Analysis: How Manu Tuilagi did his damage at set-piece against Ireland
England 57 – Ireland 15
“We just want to see different ways of playing, we want to see a passing game, we were tight against Wales and as you saw last week in a test between two top teams there were no line breaks. We want to do that this weekend” – Eddie Jones – Pre Ireland on the Ford-Farrell axis.
As was evident, Jones definitely got his wish.
Whilst Ireland were obviously in a different stage of their preparation as their improvement against Wales showed, it’s obvious that England did a lot of things right.
As an England fan, the exciting part is that England can get so much better. This performance, as good as it was, was tainted with the unfamiliarity of combinations and game time in open play. With the improvements that you will see, their performance could get quite scary.
A couple of weeks ago there was an article detailing the England playmaking dynamics at 10-12/10-15. This game showed the benefits of the Ford-Farrell-Tuilagi combination quite brilliantly. Manu Tuilagi’s positioning at 13 was inspired. Stripped of the playmaking responsibilities he donned at 12, he got back to what he was good at. Hard, direct running outside of two very gifted playmakers. The work of George Ford and Owen Farrell, with assistance from Elliot Daly, combined with his angles of running perfectly. Resulting in him carrying against a thinner, compromised defensive line, leading to a more effective carry.
This comprises the first article in a mini-series! In this article, we’ll look at the effects of Tuilagi at 13 and how he combines in set-piece, while the second will show you in part two how the dynamic works in open play.
Off set-piece
England’s use of Manu Tuilagi and Joe Cokanasinga off set-piece harkens back to Eddie Jones’ days and philosophies as technical advisor to the Springboks in 2007.
Jones is very keen to establish trends in the attack off set-piece. His teams will in fact run one option within a play multiple times to ‘train’ the defence to hold for that option, or run it terrifyingly well once, before utilising the multiple options in the play to then strike at the weak points created by this commitment.
As such, we can see certain plays that England have generated and how they use this principle to enhance their other options.
Scissors
The very first move a young player will usually learn, we see the work here of Ford and Farrell on the inside. The two passes start the change from ‘Rush D’ to ‘Drift’ defence, with Farrell doing brilliantly to help it along.
He crabs across, helping Carty start his drift, whilst his motion on the pass is wonderful. Feinting a pass to Daly, he passes directly towards his line, revealing Tuilagi striking from a shielding position and again, from depth.
Tuilagi’s speed plus the crispness and deception of delivery means Tuilagi makes a run against the inside shoulder of Carty, smashing through and making considerable gainline.
Pacific Wave
This play makes use of the sheer reputation that these guys have.
We see Tuilagi and Cokanasiga, both running full steam at the opposition with Daly behind as the slice option. The move starts with Ford running to the line to buy as much space for these two as possible.
Note that with the time they get and alignment, that a pass to Cokanasiga at the line could’ve sent him through. Whilst Tuilagi is the carrier, we can understand, how the threat of these two ball carriers, will force a defence to commit.
The scramble of the Irish inside defence shows how wary they are of this setup.
The next time they run this is from a very similar position. England knows that Ireland will be wary of the crash option now having endured it in the first half.
As such, they go for the slice option in Daly, who makes a lot of ground on the outside.
One incredibly nice touch in the work of George Ford is his line. Rather than run straight, he runs at a slight angle, so he arrives at the defensive line right next to Tuilagi, giving a better chance of attracting Tuilagi’s defender for greater gainline.
This is a key reason why the Irish scrumhalf sprints over to assist in the defence. Not only that, the pass to Cokanasiga, and the tunnel pass to Daly is also made easier.
Fijian Slice
This is a slice move, where you’ll have one decoy runner taking a hard line with an option running behind known as the ‘Screen’ option or ‘Slice’.
Very basic, yet in this case, the Irish defence is put in the worst possible scenario.
You have both Cokanasiga and Tuilagi involved in this move, the difference between the two being the distribution and channels targeted.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B1-o4ewAHMV/
Tuilagi receives the second pass from Ford, meaning he targets the 10-12 channel and draws in Aki, historically a very nice channel to hit for an attacker.
On the second time the concept is used, Cokanasiga receives the third pass from Farrell out the back with Tuilagi’s angle targeting the 12-13 channel which draws in Ringrose.
With the flatness of the pass and delivery from Farrell, Cokanasinga runs into a huge amount of space, scoring the try.
This combo is derived from Jones desire to establish ‘power points’, where any two of Vunipola, Cokanasinga, Tuilagi or England’s power runners combine in their lines.
In this example, the Vunipola brothers combine to form the point. We see Tuilagi and Billy Vunipola often combine in the same pod.
Designed to sow confusion in the defensive line, they have proven very effective at constricting the opposition around this point, opening up space outside.
Alternatively, the defence can number up on a player too much, allowing the other carrier a run at weak shoulders. In the above stills, Billy Vunipola combined with Tuilagi to compress the short side and bring the winger up, allowing the kick chase for the try.
The first Pacific wave with Tuilagi and Cokanasinga is another perfect example.
With this in mind, you can see how the flat play off 9 espoused by England will be effective, with the possibility that pop passes between the men in the power points may also have been developed.
In the next article, we will discuss the Tuilagi at 13 dynamic in open play, and how it can be so effective.
Rugby World Cup city guide – Oita:
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments