Fewer and fewer players seem to appreciate the value of the sidestep. The penchant these days is to crash into your opponents and recycle. But a last second step can put you into a gap and provide extra distance and the penetration the runner seeks, even if the tackle is made.
Do centres still try to establish if their opponent is a left or right handed tackler? The step to the wrong shoulder often bears dividends.Why do wings come in off their line so early, instead of stretching the defence with pace and then stepping when their marker is committed to the outside. I watch Habana failing to do this all the time.
Who still uses the Russell trick of stepping outside as the pass is about to reach, so often placing Russell outside the tackler before the pass is received. Who dummies and steps.....looks the other way and steps. Drastically stops at full tilt like Campese?
All this deception is largely absent these days. Sure there are a few steppers of note. Williams and actually Hougaard. But mostly stepping these days is a slow motion inside step into the defence....read Olivier, read Barrett.
If you look at the greatest try ever scored it starts with some brilliant Barbarian stepping by Davies. These Welsh guys were magnificent....Cliff Morgan, Davies, Barry John.....the lineage to Shane Williams. But Campese was a genius....so was Paul Johnson the Bok wing.
Alas with space being eliminated by the misguided attempt to avoid set pieces and keep the game flowing. All we get now is crash ball rugby and occasional breakouts, usually from turnovers. Like so many things in life, the art of the sidestep is disappearing.
