Analysis: How the Hurricanes can rejuvenate their 'Air Raid' attack and give the Stormers nightmares again
Fresh off the back of a maiden Super Rugby title and back-to-back final appearances, the Hurricanes came into the 2017 season full of confidence.
They immediately took the Super Rugby competition by storm with a dynamic attack led by Beauden Barrett and his younger brother Jordie, with tries raining down through cross-field kicks as part of the most prolific scoring team in Super Rugby history.
Their 596 points is the most ever in a season, and perhaps the 2017 Hurricanes are the best side to not win the Super Rugby title.
Just as quickly as the cross-field kicks became the hottest trend of 2017, they subsided, and in 2018 were used less and less. The times they were used weren’t finding their mark as much as the year before.
The ‘hot ball’ scenarios off turnovers and long breaks were key to this. The opposition back three often becomes compromised in these situations making it ideal to kick over the top, and this wasn’t happening as much last year, reducing the number of chances to deploy the kick-pass.
Against the Chiefs last Friday night, we can see this is still in the back of Barrett’s mind and part of the Hurricanes identity.
From a midfield scrum, Barrett comes in motion from the open side to attack the blind channel and creates a two-on-one to free Wes Goosen (11) down the left edge.
After the line break, they have the Chiefs back three under pressure and down to two men.
At the very least, they have a one-on-one aerial contest out wide with Jordie Barrett (14) on an isolated Ataata Moeakiola (11), so Barrett (10) decides to chance his arm with the kick-pass, but duffs it with the three iron.
It falls well short of being contestable and the Hurricanes come away with zero points from the entry into Chiefs’ 22. It is likely that teams are more conscious of this scenario in 2019 and won’t have the wingers high in the line all the way up, even after an initial breach.
Another profitable cross-kick scenario the Hurricanes rely on is when the opposition is coming out of an exit situation. This is where Ngani Laumape deliberately makes a beeline for the wing as part of a deliberate plan to get involved from the edge.
If the opposition has a poor exit and the ball is kept in play, often the opposite wing is coming up in kick-chase leaving the space in behind.
Against the Highlanders on the stroke of halftime, the exit kick fails to make touch and Barrett brings it back on the counter.
He immediately spots Richard Buckman (14) pushing up as part of the kick-chase line and drops the ball over the top into the path of Laumape who beats the cover defence to score.
These situation-dependent kicks, either off a quick turnover in attacking position, a poor exit kick or after a decent line break downfield, are still reactionary kick plays.
If the Hurricanes don’t get those scenarios then the chances never materialise to use Barrett’s attacking kicking game.
Set-piece options
When the Hurricanes had Julian Savea and Cory Jane on the wings, the ‘wipers’ kick from set-piece became a calculated risk with good odds. Both were adequate jumping options that had a good chance to win the ‘all-or-nothing’ one-on-one contest.
With Jordie Barrett now playing on the right wing the Hurricanes now have both a kicking and jumping option to work with and can start using the set-piece to cross-kick again.
The next area of growth in the Hurricanes attacking kicking game can come from this area by implementing switch-kick plays using more guise to create more room for the catch.
Beauden Barrett often aligns directly behind a midfield scrum before the play to hedge his bets and keep the defence guessing. Using the threat of TJ Perenara’s running game on the short side we can run a bluff, before bringing it back to Barrett on the open side using this same formation.
Using an 8-9 to break to the blind, the Hurricanes can pull the attention of the opposition halfback, the number 8 and possibly more open side players in this direction.
The winger, Wes Goosen (11) in this instance, can drop underneath Perenara while fullback Chase Tiatia (15) offers an outside option to attract further interest in the blind side raid.
Perenara plays Goosen underneath who passes back across the scrum to Barrett, now drifting to open side who can then pull the trigger on the cross-kick to Jordie Barrett out wide.
If the switch succeeds in getting the defence to start the ‘rolling coverage’ most back threes employ, the window for Barrett’s kick will be even larger as the defending winger on that side will have moved to the middle of the field.
With Jordie Barrett offering a kicking option as well, we can use Beauden Barrett as a decoy and work Jordie into the play as the kicker.
From the same situation but on the opposite side, Beauden Barrett (10) could run an early switch line across to the blind side in anticipation of the 8-9 break that way, drawing the interest of the defence.
After the 8-9 break down the blind, TJ Perenara has Beauden Barrett and Chase Tiatia as options outside him, but again plays the winger underneath.
This time it would be Jordie Barrett (14), our kicker, who can either try a mid-range kick to the open side for the midfielders or attempt a booming long-range kick-pass to the left wing.
These ‘switch kicks’ can be built into the playbook out of existing formations, offering another option for the play callers. If they identify teams where wingers often react early to the break at scrum time, these could be perfect plays to prey on that vulnerability and incorporate the kicking skills of the Barrett boys.
The visiting Stormers wore torn to pieces by the Hurricanes kick-game on their last visit by the high-flying Hurricanes in 2017. The first four tries were scored from the boot, with three from cross-field kicks and another long-range try was sparked by another Barrett cross-kick.
With the Bulls picking apart the Stormers 40-3 in round one this year with tactical kicking, don’t be surprised to see the Hurricanes look for the same formula, and for the ‘Air Raid’ attack to surface again.
Comments on RugbyPass
And the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
2 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
23 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
2 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
21 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
1 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
13 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
21 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
13 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
23 Go to commentsVern challenging this Blues side might be the edge they need to fulfill their potential. Convincing results from strong D and strong carries are hard to argue against.
1 Go to commentsLove seems to add a strong back field defense with speed to close the gap and tackle to his ability to attack, kick and pass (an accurate long pass). This sets him an edge over some of the other names - JRK in particular. Has to be said that Jordan and Stevenson have also been exposed defensively while Love has yet to face test match intensity. Spoilt for choice.
1 Go to commentsHe’s strung together a few strong seasons, I’d like to see him in the ABs and build some depth along with Reiko and ALB. Levi Aumua hasn’t taken the step we hoped to see but time yet.
2 Go to commentsWhere has our good friend Pecos gone!? Similar place to the Crusaders D, the abyss.
4 Go to commentsNice piece Nick. I haven’t seen much of the brumbies this year so will keep my powder dry on charlie, but clearly has the speed and footwork to be damaging in space. Similar to Samu, I’d worry about the size of our pack if the likes of Mcreight and Cale were in the b/row together. Maybe Cale could play a similar finisher role like Samu did for Rennie’s wallabies. Has Cale leapfrogged wilson in your eyes? He obviously has the lineout, but harry probably better (although not great) in the physical stuff and also has great hands in the loose. You’d have to say mcreight and valetini are shoe-ins at 7/8, so the question becomes who matches best with them at 6 and on the bench. I don’t know if he has a high enough ceiling, but id love to see wright given a shot based on how much bad luck he has had with injuries. He may also fit that no-nonsense graft/work rate irish approach…? If schmidt wants size and a 4/6 tweener then I’d probably pick Uru. On the bench I’d have no idea, Wilson if you want to give valetini a rest, and maybe hanigan/wright/uru as 6 replacements.
21 Go to commentsWho the heck is Billy Fulton?
13 Go to commentsCale has all the potential no doubt. So has Harry Wilson except for his dumb arse coach over the last few years who told him just to run at brick walls all the time. Valentini would be devastating at 6. As he was until some idiot thought oh yeah, move our best player to another position. Not mentioning any flightless or thank you names of course. I very much dislike claiming one player is the saviour, because injuries are so prevalent in the game these days as the players are bigger and faster, so the discussion should be who are at least the best two players in one position. For me it’s Harry Wilson and Cale at 8 at the moment with Valentini or Hooper from the Brumbies at 6. Great options. Seru Uru should be in the reserves too. A game changer.
21 Go to commentsScott Barrett is a card waiting to happen, Cane has been out with injury as well as playing in Japan, I think they’ll go with in-Japan-but-still-the-man Savea. Samisoni Taukeaho will be Captain after 2027, so he might get some Captain minutes against an Italy or Japan.
13 Go to comments