Rugby fans must move with the times
17 Oct 2012
JON CARDINELLI writes that supporters and reporters pushing for an out-and-out attacking philosophy have zero appreciation for the current laws and trends.
You cannot go to a Stormers or Western Province press conference nowadays without hearing the same questions being asked. ‘When is the ball going to get to the wings? Why aren’t we playing rugby like the great Province team of the 1980s?’
Allister Coetzee had fewer grey hairs when he first started as head coach. Every week since he’s had to listen to ignorant and misinformed reporters whining about running rugby. He’s also had to endure criticism and accusations that the Cape side play a boring brand.
Springbok and WP captain Jean de Villiers looked exhausted when he faced the media last week, and perhaps that’s what caused him to forget protocol when answering this question for the umpteenth time.
De Villiers pointed to the Super Rugby competition as an example, where the Stormers had finished top of the 16-team league. Why, De Villiers asked, would they change a game plan that allowed them to win the South African conference? Indeed, it was just a week or so before De Villiers’s return that an experimental and more attacking approach had cost WP in a Currie Cup match.
The Stormers and WP are not the only teams to be criticised in this manner.
Bok coach Heyneke Meyer’s game plan is considered by many to be overly conservative. I’ve watched Meyer closely when he’s been asked about the game plan, I’ve seen him roll his eyes. The reporters have asked him, they’ve begged him, to change tact. Why oh why, they pleaded, couldn’t the Boks play attacking rugby like the All Blacks?
These people haven’t got a clue.
The All Blacks won all six of their Rugby Championship matches, and it was before that final match at Soccer City when Meyer made special mention of the New Zealanders’ defence. Their record in this year’s tournament will show that they’re the best defensive side by some distance, having conceded just six tries. After the game at the Calabash, Meyer again paid tribute to that defence, as well as the game management of flyhalf Dan Carter.
The All Blacks may be the finest attacking team on the planet, but their defence and kicking game has been the bedrock of their success. This has allowed them to win the 2011 World Cup, as well as the 2012 Rugby Championship, and has put them into a position to break the record for the most consecutive Test victories.
The All Blacks conceded one try per game in the Rugby Championship. The tournament average was 1.83. It’s clear the All Blacks were a cut above in this department, but when you compare this stat to the averages of lesser competitions, it confirms that defences are harder to crack at the elite level.
The defence may be weaker as you drop down the tiers of competition, but the common denominator is that the best defensive teams in the respective tournaments either go on to top the log or win a trophy. It wasn’t a surprise to see the best defensive teams finishing in the top six of the Super Rugby league. The round robin phase of the Currie Cup recently concluded, and wouldn’t you know it, the teams with the best defensive records have advanced to the play-offs.
One level down, and it is the Eastern Province Kings who have topped the First Division log, their unbeaten record closely correlated with defensive stats that read 27 tries conceded in 14 matches, 19 tries fewer than the second-placed Pumas.
Coincidence? I think not.
What rugby supporters need to understand is that the current law set prescribes an outstanding defence and kicking game as the key ingredients to any title surge. There may be instances where a team doesn’t execute effectively on the day, as has been the case for a few Cape teams over the past few seasons, but that doesn’t mean that the game plan is at fault.
The fact that teams like the All Blacks and the Sharks have enjoyed such try-scoring success shouldn’t detract from their defensive strengths. The Sharks started to come right towards the end of the Super Rugby competition when they embraced a balanced approach (they altered their previous strategy which had placed too much emphasis on attack). In the 2012 Currie Cup, they have finished the league in first place, having scored the most tries and conceded the fewest.
If you can wrap your head around these trends, you will realise why the Bok game plan is not flawed. I’m not saying the Boks are exempt from criticism, but rather that they should be judged and scrutinised within this framework.
Does Meyer have the right personnel for this game plan? Are the players executing the game plan efficiently? These are the questions the intelligent rugby supporter should be asking, not when the Boks, WP or the Bulls are going to start running the ball from their own tryline.
If you don’t like the way the game is played nowadays, by all means channel your aggression into a strongly worded letter to the IRB. The world’s coaches and players develop their game plans according to the laws. If the rules were tweaked so that the breakdown wasn’t such a lottery, perhaps more teams would take more attacking risks in their own half. There would be less kicking and more running.
For now, that remains a pipe dream. As long as the rules remain as is, teams will continue to place an emphasis on kicking and defence. It’s something that rugby fans must learn to accept: that there are no prizes for losing beautifully.
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270 Comments
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17 Oct 2012, 23:46 pm
@daydreamer-250: I agree Daydreamer. The NZ Super teams that have had a Lions like approach to rugby, run it from everywhere, have done badly in the Super comp over the last 10 years – eg the Hurricanes and Chiefs sides prior to 2012. Our most successful side, the Crusaders, have always had a forward orientated, minimise mistakes style of play. Yes they score plenty of tries, but this is the result of applying pressure through tight defence and playing low error rugby.
The All Blacks have adopted this style since 2010, reducing the number of superstar ball runners in the backline and instead preferring strong defenders and high ball gatherers like Jane and Kahui. Those two guys can of course attack, but it is not the harem skarum stuff that Roks and Sivi preferred.
The Bok’s problem is the opposite of the AB’s in 2009. You have generally been over balanced with safety first players, not enough guys who can defend but who are also good attackers.
Attacking flair is something that a 20yo player either has or doesn’t have. You aren’t going to teach it to them over the next 10 years of a professional rugby career – it’s simply impossible.
On the other hand, defensive ability can be tought over a 10 year career, and indeed most players with great attacking flair become more defensively orientated over time – e.g. Brian O’Driscoll was a weak defender at the start of his career, he is now one of the best.
Therefore I think the Boks MUST invest in players like Lambie, Jordaan and Janjties now, so that in 3 years time they have turned into more complete rugby players. These guys have world class attacking flair which can’t be taught to a crash bash plodder like Taute.
This is a really different POV to many of the Saffa posters on this site. They argue that the existing players can be coached to attack better, e.g. like the AB’s. However, I don’t think this is the case with any of the current line up – what you see is what you get re their attacking skills.
Whereas I have no doubt that players like Lambie, Goosen, Jordaan and Janjties can be taught to be better tacklers, injuries permitting of course.
Just MHO.
18 Oct 2012, 01:36 am
Shut up corporal punishment.
18 Oct 2012, 01:41 am
Posters on other threads suggesting that the boks bring in bakkies and Danie roussow for the eoyt… Bad move. Dinosaurs
18 Oct 2012, 01:59 am
Been reading a Paul Ackford article on Courtney Lawes in The Telegraph. Any Kiwi or Bok lock, including the older brigade like Thorne, Roussouw and Bakkies, are 10 times better than that idiot. Amazingly, the English posters in comments section reckon he’s more talented than Estebeth and Retallick (OK he’s better looking than Retallick, but that isn’t hard), some of the banter:
“I don’t see how either lock has shown themselves better locks than Lawes…”Hilarious. Retallick and Etzabeth are magnificent young players with skills and work-rates way beyond anything Lawes is capable of. Lawes is a Test Match nobody. Another athletic, hard nosed, modern lock, with a list of solid achievements: World Cup, Bledisloe Cup, Rugby Championship, is Sam Whitelock. He’s also younger than Lawes–and he doesn’t go round taking cheap shots at prone players or bashing halfbacks who have their backs turned
18 Oct 2012, 01:59 am
@McAwesome-252: shame you are back, I thought you’d been banned
18 Oct 2012, 02:10 am
@corporal punishment-254:
lol
Yeah the English are like that.
I remember when England found themselves a #10 that was younger than Carter.Big Hit on here saying this guy was faster, better tackler and better at attacking than Carter…..only to fail international rugby all together, just cannot remember his name.
18 Oct 2012, 03:00 am
@Hurricane-256: Was it Cirpriani? Or Goosen?? Lol
I hate English rugby and their supporters, love to see them lose. And I am English!
18 Oct 2012, 03:23 am
@corporal punishment-257:
lol
Yeah seem both have had there over the top reviews.
But it was Cipriani, i recall he had trouble with a few English players, i dont think he was liked that much…probably too full of himself.
But yeah has was the next world beater according to a few.
18 Oct 2012, 04:03 am
@corporal punishment-257:
You are English and you don’t support your side? Hate their supporters?
Jeez dude you are a sorry case, you would never hear a genuine Saffa or Keewee say that, Cape Crusaders excluded………..and you appear to be a rugby lover/kenner??
Whats the story?
18 Oct 2012, 04:13 am
@259 whatever… My family moved to NZ when I was v young when I was in the 70′s. don’t have any personal connection with the uk, and have always found their rugby supporters appallingly arrogant with no justification given how poor their rugby is.
I generally like South African fans, and admire much about South African rugby, although it all gets a bit feral in here on occasion!!
18 Oct 2012, 04:14 am
Sorry, we moved to NZ in the 70′s
18 Oct 2012, 04:46 am
@corporal punishment-260:
Fair enough dude……..yes it gets a bit MMA in here at times but I never take any of it seriously, IMO its all huff, pi ss taking and wind ups…………… a stress reliever as it were
18 Oct 2012, 04:47 am
@corporal punishment-261:
Was gonna say quite agile for an old f uk
18 Oct 2012, 04:48 am
Maybe on occasions some serious, genuine rugby is spoken, but its few and far between…………
18 Oct 2012, 05:31 am
@whatever-263:
Yeah not many 115 year olds can handle a computer like Corporal can.
18 Oct 2012, 05:32 am
@whatever-264:
This is true, take yourself as an example. 20% rugby , 80 % all cr@p.
18 Oct 2012, 05:58 am
That’s generous Hurricane I would have gone for a 90 10 split, good team picked for Brisbane.
18 Oct 2012, 06:16 am
Whatever@264. A laughably hypocritical post.
18 Oct 2012, 21:43 pm
one does not change “tact” you change “tack”
ffs
19 Oct 2012, 13:49 pm
i disagree entirely with the writer of this article blaming the laws for the gmae change.
the laws have nothing to do with it.
a lot of games at newlands have been so boring yet i have seen some brilliant games played under exactly the same laws.
what has changed is that winning has become everything particuarly amongst the professionals who only play for money unlike the past where enjoyment was the first priority.
and in those days we had refs just like to day but who new that they could ref their way without being prescribed from the top what to do.
further there were those refs who applied advantage so well that we did not have a stop start affair.
a backline player was just that and had no forwards who would slow down movements and bash away but let the backs do their job.
we even had refs who could award drops over/under from any angle unlike today when every try is virtually referred to the tmo who have a difficult job .
and i could go on and on.
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