Analysis: The lineout attack inspired by an old school trick play taking over Super Rugby
Each year new trends surface and become wildly adopted as new ideas are proven to be effective. This year, the hottest trend is lineout plays inspired by principles from an old school trick set play, and the team pioneering this type of lineout attack the most is the Crusaders.
The Crusaders’ lineout attack inside the opposition 22 has become a confusing and complex puzzle for the defence to solve, using the same concepts found in ‘The Wall’ – a set-piece play to disguise the true ball carrier.
This play is used from a penalty tap kick, using a line of forwards with their backs turned to the defence forming a wall.
The halfback passes the ball to the wall while a number of players run lines in a multitude of directions around the wall to create confusion and disguise the true recipient.
The Crusaders have adopted the same principles at lineout, using the maul as the perfect tool to ‘hide’ the ball and use the hooker on a slingshot line to bring another running option into play.
The play starts with a two-man stack including the halfback and winger 10 metres behind the lineout. The openside flanker plays halfback at the lineout, selling the maul to the defence.
The maul is formed and the openside Matt Todd (7) peels around to feed a flying hooker, Andrew Makalio (2), coming around the corner. The first man from the stack, Bryn Hall (9) breaks to the blind side to attract attention the other way.
Dane Coles (2) sights Makalio coming around the corner and breaks off the maul to chase, which begins to open up a gap on the inside for the second man in the stack, Manasa Mataele (14).
Mataele throws his arms up in exasperation as he is running into an open hole as Makalio carries wider instead of turning in and committing Coles.
He still has an opportunity to play Mataele with a late offload but it goes astray with an open line begging. Late in the game, they pull the same play out but this time the reserves finish it off.
This time the blind side decoy of Mitch Drummond (21) baits Wes Goosen (14) and a number of Hurricanes’ players to break away to the blind, opening up a two-on-one for Ben Funnell (16) to play George Bridge (11) on the inside against Du’Plessis Kirifi (7).
Kirifi does a great job of covering both options, holding off to make a tackle on Bridge but its too close to the line and Bridge is able to score through contact.
The play succeeded on isolated Kirifi with a two-on-one in short space, as Goosen took the short side bait.
Against the Lions early in the second half, the Crusaders score with the same slingshot play.
Crucial on this occasion is how the tail of the Crusaders lineout collapse in to ‘manufacture’ a maul, with Joe Moody (1) trapping Kwagga Smith to open up the hole. Another Lions forward next to Smith joins willfully at the precise moment the ball is released.
Codie Taylor is steaming around the corner with Bridge in his back pocket and has the edge sealed by Moody, running directly at Elton Jantjies, who has no inside help, in the 10 channel.
Taylor takes the easy option and plays Bridge early who is able to go over unobstructed. By the time Smith is released by Moody, it’s too late. With his hips turned out and falling in the opposite direction, he isn’t going to get there, while the Lions never had the blindside winger in position to defend that channel.
With dynamic athletes like Codie Taylor and Andrew Makalio who possess crafty ball-handling skills, these plays cause untold amounts of problems when they successfully isolate the barnstorming front rowers on little men in the inside backs.
They can either take the contact with the size advantage in an attempt to crash over or use their deft passing to play the winger off the hip. Often space is there to play the pass and bag an easy try.
The Crusaders have shown a variety of plays using the maul as a guise to release runners with the location of the ball hidden behind the congregation of players.
At this lineout, Sevu Reece (14) sets up at the front seemingly as a typical bailout option you often see with halfbacks.
The Crusaders throw to the middle and do in fact set up the rolling maul. Both Codie Taylor (2) and Sevu Reece (14) join at the back while Ere Enari (9) resumes duties in a normal halfback position.
After stalling, Enari breaks to the open side on what looks like a truck and trailer 8-9 type of play. Codie Taylor breaks away with him playing the 8 role, which pulls Brad Weber across.
Reece is the actual ball carrier and breaks off to the blind side which now has 20 metres of width. With the Chiefs pack still in the process of disengaging from the maul, they aren’t aware that he has the ball.
Luckily for the Chiefs, rookie winger Etene Nanai-Seturo isn’t also drawn across with Weber, and is able to defend the blind side space but the Crusaders create an isolated 1-on-1 matchup for Reece.
Nanai-Seturo is up to the task on this occasion, bringing him down in the tackle, but if the Crusaders can find a way to leave another man on the blind side, a 2-on-1 could be a different story.
The Brumbies also came up with a cleverly designed play using similar principles to target the Jaguares down the blind side where a 1-on-1 matchup was created.
Using ‘animation’ around the maul to create confusion and trickery is becoming widely adopted this season in Super Rugby and there is no team that is doing this is effectively or frequently as the Crusaders after refining it over the last couple of seasons.
It’s this type of continual innovation, even with old ideas, that keeps them ahead of everyone else.
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Comments on RugbyPass
Thanks, Nick, not only for this fine article, but for all the others during 6N 2024. I really enjoyed this 2024 tournament, and felt it was one of the best for many years. That final match in Lyons was really good. England were certainly unlucky when that speculative hack by Ramos lead to a French try. It could just so easily have landed in English hand.s, and they score at the other end. I did think though that the French played some great rugby, and some of their driving play in the forwards was just fearsome. I watched Meafou with interest, and he has a good start to his career. It is interesting to compare him with Will Skelton. Lot of similarities, though so far Meafou has not shown any offloading threat. All credit to Borthwick for being prepared to change, and what great result, even if that last game was lost at the death. I feel they are a real chance to cause the AB’s problems this winter/summer. Finally a comment on Ireland. I thought their last game was their worst, and they did not look like the world’s No 2 side at all. What really worries me is that the loss to England was, in my view, down to poor decision making by the coaching group, and ofc Andy Farrell wears that. It was a big mistake to move JGP away from scrum half. Murray should have been the one to go to the wing. And the “finishers” should have been on the field earlier. And this is the second time this has happened. The RWC Qf against the AB’s, and not getting Crowley onto the field was a huge mistake. Finally, finally, watching Italy play was a joy. How wonderful that they are no longer the punchbag of the 6 N.
41 Go to commentsGreat story. Rugby needs new investment in teams like Brussels another pro league in Europe would be great.
1 Go to commentsAlso, looking at the data from last year, it seemed like by far the two biggest predictors of success were (1) kicking more than your opponents, and (2) having a higher rate of line-out wins than your opponents. I haven’t gone through the stats this year with a fine tooth comb, but the increase in kicks per game and the increase in tries from lineouts would suggest that these two metrics are only getting more important. England’s move away from a kick-heavy game to win against Ireland was seen by some as evidence that running rugby is on the rise. Alternatively it could be taken as evidence that if one team kicks more, and the other team wins more lineouts (as England did) a match is bound to be close to a draw.
2 Go to commentsI have been finding it odd that points per 22 entry has become such a talked about stat, given that your points per entry can be driven down by having more entries. These data would seem to confirm that it isn’t a useful metric, or at any rate is less useful than total entries.
2 Go to commentsI think the last two games England have played is some of their best rugby they have played under Borthwick. There has been a lot more attacking instinct and as a reward have created some well worked tries. Ollie Lawrence is a good foil at 12 as he offers the hard direct lines whilst the rest of the backs can play open. As much as it pains me to say but I do hope England keep playing this way. On a side note my favourite try of the weekend was Lorenzo Pani’s for the nice loop play that put him away and his finish was excellent. Thanks as always Nick.
41 Go to commentsMost exciting player on the planet right now, worth the price of a ticket.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith and Ireland live rent free in Safa’s heads. Their comments only triggers because its true. If the Boks had dismantled a 14 man AB’s, then there would be more respect. But they didnt, in fact quite the opposite, the 14 man NZ were clearly better. And the Bok have always been ordinary between RWC’s, thats why their supporters are now ‘only RWC’s matter’. They know thats BS. Its BS to both AB’s and Bok’s due to their history. But now its all the Safas have. Now we’ll hear excuses when they lose “oh we didnt have all our players available, the ABs/France/Eng/Irel were at full strength”, forgetting for a minute that its because of their own dumb policy. Oh well, makes a change from blaming ‘cheating refs’.
23 Go to commentsNo Nick, they did not, in fact, justify any ‘probables’ label. At no time did they seriously compete for the championship. Ireland led from start to finish and in the end, as a result of glaring referee errors, were never under serious pressure to lose their crown.
41 Go to commentsMoney for him, and his family, has been the sole motivator since he signed for Queensland aged 17. Why else sign for Melbourne. Tupou is poorly advised. If he’d stayed and developed in NZ he would have had a long Test career. If Leinster offer him a few more coins than he’s currently earning, he’s goneburger.
4 Go to commentsFinn. No one would say Ford had played well up until the last game. One standout performance in 5 is hardly in form . It should be a given that a 10 will control play . Not in Fords case be praised for suddenly doing so. Where was he against Scotland ,Italy. The pundits were saying how far away from play he was standing and one even said that the Ireland game was his last chance saloon to perform . Not exactly top form catching anyones eye. If he can play like this game after game then great. Keep him in . But after 90 odd caps we all know he just doesnt keep it going . By all means keep him there but the issue is that Borthwick will persist even when he plays poorly. Which is more often than not. Thats why i am concerned that Smith ,despite fab form , cannot get a game at his preferred spot. Can you imagine Ford at full back .
5 Go to commentsI do not really get why put Ollivon at 6 when he’s a 7, while Cros was the best Frenchman of the tournament, playing at…6. His only game replacing Aldritt at 8 doesn’t change much in terms of his impact. Lamaro was also outstanding in that brilliant Italian side, probably better than Reffell. So putting 2 Welsh players from the wooden spoon holders, and none of the 4th nation (Scotland) is also strange. Is it about showing that in this harsh transition Wales is, there were some standouts…?
6 Go to commentsThe events at this year’s six nations should undermine many of the arguments made against promotion and relegation between the six nations and the REC. If Italy had been allowed to yo-yo between divisions it conceivably could have really hurt their development, but if Italy, Wales, and Scotland are all at risk of relegation, with none of them being relegated more often than once every 3 or 4 years, you’d have to back all of them to muddle on through it, especially when you factor in the likelihood they’ll still be guaranteed world league matches against tier 1 opponents. Another way of looking at italys resurgence would be to say that the development model of adding an extra team to the six nations has worked, and now must be done again. Georgia could join to make it a 7 team round robin, and if and when Georgia demonstrate an ability to consistently win games, Portugal can also be added to make it an 8 team 2 conference competition. Frankly at this point I think it falls to world rugby to demand that the 6N act in the interests of the game. If the 6N won’t commit to expansion then the 6N teams should be handicapped in world cup draws (i.e. world cup seedings would not be based on their ranking points, but on their ranking points minus a 5 point penalty).
6 Go to commentsSteve Borthwick deserves credit for releasing the shackles on his England side and letting them play in a manner that somewhat resembles the top sides in the Gallagher Premiership. Will they revert to type in New Zealand in July.?
41 Go to commentsJames Lowe wouldn't get in any other 6N team. He's a great example of Farrell’s brilliance, and the Irish system. He is slow. His footwork is poor. But he fits perfectly in that Irish system, and has a superb impact. But put him in another team, and he'll look bang average.
6 Go to commentsCrusaders reached their heights through recruitment of North Island players, often leaving those NI teams bereft of key players. Example: Scott Barrett and Sam Whitelock robbed the Canes of their lineout and AB locks. For years the Canes have struggled at lock. This rabid recruitment was iniated by rule changes by a Crusader dominated NZR Head Office. Now this aggressive recruitment has back-fired, going after young inside back Hamilton Boys stars. They now have 4 Chiefs region 10s and not one with the requisite experience at Super level. Problems of their own making!
2 Go to commentsOver rated for a long time…exposed at scrum time too.
4 Go to comments“Firing me” should have been Gatland’s answer.
2 Go to commentsFinn Russell logic: “World” = 4 countries. Ireland may be at or near the top. FR’s bigger concern should be he and his fellow Scots (incl. the Bloemfontein ones) sliding back down to below top 10
42 Go to commentsMind games have begun. Ireland learned their lesson after saying they could beat England with 13 players or whatever. Still, if they win at Loftus, that would be impressive - final frontier etc.
58 Go to comments$950k for a Prop that isn’t fit enough to play 10 mins of rugby? Surely there is someone better to replace Big Mike with
4 Go to comments