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Analysis: How Danny Cipriani found career-best form at Wasps

By Ben Smith
Cipriani Analysis

Wasps have uncovered a magic combination this year with flyhalf Danny Cipriani and Springbok fullback Willie Le Roux.

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The two playmakers compliment each other and both flourish in the Wasps system. One would expect replacing Charles Piutau and Kurtley Beale would disrupt the attacking rhythm but the Wasps attack is firing on all cylinders a month into Cipriani’s return from injury.

The Wasps structure has helped him reach arguably his career-best form – and is a guide on how to maximise his talent.

Offence is defence

The Wasps attack is based on two principles – width and possession – and they adhere to both extremely well.

Holding the ball is paramount with Wasps, very rarely do they kick away possession. They back themselves to work into good field position from anywhere outside their own 22.

Cipriani conducts proceedings from first receiver, receiving a high volume of touches as he maps phases back and forth across the park, deciding when to hit forwards or link with fullback Le Roux.

Wasps often string upwards of twenty phases together – their continuity controls the tempo of the game, slowly wears down the defensive line and most importantly keeps the ball away from the opposition for long stretches.

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It is often said that the best form of defence is offence – the opposition can’t score without the ball. This is certainly true with Wasps – after nearly 20 minutes in the clash against Bath, Wasps had made eight tackles compared to Bath’s 61 and led 19-0 on the scoreboard.

Their phase play is built on quick ball movement and no team uses width like Wasps in the Premiership. Defenses are stretched to the limits as Cipriani and Le Roux shift play with efficient short, medium and long-range passing.

Despite the wide shifts, it seems like there is minimal risk when the ball is going through the hands of these two.

Catch us if you can

Le Roux is almost impossible to shut down on the edges, even a decent rush defence cannot wrap him up with the ball in hand – he is a magician adept at pulling off an ‘escape’ pass seemingly every time.

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Willie Le Roux swivels to launch a double cutout pass despite only just receiving the ball whilst facing enormous pressure.

His finishing prowess with the pass are second to none – he has 13 try assists across European rugby this season, 11 in the Premiership.

What doesn’t show up on the stat sheets is often Cipriani’s involvement in the lead-up work. It is often his late touch and willingness to take it to the line that holds defenders providing space for Le Roux to cash in on the outside.

Cipriani holds up play to create space for Le Roux on the outside.

With Cipriani and Le Roux positioned inside the middle third, all it takes is two passes from the ruck to whip the ball to the fringes where Le Roux has been setting up tries all year.

Wasps play a beautiful, expansive game crafted by the artists Cipriani and Le Roux.

Overload Sweep Plays

The set-piece, in particular, is becoming the masterpiece of their game using a variety of ‘overload sweep’ plays.

Wasps are always looking to attack wide through elaborate backline play. Where teams are now using set piece platforms to reset structure, nearly every set piece by Wasps will involve a wide raid looking for a quick strike.

They incorporate a number of ‘motion’ concepts into their plays – where the key playmakers align in one spot and run in motion a fair distance before receiving the ball at speed wider out, adding an element of deception. Cipriani, in particular, runs a high number of these ‘sweep’ lines.

This ’13 Screen Overload’ play motions Cipriani outside behind the centre on a screen pass.

On this play above, Cipriani (10) will sweep wide behind the centre decoy line, while winger Christian Wade (14) will play first reciever and fed Jimmy Gopparth (12) before Gopparth plays Cipriani behind the screen pass.

Cipriani’s sweep line behind the 13 puts him in a position to attack the edge.

The blind side winger (14 below) will often run another sweep line in an attempt to ‘overload’ the far side to create the numbers mismatch.

Christian Wade (14) joins Cipriani (10) on a sweep run to the outside to ‘overload’ the defence.

When Wasps get it right, the plays are a thing of beauty and almost impossible to stop at the speed at which they are run.

Below is a ‘double screen overload’ with both mid-fielders running decoy lines. Cipriani will receive behind the first screen pass and then dish to Wade on the second screen pass, creating a numbers advantage on the far side.

Wasps ‘Double screen’ overload play. The white line tracks the passes between two screens.
Cipriani frees up Wade (14) on the second screen with a potential overlap to exploit.

Cipriani, who is so skilled at flirting with the line, holds up the defenders and creates an opportunity against the opposite winger who is left to cover an acre of pasture.

Wasps use the same double screen overload play against Saracens to score a crucial try. Wade injects into the backline with devastating effect, setting up Le Roux for the try.

Wasps use the same play against Saracens to score a crucial try on the stroke of halftime.
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Just Reward

The commitment to play attacking rugby is paying off for Wasps, who have had a resurgence in the Premiership of late. They know they can score at any time from set-piece play and points are always around the corner if they control the ball.

In Round 10 against Leicester, Wasps were down late 22-20 before running this overload play to stun the Tigers and take the lead 25-22.

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Leicester hot on attack shortly after opted to take the three and draw things up at 25-all with 12 minutes remaining.

Despite being equal on the scoreboard, the two teams were anything but similar.

Leicester’s attack has been disjointed and out-of-sync all season, despite being in close games, they have struggled to play with anywhere near the same attractiveness, finesse and intent as Wasps.

The Tigers botched a number of set pieces with basic errors in the last 10 minutes, giving Wasps numerous set piece opportunities of their own.

Each play tested Leicester but didn’t quite come off. The last play resulted in 19 phases under Cipriani’s guidance, and a simple short ball from the flyhalf saw Wasps score the game-winner on the buzzer. 

Just reward for playing the game in fine fashion.

Cipriani’s future

The 30-year-old flyhalf is off contract after the season, however, after showing a rich vein of form since returning from a knee injury he should be a valuable pickup by a French club or another Premiership side.

If any side is looking at Cipriani, they must play an attractive brand of pass-heavy, possession-based rugby to get the best of him. He may have lost a yard of pace, but his touch is still sublime.

The more opportunities you give him, the better your return will be as Wasps have shown the blueprint to unlocking the best of Cipriani.

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Jon 6 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 9 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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A
Adrian 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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