Key Elements of Backplay Neglected

I have had a good look at all the games played so far in the competition. It's been a long time since I have watched so much rugby, certainly Super rugby, and a few things stand out for me as weaknesses in our backplay. I have often heard fans and pundits alike bemoan our supposed lack of skills and, to a lesser degree, our coaching. I definitely do not see anything wrong with our skill sets.

Fixing the Defender
One of the biggest flaws in our backlines is the unwillingness to fix their man. I cite the Sharks in particular for this, with their brand of what I term "shuffle ball". Their inability to fix their man simply allows defenders to shift one out and push them into the touchline. We often lose momentum and the ball through this. Going wide too early before you have 'earned the right'.

Decision Making
This is another flaw. Too often we look robotic, repeating the same pattern of play over and over again. If you watch teams like the Blues, Chiefs and Crusaders... they clearly are very aware of what the defence is doing and will react to that. The Bulls game on the weekend had a good example of this. The Blues were just inside the Bulls half, they looked to send the ball wide, they caught the Bull's drift napping with a sharp inside ball that effectively put them inside the Bulls 22. End result two phases later? Try. This decision making goes hand in hand with my next gripe...

Support Play
This is the real killer in my opinion. South African players are far too lateral in their support, and the communication is not always very good either. The key element of 'playing what's in front of you' is giving the ball carrier options. Again, if you look at the kiwi sides, they have perfected the art of triangular running, whereby they take up positions to allow the ball carrier to engage the defender and distribute accordingly, with the support runners reading the situation as well. The Hurricanes did this for their second try, with the trailing support runner able to extend play and allow them to take it wide. Too often our players punch it up or just shufflr the ball wide with no real purpose. This the result of a very shallow level of play that is well managed by modern defences since 1999! The Kiwis give their attack depth and unpredictability.

Attacking Structures
I don't think we can argue that as far as ball-in-hand rugby is concerned, the Aussies lead the way. They were largely responsible for raising the bar on defence, having incorporated defensive structures predominantly from League. The answer to this has been to look back to League to find ways to break down these structures. Unfortunately, our opponents have been far quicker on the up-take than us. A more recent example would be the current England coach who has been very keen on learning fron League to remedy England's backline woes! Back to the point though, one of the answers to this defence dilemma has been to organize three man plays into your attacking structures. The principle behind this is to turn three on three situations into two on one. Alot of this goes back into the support play that I was talking about earlier, with the trailing support being the predominant feature; from a structural standpoint the idea is to eliminate the tradition backline structure of the 10, 12 and 13. It allows sides like New Zealand to create inequalities in the defence in any given situation regardless of the defensive strucure or strength of the defensive line. What makes New Zealand so dangerous is that unlike their Australia counterparts, they perform this more flexible system from broken play very well, as opposed to being reliant on set-plays. And it's here that New Zealand are extremely reliant of the decisive analytical skills of Dan Carter.

There are various other things that I could go into like body positions and the timing and depth of running lines, but I'll leave that for now.

 

 wow Aristocrat, thank you for such in depth analysis! What exactly is your background might I ask? If you are not already a coach of any team, you should be! Looking forward to your next post!

Another thought provoking and knowledgeable post....tx AristoKrat

Nice post Aristocrat, anyone who doesnt know much about rugby would find this very articulate and informative. 

Touch Footy is a game we play here in New Zealand, young or old, whether at rep level or just at social events. I think because of this game a lot of the skills of back line play especially individual ball skills, running lines, decision making, support play, etc become all too natural to a lot of our rep level players in the code of Rugby and League. Hence the reason why our backline attack has been never been a major problem and only needs to be tweaked here and there.  If youre a Rugby Player comming up through the grades, or already play at rep level you can guarantee they play Touch footy outside of Rugby.

Touch Footy you could say is part of the kiwi culture. Not sure about S.A, is touch footy a game that is played there frequently?

Yes there are a range of issues here. The pack providing good go forward ball.  Much easier for backs to look good when pack is in command. We refuse to pick a proper pack.

Fast hands as we saw with that bulle try against the blues. The ability to pass. Kirchner has no clue. The ability to step. Willie must have dumfounded the Brumbies who, like most ,do not expect a SA back to step like that. 

If you dont want  an opposing backline to look good you need to be a voracious tackling side. How many backlines thrived against the Stormers in the last few seasons. They looked as inept as we were!

The wilingness to keep the ball alive. So often our backs go to ground.

The realisation that backs are there to pose an attacking threat. Hence if you have two half backs posing no threat you are creating problems further out as well.

Then as was alluded to the running of smart lines as we used to see with Jean and Jaque. Creative off loads.etc etc etc 

The problem is that we do not have smart coaches. Maybe one should sa y our smart coaches are not involved. Having just lost Rassie to Super 15 rugby we also dont have Mallet, Jake and Venter. 

Neither do we seek to remedy the situation by getting in class foreign coaches. Main need for Boks is a top flight  backline coach and a scrummaging coach. 

We need to sort out the coaching scenario, sort out biased down under refs (vital as today we could be world championsbut for a ref)  and stop any political interference that mitigates against the merit principle.

In brief w eneed to get smart and professional and stop relying of natural attributes to such a large extent.

I am still hoping Meyer will build a sqaud and a coaching team. The Loubscher thing shook me somewhat.

I'm beginning to have second thoughts about Meyer.....just hope that all the talk about harnessing Bulls admin manne is not true.

@Beeno1

True, a dominant pack can get take the pressure off your backline; so to can your backline take the pressure off your pack by putting the ball in front of them! I don't believe Jean has ever been very good ball in hand. Running accurate and creative lines has never been his thing. More of a direct player who takes the ball up and goes to ground, which is a shame given Fourie's immense ability to cut the line. He runs more like an Aussie. With a better inside centre on his inside, namely Frans, our potency increases ten-fold.

Good defence comes down to communication and organization. That was pivotal with the Stormers, and where Fourie was most prominent. Nienaber put great systems in place for virtually every inch of the field. Then of course you have got to make your hits.

In improving our coaching we need to start at he grassroots. Creating a culture for better backplay is a must. Getting rid of false perceptions on size and being ruthless in establishing proper technique in all facets of play for every position are a must.

@HenryNZ09

Interesting point Henry! I never really considered the merits of touch rugby before. We do have touch rugby in SA, I believe with our own variation of the rules etc; however I have no knowledge of it being done at youth level and that may be the issue. I can't comment too much on it though as I know very little about touch rugby at all, much less as it is in SA. Certainly if it is that important in New Zealand then I think it's an avenue we should definitely explore.

@Hakwa

Thanks Hakwa, unfortunately I can laty no claims of being coach material. I did play the game and perhaps my interest in the NFL sparked my interest in the more technical side of the game. Alot of coaches who are technically astute have interests in either the NFL or Rugby League.