Better Rugby Rules

Jimmy Cowan, stood up !

ABs: What’s was good…

Firstly, the tight five won the man of the match, second, Cowan and Carter with there much smarter tactical performance, third, Richie McCaws workload, fourth, Woodcock, fifth, Woodcock, sixth, Ali Williams one man show at the kick off, seventh, The ‘Badger’ Hore.

ABs: What’s was not so good…

The best backline performance has to go to the Wallabies, for the perfect execution of the backline move to score a try after a lineout. The ABs backline for many years has lacked a triple AAA rating, well ever since Wayne Smith has been in charge. Hanson turned the forwards around, yet Smith lacks the nous on how to this for the backs. Henry has lacked the nous to see it. Deans is getting the Aussie backline up to the AAA rating, they scored a brilliant try with very ittle possession and a forward pack going backwards. Watch out in the future.

ABs: What’s really stupid…

The Henry mob put the whole bench on the park with 10 minutes to go, and in some cases with 2 minutes to go. Substitutions that do not add value are just stupid. Changing a non injured hooker or half back is just asking for kick up the jacksee, and that’s exactly what happened when the ABs lost to the Boks in the last 10 minutes a month ago (see here All Blacks(28) vs Springboks(30): ABs do a Veitch !). Sure this time the ABs were up 19 points in the last 10 minutes, but if you want to destroy a young man playing confidence, just put on the field infront of all his country men to see him make silly mistakes due to the fact that he has come on cold into a cauldron of pressure rugby. The front line players need the time in their combinations more so than young players needing 10 minutes of useless experience at the end of the game. This is one of the reasons why have been losing the tight games, as the playing combinations are changed so much no body knows whats going on when the intense pressure is on.

Henry’s mob still does not get it, Deans substitutions was much smarter than ours. If a young player needs experience put him the New Zealand A squad or Maori’s, not the last 10 minutes of critical test match.

 Also number 8’s and locks should not be kicking for the corners, there are few Zinnys out there, and they should leave this task to those with more accuracy at it.

ABs: Have a crack, other teams will try and widen..

Losing to the Boks and Aussie have highlighted the ABs cracks: poor tactics and bad player selection, poor substitution execution, poor attacking back play and mindless running is still in the ABs game.

Tactics…

With all the deep thinking and video analysis over the years, the Henry coaching mob finally worked out that a good kick is one that either bounces twice or goes out deep in the opposition half. I think John Drake said ‘kick for the seaguls’. Kicking is dangerous as it gives away possession, so if you give away possession you had better gain ground for the offset. The three at the back of the forwards (half back, first and second five) must have one eye on the oppositions back four to see if there out of position for this opportunity. Jimmy Cowan and Dan Carter performed well at this in this test match. The best execution of this tactic so far in all Tri Nations games.

Attacking oppositions lineouts, da, about bloody time. It will be interesting to see how this goes against the might bok lineout!

Flash Back…

I remember the days when Grant Fox played under Grizz, the game went something like this: play conservative point scoring rugby for the first 50 minutes or until the opposition team had to score twice, then allow the team to play the more wide ranging and risky running rugby. The conservative point scoring rugby amounted to Grant Fox consistently kicking for the corners, playing the territory, then the forwards applying intense pressure from the set piece, this was usually followed up by the backs scoring out wide in the corner. THIS TACTIC WON 50 TEST MATCHES IN A ROW ! The longest stretch ever by an international side. Guess what, it will still work today, Henry needs to wake up and learn this!

The above game has a formula: 3 Ps – Possession, Position, Pace.

Note: You don’t need to select players from overseas to do this either Fitzy !

ELVs Review…

No mauls in this game, the new Tri Nation ELVs have killed this tactic, not reduce it, killed it, and that’s not what the ELVs cheerleaders said would happen, they said the maul would still be there, but less frequently, wrong it’s dead. I know that the northen unions are kicking the idea of pulling down a maul for six, so mauls will be back!

Mindless running, we still see the two horizontal league like lines of offensive and defensive, yuk, forwards in the back line is horrible, must be stopped. Allowing forwards in the back line is seeing the removal of traditional back line skills of running angles, looping and dummy runners. Yes it is, slowly but surely!

ELV Force back, notice a lot more (up and under) kicking with little return, yip this will continue. Kicking into the seaguls (space) is allowed, but most of time, it is kick and hope.

I enjoyed the game for the first 60 minutes, then the game fell apart, the ABs put on there B team and cohesion fell out of the side.

Onto to the Boks in Capetown, I wonder if we can hold our game together !