Munster – as you’ve probably heard repeatedly on Sky Sports in the last few weeks – kick more than any side in the PRO14.

I haven’t seen any hard figures to substantiate that but let’s assume that it’s correct for the time being. If Munster do kick the ball more often than other sides, why are they doing that? First, we should codify what kicking means in this instance. More often than not, when people talk about kicking (especially in a negative light) they’re usually talking about box kicking and Munster certainly box kick quite a bit. If you have a guy like Conor Murray – who can box kick with ridiculous accuracy and depth – then you’d be foolish not to use that as a strategy but before I look at Munster’s kicking in the PRO14 semi-final qualifier against Edinburgh, let’s have a quick refresher on the concepts behind box kicking as a strategy.

Efficiency and Outcomes

The first layer of box kicking, and by far the most obvious one, is the territory gain you get from a successfully executed one. A box kick – as it’s traditionally defined – looks something like this;

I know you know this, but it’s best to clarify exactly what kind of kicking strategy I’m talking about here and differentiate between a box kick and a “garryowen” as kicked away from the ruck.

As far as efficiency is concerned, a successful box kick is the best way to earn a 15/20m gain when compared with burning carries.

Your ideal box kick will have a high enough re-entry angle that it freezes the target player underneath the ball while your runner chases down, leaps at the target and claims possession 20 odd metres further down the field.

What are the advantages of box kicking when compared to kicking “contestables” elsewhere?

A box kick allows you give your kickers a distinct running advantage against the opposition and creates division between forwards and backs as they reset their defensive line to the point of the kick.

That split second of turning at the gain line gives the chasing side a head start and “bends” the retreating defensive line from the ruck as the faster players outstrip the slower forwards which creates a natural gap for the kick landing to occur.

You can see the “bend” happening here;

That gap is the area of space that Munster are looking to exploit and manipulate. Munster retained the ball in this instance but a box kick doesn’t have to be claimed by the attacking side for it to be a successful example. The second layer of a box kicking strategy is the way that they manipulate the opposition’s shape and behaviour, and how both of those play into your overall attacking strategy.

Look at Edinburgh’s shape in the direct aftermath of Murray’s box kick;

They’re circling around the landing area, which feels like the right thing to do, but it isn’t an optimal strategy for defending box kicks. If Munster reclaim the ball, Edinburgh are in a dangerous alignment post-catch and if Edinburgh claim the ball, they’re in danger of giving away a cheap offside penalty or allowing Munster to hem them in defensively on landing.

Munster, on the other hand, have a shape that is prepared for all eventualities.

Munster advance in a line to surround the landing area and maximise both possible options on this kick. If Munster retain the ball, they have a line of support options in place and if Edinburgh claim the ball, the landing area is stacked defensively in a way that limits Edinburgh’s options post-catch. Munster’s shape is optimal but Edinburgh’s isn’t.

The aftermath of the kick is where Munster will look to manipulate Edinburgh’s behaviour if Munster don’t retain possession or win a knock-on or technical offside penalty and they do this through the shape illustrated above.

Munster’s shape after the kick encourages Edinburgh to attack from a disadvantaged position territorially and forces them to burn carries in an area of the field that doesn’t benefit them. When coaches talk about “playing in the right areas of the pitch” this is what they’re talking about because it plays into two of Munster’s core traits – hurting teams without the ball and attacking through the lineout.

By pressurising Edinburgh in their half of the field like the above, Munster are putting three percentage decisions in front of them.

• 45% Kick the ball back to Munster within a few phases of futile attack and allow us to attack them on transition.
• 45% Kick the ball out of play so Munster can attack through their lineout.
• 10% Go for a high-risk pass option to get around our pressure and open themselves to knock-on errors, turnovers or intercepts.

If Edinburgh pick any of the first two options, they are presenting Munster with a positive outcome, despite Munster not winning the ball.

Remember;

• Munster want teams to try to carry the ball between their own 22 and 10m line so they burn limited energy in parts of the field that don’t hurt us territorially or on the scoreboard.
• Munster want teams to exit so we can build more expansive attacks off our lineout or maul where we can control numbers.
• Munster want teams to try high-risk attacking maneouvers that are low percentage payoff skill and execution wise.

Of course, all of these options are moot if Munster miss tackles or align poorly but all of the above are positive outcomes for Munster even if we don’t win the ball in the air.

With this outcome based theory in mind, I looked at all of Conor Murray’s box kicks against Edinburgh.

Kick #	Approx. Distance Travelled By Kick	Did Munster Retain Possession?	Outcome Post Kick Sequence	Was Result Positive/Negative For Munster?
K1	15m	Yes	5 Phase Munster Attack	Positive
K2	24m	No	4 Phases of Defence. Ball kicked back to Munster	Positive
K3	22m	No	7 Phases of Defence. Pressured exit.	Negative
K4	33m	No	3 Phases of Defence. Penalty Conceded.	Negative
K5	21m	No	2 Phases of Defence. Ball kicked back to Munster.	Positive
K6	25m	No	3 Phases of Defence. Kicked Back to Munster.	Positive
K7	25m	No	Exit beyond 22.	Positive
K8	24m	No	Edinburgh knock on.	Positive
K9	11m	Yes	Munster knock on.	Positive
K10	26m	No	2 Phases of Defence. Edinburgh kick on full.	Positive
K11	23m	No	4 Phases of Defence. Munster won ball back.	Positive
K12	10m	No	2 Phases of Defence. Kicked Back to Munster.	Positive
K13	23m	No	6 Phases of Defence. Edinburgh knock on.	Positive
K14	24m	No	3 Phases of Defence. Kicked Back to Munster.	Positive
K15	22m	No	4 Phases of Defence. Edinburgh kick ball out of touch.	Positive
K16	19m	No	Munster lineout.	Positive

Click on the K-Number to see the box kick.

Of the 16 I measured, all but two had a negative outcome where Munster were in a worse position than when they started or had burnt more energy/territory than we would have liked ideally.

You’ll notice a few things immediately – almost all of Murray’s box kicks are between 19m/25m and an awful lot of them target the 15m “tram” line. The distance regularity is a key part of Munster’s system because there’s no point having a box kick strategy that you can’t drill in training. If you’re kicking 25m≈ in UL, there’s no point in kicking farther than that or below that outside of certain circumstances. The targeting of most of the kicks to the wings is to give Munster two good options without the ball.

The first is to give Munster a big defensive blitz option if we don’t retain the ball.

Ideally, if you’re going to defend, you’d do it with the starting point being a wide ruck. That way you can blitz with the knowledge that it’s going to one side of the pitch (the big openside). The great thing about this is that the opposition, much like Edinburgh here, are so spread out that they’ll either have to go narrow or fling massive passes wide that we can attack and drift onto if necessary and, more likely than not, force them to kick the ball back to us down the middle of the pitch or, ideally, out on the full if they’re outside the 22.

The second option is using the touchline as a lineout generator. It’s easier to just show you what this is, rather than writing it.

Preferred Sequences

In an ideal situation, as our squad currently stands, Munster want to attack the opposition in three different ways. Here’s what I think they are, in a ranked list;

1. Attack through the maul to generate field position and territory.
2. Attack off the top of the lineout in the opposition’s half or from in or around our 10m line.
3. Attack on kick transition or within a few phases of a kick transition.

If we aren’t in a position to generate those positions, we’ll tend to box kick to preserve energy and manipulate the opposition into providing us with the means to attack how we want. Of course, if you box kick as much as Munster do, you need to have a big scrum because chances are you’ll have a lot of them and that scrum is a viable means of turning a knocked on contestable kick (from the opposition or ourselves) into a scrum turnover or a valuable penalty opportunity in the opposition’s half.

Munster’s box kicking is far from “running out of ideas”, as it’s so often referred to. It’s a method for generating ideas by resetting the opposition’s defence, shuttle running their heavy forwards, forcing them to play the game where we want, how we want, pressuring their exits and all in a way that can be ruthlessly drilled pre-game. Ultimately, it’s a game sequence that plays to our strengths – physical defence, reliable, verging on dominant scrummaging, elite offensive and defensive lineout and Conor Murray’s ability to box kick.

It doesn’t always work – and I think we could be a little better when attacking on kick transition in particular – but as an attacking strategy, it’s effective and covers for some of our current weaknesses elsewhere like our ball carrying rotation in the middle of the pitch, our injury-enforced lack of wide heavy hitters and the absence of Tyler Bleyendaal.

When done correctly, it’s an incredibly difficult strategy to defend with reliability.

I’ll be looking at our carrying options in tomorrow’s article.