[su_dropcap style=”flat” size=”4″]T[/su_dropcap]he battle between tactical kickers and backfield defenders is one of deception, misdirection and intuition. Wingers and midfielders spend a lot of time working out the body language and kicking tendencies of opposition kickers to get that extra metre of space and time. The stakes are high. If you get your timing wrong, a good tactical kicker can drill the ball over your head and force a defensive lineout. Under the proposed 50/22 rule, those stakes become higher still because any inaccuracy at the edge and backfield could lead directly to an opposition lineout deep in your 22.

There was a fantastic example of all these principles during the weekend’s Blues v Highlanders game in Super Rugby Aotearoa.

First, the build-up to the moment itself – a Blues scrum just inside the Highlander’s half.

Pretty rudimentary, you’d have thought but there’s a big problem brewing for the Highlanders – they’ve over chased this ruck.

There are fourteen Highlander defenders on the primary defensive inside 50m of lateral space. That means there’s only one defender patrolling the entire backfield. Mark Telea, the Blues winger, spotted this relatively early and is screaming his comms infield as the ruck recycles.

At this point, we look to the Highlanders’ edge defender, Jona Nareki and try to get an idea of the picture that he’s seeing.

At this point, you’d expect your edge defender to drop back into a secondary position, halfway between the primary line and the backfield to hedge against a kick option but Nareki has a dilemma. If he drops into the secondary line, he’ll be leaving the entire Highlander front five defending 30+ metres of edge space with Telea and Akira Ioane lurking in the wide channel and live carrying threats off #10.

In the aftermath of the scrum, the Highlanders front five have unspooled

In that moment, Nareki has to consider the possibility of the Blues putting the ball through the hands and exposing his edge with three front rows guarding the space.

When you see the Highlanders’ second five Sio Tomkinson racing across the line from the ruck, it’s an attempt to rebalance that side of the field.

Nareki has just a few seconds to make a decision based on what he sees infield, and when he checks it really does look like the Blues are going to either hit up off #9 or look for some wider action off Otere Black at #10.

But the Blues had other plans.

The pod off #9 splits to open a clean passing lane from Sam Nock to Otere Black and the Blues’ first five drove the ball deep into the Highlander’s 22.

Under 50/22, this would be an attacking lineout to the Blues.

It raises an interesting look at what attacking opportunities the 50/22 rule would raise in the aftermath of the set-piece. Not every team will unspool their front five to the edge of the defensive line like the Highlanders but it does put new positional pressure on the phases directly after a scrum or lineout in between the 10m lines. How quickly does the back three have to dip back into the secondary or backfield? What is your defensive realignment post-scrum or lineout and what kind of mobility is expected from the front five when it comes to defensive positioning on phase two or three?

It’ll be interesting to see how the Australian Super Rugby franchises react when their tournament with 50/22 rules kicks off in a few weeks.