[su_dropcap style=”flat” size=”4″]Y[/su_dropcap]ou don’t have to do much to keep me happy these days. Food, water, shelter, broadband, Onitsuka Tiger runners and nicely designed and executed lineout strikes are enough to keep me happy this weather, especially as I’m sat looking out the window at sheets of icy rain shooting down outside with the kind of pressure I’d love to have in my shower.
Super Rugby is always a good place to find these strike moves and even though the 15 team tournament has changed completely into two separate Australian and New Zealand tournaments with the advent of the COVID19 era, that has not dulled the attacking variation that we traditionally associate with this brand of rugby.
Super Rugby AU was seen as the scrappier first cousin of Super Rugby Aotearoa last year but I quite liked the quality of rugby I saw in that tournament on the whole. It’ll take a while to fully get into the swing of it again – last weekend was the first official round – but I genuinely think that Australian rugby is on an upward swing on the whole and some of the quality I saw from the Queensland Reds this past weekend hints at what might be to come.
Brad Thorn’s Reds side narrowly missed out on winning the inaugural Super Rugby AU tournament last year after a thrilling comeback against the victorious Brumbies fell short by just five points, despite losing 15-3 at one point in the first half. On the evidence of the weekend, they seem to have started off this year with the same attacking verve and momentum that saw them storm to the final last season.
Their first try had all the hallmarks of the attacking play that they showed last season. Let’s have a look at the full try in action;
Serious suspicion of a forward pass right at the end there, for sure, but this is a really nicely constructed move.
It all starts off with a nicely timed take off the top and a pass out to a three-man arrowhead featuring Harry Wilson as the point with Fraiser McReight and James O’Connor tucked in behind.
This kind of blended pod offers multiple threats – at the point of the pass off #9, Waratahs have to consider the following;
- O’Connor can take this pass and screen off Wilson and McReight to hit Hamish Stewart or Jordan Petaia in the secondary.
- O’Connor can attack around the screen of Wilson and McRight himself.
- Tate McDermott can hit Wilson with either a straight carry or a tip on to McReight as a live option.
The Waratahs’ defensive press off the lineout is a little jaggy. Their hooker, Tom Horton, is leading the charge up to the gainline but he’s a little disconnected from #8 Jack Dempsey on his outside shoulder and #3 Harry Johnson-Holmes on his inside shoulder who’s wasting his energy on a pointless shove on the Reds scrumhalf.
That opens up a cut for Wilson to run back against the grain on which probably wasn’t schemed for but it helps the key part of the Reds design on the next phase. Look at the drift line O’Connor runs after the ball has bypassed him.
Note that he’s always tied to Petaia here too. That drift out motion is enough to sell the Waratahs’ fringe defence on the next play coming to the openside, regardless of whether it’s a crash off #9 or something wider off O’Connor. The carry by Wilson is in the perfect spot too – his weave back against the tackle is another point that encourages the defence to stack the openside of the ruck because the collision point was already narrower than they might have expected.
O’Connor’s momentary drift back open is enough to prevent any of the looser defenders from seeing the scheme.
That springs the trap for the Reds.
O’Connor shoots back against the grain with Petaia lining up on a deep outside “pocket” run in the second layer of the attack. The Reds have left three tight forwards on the blindside against only two free Waratahs defenders and O’Connor will look to split the screen to bring Petaia into the line against them.
O’Connor’s approach to the moment before the pass is of vital importance here. His attacking line has to hold the inside defender (#9 Jake Gordon) for a step before the option line of #5 Seru Uru stalls him for another step.
The first progression has to be “O’Connor might break” and the second progression has to be “O’Connor might pass to Uru”.
That keeps the lane alive for Petaia, who has to really hit the jets to get into position here. If O’Connor can’t hold the inside defender for one progression – say the defender doesn’t buy that the inside cover can contain O’Connor – then he can move onto covering the option runner and then stepping out into the lane we want to keep clean for our strike runner if O’Connor stays on scheme.
O’Connor’s breaking threat is part of the scheme. It can’t work fully as designed without it.
Once O’Connor hits Petaia, the break is on. Petaia’s momentum takes him outside Gordon and opens up a relatively simple across the body offload to Uru, who’s got O’Connor and the hooker Alex Mafi running short ball support lines off him. The ball eventually makes its way back to O’Connor for a second touch and he puts the fullback, Jock Campbell, away for the finish. You can tell this worked almost exactly as the drew it up because of Campbell’s deep support run right as O’Connor passed to Petaia.
This kind of multi-faceted move isn’t based on just one thing but it’s main principles work on deception – showing the opposition one picture with some non-commital movement and then switching to something different when the opposition react as planned.
The design opens up the opportunity for players to back to their skillset at key moments. They aren’t offloading on a whim, they are using a passing motion to runners that they expect to be there. This isn’t magic – this is drilled skills showing up during game scenarios.
