Analysis: How the Exeter Chiefs are revolutionising the wing position
It is often said that Jonah Lomu changed the game in more ways than one. He became the game’s first global superstar in 1995 but also become the first of his kind on the wing, a gigantic 120kg powerhouse that clocked 100 metres in under 11 seconds.
It was the vision of the All Black selectors at the time that foresaw the potential the No.8 could have on the edge. In a bold move, the All Blacks moved the back-rower into the wing position where he had never played before professionally.
It was a mismatch dream as Lomu destroyed opposition wingers physically, who were outmatched by 30 odd kilograms. Lomu became an Icon and power wingers became the new norm, paving the way for the likes of Tuquri, Savea and Nadolo.
In the English Premiership, Exeter Chiefs’ wingers are undergoing their own evolution, albeit with slightly less profile but no less fascination. Jack Nowell and Olly Woodburn play like no other wingers in World Rugby.
X-Wings
Exeter’s wings are being used in ways wingers never have in the modern game – at least not to this extent. Arguably no team has deliberately expanded the role of the wing like Exeter, moving away from a traditional finisher in favour of a roaming gadget man. It has become a multi-position role at the Chiefs – the wingers spend more time off the edge than on it in phase play.
Other wingers may roam, but they are rarely afforded primary playmaking duties. Exeter’s pair are deliberately positioned in attacking play to provide ball playing, requiring far more cerebral decision-making than usual, as well as a superior passing game typically absent with wingers.
They perform like a hybrid first five-eighth/fullback/centre – utilising the skills they have from playing these other positions. They bounce between first receiver and wider roles looking to inject in three-on-two or four-on-three situations. At times, they even link up with each other.
This in itself is remarkable – many wingers end up as wingers due to one-dimensional skillsets. The reverse is true at Exeter, the more versatility you have as a winger the better. The Chiefs system will find ways to maximise it.
With the dissemination of forwards and backs in modern 1-3-3-1 and 2-4-2 structures, wingers at times do find themselves inside forwards with the big men outside on the edge. The Chiefs have taken this to another level, with almost all the players from 10 to 15 interchangeable in phase play.
Screen passing is integral to Exeter’s structure, outside of a basic pod, almost every phase wide through the hands utilises screens to get the ball to the versatile backs. We then see noticeable patterns of play that form when reviewing Exeter’s play.
The Reload-Switch
Exeter’s halfbacks Will Chudley and Nic White are constantly scanning the short side defence line looking for an opportunity to run this pet play – a switch screen pass after a quick reload.
After spreading wide into the 5m channel, play is brought back towards the middle with a simple forward runner off 9. The players involved in the previous ruck attempt to ‘reload’ as quickly on the short side as possible to be available for a switch play.
Woodburn (11) will travel from his sideline to station directly behind the latest ruck. This gives the Exeter winger two options.
If the halfback decides to continue the same way to the open side, Woodburn will run a support line giving his 10 an inside option outlined below.
If the halfback sees an opportunity to play numbers on the short side, Woodburn then becomes the first receiver, receiving the ball behind the decoy runner on a screen pass and attacks the line with a three-on-two opportunity.
This set up is very typical of Exeter play and a perfect example of the quasi-back role that is expected of their wingers. Woodburn is deliberately injected into the play as a ballplayer in the second variation which is generally foreign territory for a winger.
Here we see the same setup from the reverse angle. Woodburn is stationed behind the ruck ready for either option. The forwards on the left short side, however, have not reloaded in time in this instance.
We also see Exeter’s right winger, Jack Nowell (14), positioned as a backdoor option in the middle of the field much like a mid-fielder or fullback.
As we see with the above examples with Jack Nowell (14), the winger works his way to the midfield to be a part of the next open side attacking phase. He can be used as a playmaker, either running the screen or be the recipient of the screen pass out the back.
Nowell injects into the line like a fullback looking to free up his outside men. The fleet-footed winger often uses his elusive running game in this situation, taking advantage of sliding defenders trying to cover the overlap.
Both Nowell and Woodburn find themselves frequently tasked with exploiting numbers on the edges behind screen plays, playing the role that a centre or fullback typically would.
If Exeter stretches too wide towards the touchline, they settle play and repeat the process, teasing the short-side whilst planning another wide raid.
Set-Piece and Defence
The wingers find themselves playing more traditionally in defence, stationing the edges, dropping back to cover kicks and fielding bombs in the air. Woodburn, in particular, is excellent at defusing aerial raids.
During set-piece plays, they may perform various roles but do find themselves with the familiar task of finishing. Woodburn scored two acrobatic tries in the corner against Montpellier on the weekend, going one-on-one with his opposite on the edge after spending most of the match roaming around.
The multi-purpose winger
Exeter’s special duo enables the team to diversify the playmaking duties, spread the key backs across the park in many different variations and work for mismatches.
Yet for all the versatility, the wingers must still possess the necessary skills to play wing traditionally – kick coverage awareness in defence, ability to defuse high balls and athleticism to finish one-on-one chances.
The multi-purpose winger requires a player with a rare skill set and the specific system to match, which Exeter currently have. Nowell has spent time growing up as a fullback and outside centre, while Woodburn also has experience at outside centre. Instead of shelving these skills learned in other positions, Exeter has encouraged the use of them, evolving the wing position in the modern game.
Whether this trend will grow or not remains to be seen, but if Exeter continues their successful run, there will surely be others looking to replicate and find value with the versatile winger.
Comments on RugbyPass
Great insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
1 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
4 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
36 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
5 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
5 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
5 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
36 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to commentsThis 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”?
35 Go to commentsWow, didn’t realise there was such apathy to URC in SA, or by Champions Cup teams. Just read Nick’s article on Crusaders, are Sharks a similar circumstance? I think SA rugby has been far more balanced than NZs, no?
4 Go to commentsBut 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.
36 Go to commentsIt could be coincidental or prescient that the All Blacks most dominant period under Steve Hansen was when the Crusaders had their least successful period under Todd Blackadder and then the positions reversed when Razor took over the Crusaders.
36 Go to commentsDefinitely sound read everybodyexpects immediate results these days, I don't think any team would travel well at all having lost three of the most important game changers in the game,compiled with the massive injury list they are now carrying, good to see a different more in depth perspective of a coaches history.
3 Go to commentsSinckler is a really big loss for English rugby.
2 Go to commentsThanks 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
36 Go to commentsNo way. If you are trying to picture New Zealand rugby with an All Blacks mindset, there have been two factors instrumental to the decline of NZ rugby to date. Those are the horror that the Blues have become and, probably more so, the fixture that the Crusaders became. I don’t think it was healthy to have one team so dominant for so long, both for lack of proper representation of players from outside that environment and on the over reliance on players from within it. If you are another international side, like Ireland for example, sure. You can copy paste something succinct from one level to the next and experience a huge increase in standards, but ultimately you will not be maximizing it, which is what you need to perform to the level the ABs do. Added to that is the apathy that develops in the whole game as a result of one sides dominance. NZ, Super, and Championship rugby should all experience a boom as a result of things balancing out. That said, there is a lot of bad news happening in NZ rugby recently, and I’m not sure the game can be handled well enough here to postpone the always-there feeling of inevitable decline of rugby.
36 Go to commentsNo SA supporter miss Super Rugby - a product that is experiencing significant head wind in ANZ - the competition from rival codes are intense, match attendance figures are at a historical low and the negativity of commentators such as Kirwan and Wilson have accelerated the downward spiral in NZ. After the next RWC in 2027 sponsors will follow Qantas and start leaving in droves.
4 Go to comments