from the game. In New Zealandthat has never been the case and we now have the perfect match of our innate skills with a game-plan perfectly suited to us. If we can continue to build on this thinking and continue to innovate in terms of preparation, health, well-being, and training techniques then our advantage will remain. League training sessions are different to the typical Rugby Union session. They are much shorter, they are much more focussed on running, passing and skill development, and they involve relatively little contact. This is a great model for Uniongiven the number of games we have to play and the number of injuries incurred or aggravated during training contact sessions. |
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