Creating a new attacking game plan isn’t an easy thing to do. It isn’t as easy as “putting a bit of width” on the ball or “offloading”. These are just elements of a grander scheme. It is essentially a practice in changing your who you are and what you do on a rugby pitch.
On Sunday afternoon, Munster struggled pretty badly against Castres in attack and to those watching, the nuance of problems can be lost in the examples. We don’t look at why a ball was turned over, or why a pass didn’t go to hand – the evidence of the incident itself is all that is important and anything deeper can be seen as an “excuse”.
But, like everything, an “excuse” shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. An excuse is, essentially, a reason why a thing has happened and reasons are important.
The Why Of The How
Having watched back this game twice now, the one thing I keep writing down again and again is “insecurity”. I mean, sure, I was writing that word in my dream journal a lot (don’t ask) but also, quite a bit about Munster’s attacking mentality.
Elite attacking rugby always has to be played right on the edge of your comfort level as a player.
When Munster are comfortable, we are carrying the ball like this;
That’s a one out ball to an aggressive carrier and a man on his shoulder waiting to secure the ruck to go again.
This kind of rugby gets a bad rap but if you’ve got the bodies for it, it’s a hugely effective way to play when you need to. The problem is, right now, we don’t have the bodies to do it effectively. And, in a way, playing like this ensures that occasionally you won’t have the bodies for it due to the wear and tear this style of play involves, especially with the amount of action a pro player sees these days.
Ideally, you want three heavy carriers in your pack to play this game effectively. A heavy carrier is a guy that will either get over the gain line every time or will demand two opposition defenders mark him at all times. Currently, we have two fit heavy carriers – Kilcoyne and Stander – with Kleyn/Grobler waiting to fit into that third slot.
Why Are Three Heavy Carriers Important?
When you have three heavy carriers, you can cycle your phases three times in a row and either gain ground three times or force the opposition to pinch in to stop your one out carries which you can then exploit.
The pattern goes like this;
- Carrier 1 carries up the fringe for a one metre+ gain with a cleaner attached.
- Carrier 2 goes one out again with a man on his shoulder to guarantee quick ball.
- Carrier 3 takes the next ball in the same manner and, by this time, Carrier 1 is back in place to either go again or decoy.
When you have this kind of set up, you can play all the expansive rugby you want off third or fourth phase because the space will normally be there to work with. It usually means you keep the ball for multiple phases because the cleaning out pattern is set in stone before the ball leaves the scrumhalf’s hands – lovely job, says you.
This kind of chained carry is a bit of a Munster speciality but these days, it’s very personnel and energy dependent. You can’t play like this every week, is what I’m saying, so that reason as much as any is why Munster have looked to expand our game plan.
I really do think that the approach we’ve taken in the last three weeks has been an augmented version of what I expect our normal plan to be. We’re currently lacking Grobler and Kleyn and, had we both fit then we would certainly be bringing a more familiar style to our A1 games this season. As it is though, both are unavailable and with that comes a necessity to cut our cloth appropriately.
Remember what I said earlier?
Elite attacking rugby always has to be played right on the edge of your comfort level.
Right now, we’re in that odd place where we’re lacking the cohesion and personnel to play the game we’re comfortable with but also trying to change our mentality to adapt to what we’ve been doing in training.
And you can only work out an attacking game plan on the pitch, in a game – everything else is literally a rehearsal. In the same manner that reading Hamlet with the group in a living room is different to opening night at the Opera House, you can never really bring the match day to training and that pressure is where you build experience and muscle memory.
A real game brings out your inherent nature through the pressure that only match day can bring and that’s where you need to meet your discomfort head on. Sometimes that means standing two foot steps closer to the gain line to make sure you stick the defence and move the ball with pace. Sometimes it means standing a foot wider on your carrying route to wait for a pass when normally you’d plough into the ruck behind the carrier. Getting used to that action takes time.
Against Castres, Munster were caught between two stools. On one stool, the need for expansive play and the spacing required. On the other, the comfortable old plan that we can see half working. In the middle, a squad looking to work out the best route to victory with a conflicting idea.
Look here;
Munster make ground with 14 men through the old reliable ball and chain carry. Ideally, we’d have a Kleyn or Grobler lining up for the next narrow phase here before hitting Stander who’s waiting in midfield. Instead, we go wide too soon and this happens;
We can look at Farrell’s pass being inaccurate here, even if he did take the ball to the gain line well but part of me thinks that with that third heavy carrier, we don’t take that option here, even with 14 men. We snatched at this overlap without setting it in place first.
That would be a common theme. As would playing a half expansive, half conservative attacking pattern that left us with the drawbacks of both with the advantages of neither.
A lot of this came from our depth behind the gain line on phase play. This will read like I’m having a shot at both our 10s but it isn’t really. The augmented plan we’re running without that third heavy carrier means than for what we’re trying to do to be effective, our 10s either need to be two steps closer to the gain line or have the pace to make up for standing that far back.
Here’s an example;
Tyler starts two steps back from where I think he should be and, as a result, Castres have an easier defensive job.
Given our set up here, this is where I’d have liked Tyler to be standing;
Anywhere along that green line is where I’d like my 10 to be standing with three forwards and two backs outside him. Tyler’s depth means that he’s too deep to be a concern for Castres so their initial defensive decision is easy – just hit up hard. They can see Tyler a mile away, read all his movements and have ample time to hit the option runners he has. Remember, in attack, depth equals time and time equals good decisions – we want the defence making rushed, bad decisions.
This depth from the gain line was quite apparent during the game;
Tyler’s start position here is, in my opinion, way too deep and he’s just shipping the ball on to Scannell without improving the ball in any way.
And here we’ve a slow reset around the corner, a deep line (not helped by Archer’s positioning, in fairness) and a fairly stiff attempt at a kick through for Sweetnam.
It just looked like a guy who wasn’t fully “right” because he played much flatter to the gain line last season. It’s no surprise then to see him get a scan for a neck issue this week and I hope it’s nothing too serious.
He was far from the only one playing a little too deep though.
Look at this from Scannell as second five;
Billy Holland goes looking for the pass to the deep option but Rory Scannell is too deep behind to take the pass. I get why he’s there; he’s looking at the overlap on the outside edge and wants to get that width to pin the last defender. But he’s just slightly too deep to take the pass from Holland and we end up with a slow phase behind the gain line.
Nervousness
A good attack should feel uncomfortable but until you’re at a point where you can run the lanes necessary, sometimes that can translate into nervousness and nervousness on a rugby field usually means depth from the gain line.
Nerves make you step a bit further back from the gain line than you would when you’re flowing with confidence because you want the extra time that depth gives you to make sure you’re set for what you want to do with the ball, be it a carry or pass.
When you’re getting used to an attacking game plan and all the movements required, that can translate into nervous actions on the pitch.
Like this, for example;
The yellow line is where I’d want my carrying pod here.
“It’s just a few feet forward, what’s the difference?”, I hear you ask.
The difference is that for every inch you’re back from the “discomfort line” your opposition get a little bit faster and hit a little bit harder. Remember – they aren’t slowed by having to catch the ball, so you need to make them question where you’re going and the closer you are to them, the more you can challenge their personal defensive IQ.
In the above image, we’re too far back and it means our carrier gets separated from his carrying pod.
If Mafi’s jackaling wasn’t so lazy here, this would be a penalty the other way. Instead, we luck out and get the decision.
Nervousness also translates into attacking narrowness. You’re a little unsure of your running line, a little unsure of the pass coming from inside so you naturally begin to crab inwards to make the distance shorter – it’s the second easiest action in the game after going too deep.
Here’s an example;
Everything’s a little too tight, a little too deep and a little too narrow. When Zebo takes the ball, everyone who was eyeing him before the ball left the ruck has not had to change their mind about attacking him and, as such, their options are easy – track up and across.
It’s the same here – look at how many Munster players are clustered in one half of the field and out of the game?
This all stems back to a lack of comfort in what we’re trying to do right now – which I don’t think is our A game. We’re going very wide, very soon and I think that’s got a lot to do with our ongoing problem with a lack of a third carrier while Kleyn and Grobler are unavailable.
