[su_dropcap style=”flat” size=”4″]O[/su_dropcap]rbital mechanics are weird in that, sometimes, to overtake an object ahead of you in orbit, you have to slow down and to slow down, you have to accelerate. This is Kepler’s Second Law in action. This law states that objects in orbit around the same planet will sweep out to an equal area in the same period of time. In practice, this means that in a higher orbit, the velocity of an object actually decreases. So if you want to catch up with something ahead of you, you need to cut your thrust because this lowers your orbit, which means you will be travelling faster than the target. If you are ahead of the target, you need to apply thrust to speed up, which will raise your orbit, meaning the rendezvous target will catch up to you as it has a higher relative velocity.

It gets even more complex when you factor time into the equation. If you’re, say, a minute away from the target you’re trying to catch in orbit then intuitive acceleration applies – you speed up to catch it. If you’re an hour away, however, then you need to slow down to catch up.

OK, that’s the pseudo-intellectual intro out of the way, what’s my actual point here?

Defending the backfield and secondary line in rugby can sometimes be as counter-intuitive as the idea of slowing down to catch up with something.

Before we get into the detail of this area of the field, it’s worth putting together a quick glossary on the spaces I’m going to be speaking about as it relates to a winger.

Primary Defensive Line: This is the first line of the defence that is normally defended by between 11 and 14 players depending on where the opposition are attacking. If you’re deep in the opposition half, you’ll often see the primary line defended by 11/12 players with 3/4 defenders in the backfield. If the opposition is camped midway into your 22, you’ll often see the primary line stacked with 14/15 players. The decision for a winger to step up into the primary line from the Secondary or Backfield Coverage position is the most important decision they have to make.

Secondary Defensive Space: This is the gap just behind the primary defensive line that is a transitional space for the winger between the primary line and the defensive space.

Backfield Coverage: This is the area that the opposition wants to get the ball bouncing into, as a general rule, either right up the try line or out over the touchline to squeeze territory. The positioning of the winger has to consistently reference the available space in the backfield and be conscious of any kicking angles that might punish him for over (or under) committing to the position.

I’ve simplified the zones I’m talking about in the below graphic. A lot of your positioning as a winger depends on the position of the previous ruck and the read you’re getting on the kicker and the general flow of the attack but this is a good starter.

You’ll often see wingers sitting in that Secondary Defensive Space as the play flows across the field to cover the possibility of the #10 or another playmaker targeting that backfield area through the boot.

A large part of a winger’s job is reading the movements of players who have an angle to either kick deep or spread the ball wider. Everytime the ball moves, you move.

What we don’t want here, as a winger, is to get caught too near the primary defensive line if the #10 chooses to kick in this circumstance because that will make your route into the backfield on the turn (remember, you’re facing the opposition) a race that will be slightly harder to win against the opponent’s speedsters.

You will always have to stop, plant and accelerate backwards in these circumstances so you have to be intimately aware of your physical limitations as an athlete. If you over-estimate your speed, you will always be out of position. 

Look at Keith Earls in this sequence of play. I’ll note right now that he doesn’t touch the ball or make a tackle once.

As the play starts, Earls lines himself up with the exit kicker so that he’s always onside on the chase back. It’s a small thing but it’s something that is penalised heavily now so any inaccuracy here hands possession to the opposition 10m away from our try line. His initial route off the kick is to choke off the immediate transition kick into the backfield while Ringrose shoots up to the primary line.

From there Earls sits in a deep, Secondary position – almost on the verge of being in the backfield – because Scotland are playing in their half of the field on a transition so Earls is covering the kick deep as a live threat while giving himself space to shoot up if Ringrose missed a tackle or if Scotland chance a short grubber or chip in the edge space.

As the play goes across the field, Earls tracks the ball in the backfield and slots in to cover the central backfield space before tracking the ball across the field with the play to get back to his wing.

In this earlier example, we get a look at how a winger should make positional decisions based on the positioning of scouted opposition playmakers. Once Hogg hits contact in a central position on this long box kick transition, Earls can feel a little safer moving closer to the primary defensive line because of the relative position of Russell and his wider attacking assets.

In this position, Earls read of the Scottish attacking assets informs his positioning at all times. He wants to be close, but not too close. He wants to be rececessed enough from the primary line to win a race to the backfield but not so far back that he leaves workable space at the edges.

These transition sets are usually rewarded by conservative positioning. On this example, Earls knows that when it comes to Russell, in particular, a crossfield kick on the counter attack is a live possibility.

Russell goes for a kick into the secondary defensive space in this example but Earls defends it perfectly.

Chris Harris has more than a few KGs and inches on Earls in the height department but Earls’ decision to stay in the backfield means he can run onto the ball, rather than being frozen in place waiting for it to arrive had he ran up with the flow of the line. If Earls is standing still, Harris takes this ball but because Earls has been conservative and given himself a run up, he can disrupt the landing of the ball.

This balance between keeping your depth from the primary line to cover the backfield and staying in the primary line to support the edge defenders there is a delicate one.

On this example, I think Lowe reacts a little late to Russell’s change of shape after the pass feint given he’s defending both Harris’s line and Maitland’s outside angle on this phase.

I can’t be too harsh on Lowe here because I think is decision to enter the primary line is in direct response to Harris’ angle outside Ringrose and Scotland’s good numbers on the openside of that ruck.

Would a slightly more recessed position on this phase be beneficial?

Sure, you give up a clear line of sight on Russell but this position in the secondary line would give Lowe a straight line onto a narrow collision if Scotland go through the hands and give himself some depth and certainty to deal with the possibility of a kick to Maitland.

When he’s flat on the primary line he’s more comfortable with Harris but he’s giving up the Secondary Defensive Space to Maitland which, in turns, stresses Keenan in the backfield. When he’s recessed, he challenges Russell to make a 20m pass off his right side with Irish bodies in the passing lane.

Lowe gives himself a little too much to do if Russell chooses to kick, in my opinion, because his acceleration to recover isn’t what it needs to be to effectively cover that space. Those parts of the game are sometimes the hardest to come at test level where working harder isn’t automatically working smarter.