Analysis: The tactic Japan used at the World Cup that showed how to unlock Rush Defence
South Africa’s high-pressure rush defence became a hallmark of their Rugby World Cup victory. Cutting off the opposition’s outside backs with wingers and centres jamming in, sending Pieter-Steph Du Toit to hunt down decision-makers and letting Faf de Klerk run wild became the foundation of one of the best defences in rugby history.
But it wasn’t just South Africa that has become an amazing defensive side in recent years. The top teams have all gone through periods of sustaining incredible defences that have, for the most part, throttled attacking play.
At the same time, modern play with ball-in-hand has reached a saturation point with attacking phase play more predictable than ever before.
Most patterns outside of multi-phase launches are made to play the same way over and over to thin the edge and teams have been guilty of becoming robotic in the safety of structure.
Defences have cottoned on and are adjusting to the aligned pattern. If you carry off 9 with pods, that is where the line speed will be at its fiercest. If you continually play pods off 10 to the middle then you’ll face similarly fierce resolve.
As the All Blacks found out with their new ‘flush’ pattern to take the ball outside the pressure zone close to the ruck, the rush defence adjusted and started coming up the middle quite quickly in anticipation of the central pod getting the carry from Beauden Barrett or Richie Mo’unga.
Even with the edge stretched, the ball could not reach the space out wide as opposition ‘rolled the dice’ with outside backs shooting up. The predictability of the pattern in part led to its downfall.
Against England in the final twenty minutes of the semi-final was the purest example of this as the All Blacks repeatedly tried to get the ball wide by the same means but continually lost ground.
When building the same way over and over again to thin the edge isn’t working, there needs to be a conscious recognition of that and a further plan to become more concentrated. Attack needs to change on the run, adapt with fluidity as Conor Wilson pointed out.
Ultimately, teams will have to learn to flow between even more styles, more patterns and schemes continually moving toward the complexity of an NFL playbook in order to counteract the evolving defences.
Every set-piece is a chance to change up the operating structure and adapt on the fly, which is going to require increased levels of shared understanding across the team.
One solution to unlock the rush defence that some teams have used sparingly but still offers potential lies in waves of attack becoming narrow, constantly funneling ball carriers back towards the pillar defence of the ruck in ‘Blitzkreig’ fashion, becoming an arrowhead attack that aims to create a weak spot through sustained pressure on the same spot.
If you are trying to break through a brick wall, the best way through is to hammer the same spot over and over until you get a crack – and then keep going until that crack becomes a chasm. You don’t continually move around, hitting different places in the wall.
The pillar defence around the ruck presents the perfect target for repeated waves of attack.
New Zealand has two players that use ‘unconventional’ running lines. Damian McKenzie and Anton Lienert-Brown often look like kids playing under-9 rugby by changing direction and running across the field against the grain away from the pressure – but there’s method to the madness.
Whilst not textbook play, they often unintentionally find the ‘seam’ the pillar defence presents. This ‘seam’ can also be attacked in other ways if you don’t have a player like McKenzie or Lienert-Brown on your team.
When the defensive line presses forward in a staggered fashion, the pillar defence will often be the last to come forward and then push out, chasing the ball leaving space next to the ruck.
This area of the defence is a weak spot and often has players on the ground from both sides that offer opportunities to use as screens.
A defender on the ground cannot make a tackle so there will be extra onus on the players around the ruck to work harder to get up if play is funneled back that way. Forcing those same players to get up, again and again and tiring them out will eventually create cracks.
One of the most under-utilised attacking tools today is the switch pass, cutting back to change direction on the run.
The pillar defence is prime for hitting with deep switch-passes. One of the more interesting plays this year was this deep-switch play by South Africa during the Rugby Championship.
The Springboks have run a miss-2 from the scrum on the left side of the field to set up a wide ruck with centre Luhkanyo Am taking the tackle near the 15-metre tramline, setting the below pre-planned play.
The Springboks run a switch off Handre Pollard with a pod of forwards underneath him heading back towards the ruck.
The All Blacks’ ruck defence is not great to start with, with Matt Todd (7) the only loose forward to get to the ruck from the scrum, stationed behind it.
TJ Perenara (9), the usual sweeper, fills the front line leaving the All Blacks with no second-line defence.
The defence came forward in anticipation of a carry but the switch sends play towards the ‘seam’. We see the staggered pillar defence forming between Perenara-Todd-Ioane.
Ioane came from the opposite side of the ruck to cover and the All Blacks are lucky that he did.
The deep-switch pass to Franco Mostert (5) forces all these defenders to get involved and each man is drawn into contact, with Duane Vermeulen (8) finally brought down with the ball.
Between the final man, Rieko Ioane, who made the tackle on Vermeulen (8), and the next man, Sonny Bill Williams (12), who just got up off the floor, is a wide gap begging for a player with speed like Faf De Klerk (9) or Cheslin Kolbe (14) to take another pass at pace off Vermeulen.
With the halfback sweeper already out of the play, the Springboks could have opened up a huge break and reached the third line of defence with one more pass.
Taking this kind of concept from a set-piece play from the Exeter Chiefs and applying it off a ruck, the halfback can be fed a return ball into this space.
Now imagine that the pillar defender on the opposite side of the ruck was not Rieko Ioane and was a much slower tight five forward, which is often the case. That’s exactly what happened when New Zealand and Wales played off for the bronze medal at the World Cup.
The All Blacks switch play back into the pillar defence off a halfback run to the right side.
Beauden Barrett one-on-one in the hole with prop Dillon Lewis (3) is a mismatch, forcing the next inside defender, loosehead prop Nicky Smith (1), to cover once Lewis is beaten.
Smith (1) is not expecting to be required on the play, taking a short breather on the other side which opens the gap wider for Barrett when Aaron Smith (9) pulls two defenders, Lewis and lock Adam Beard (4), across the ruck with his sniping run.
Defenders on the opposite side of the ruck are used to switching off due to play continually going the same way.
The All Blacks got quick ball from a strong carry in this situation, which could potentially be achieved by running pick-and-go’s to build momentum and weaken the defence around the ruck.
Imagine the attacking side continually running deep switches off 10 or pods back towards the pillars, pick-and-go’s or switches off halfback runs as part of a pistons-attack that continually targets the ruck defence phase-after-phase, going left-right-left and funneling play down the same narrow space.
Using power runners, agile speed athletes and forwards with offloading skills, this kind of funnel attack can wear down the opposition with a concentrated assault until the dam breaks, completely nullifying line speed and turning it against them.
Japan started to use this type of ‘funnel’ attack from set-piece platforms during the World Cup, often bringing wingers in for carries into the ruck pillar defence on phases two and three after a midfield crash ball.
The attacked the same place in the defensive line over and over, achieving gain line wins right down to the goal line before spreading wide and scoring their game-winning try against Ireland.
The key is not to move only into this type of attacking play and become predictable once again, but add it to the arsenal to create multiple methods to switch in and out of during games to counteract what the defence is doing. If teams drastically increase the percentage of switch passes used during phase play, it brings another sense of unpredictability that keeps the defense guessing that is missing.
Aggressive line speed creates seams next to rucks that can be exploited by switch plays but many teams haven’t thought creatively enough about how to do it.
Combined with ‘Funnel’ attacks – concentrated periods of targetted phases at the pillar defence using all the aforementioned methods – could be the counter-balancing attacking evolution to break down ‘brick wall’ defences that some of the best sides have been able to build.
Target that wall in one spot consistently to weaken it and you may see it come crashing down.
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Comments on RugbyPass
Except for the injured Zach Gallagher this would be Saders best forward pack for the season. Blackadder needs to stay at 7, for all of Christies tackling he is not dominant and offers very little else. McNicholfullback is maybe a good option, Fihaki not really upto it, there was a reason Burke played there last year. Maybe Havilli to 2nd five McLeod to wing. Need a strong winger on 1 side to compliment Reece
1 Go to commentsTo me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
33 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
2 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
33 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
49 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
33 Go to commentsOn the title, i wonder for many of those people it is a case something like a belief in working smarter, not harder?
1 Go to commentsForget Sotutu. One of those whose top level is Super Rugby. Id take a punt on Wallace Sititi Finau ahead of Glass body Blackadder.
33 Go to commentsI’m a pensioner so I've been around a bit. My opinion of SBW is he is an elite athlete and a great New Zealander and roll model. He has been to the top and knows what he's talking about. To all the negative comments regarding SBW the typical New Zealand way, cut that tall poppy down.
17 Go to commentsI'm not listening to a guy moralise over others when this is the guy who walked out mid season on Canterbury RLFC when he had a contract with them, what a hypocrite. Those praising him are a joke.
17 Go to commentsI’d put Finau at 6 instead of Blackadder but that’s the only change I’d make. Can’t wait to see who Razor picks.
33 Go to commentsTamati Williams, Codie Taylor, and Same Cane? Not sure about Hoskins Sotutu at test level. Wasn’t that impressive last season. Need a balance between experience and talent/youth.
33 Go to commentsInteresting insight. Fantastic athlete, and a genuine human being.
17 Go to commentsThey played at night in Suva last weekend and it’s an afternoon game forecast for 19 degrees in Canberra this weekend. Heat change is a non issue.
1 Go to commentsWishing Rosie a speedy recovery
1 Go to commentsObscene that SA haven’t been knocking
1 Go to commentsChances of Blackadder being injured seem too high to give him serious consideration. ABs loosie combination finally looked good with 2 committed to tackling and clearing rucks in the centre and Ardie roaming. Hoskins/Ardie together would force one of them into where they don’t excel and don’t get to use their talent, or require a change in tactics. If we continue to evolve last years systems I would take Papali’i and Finau at 6 and 7 (conceding that Blackadder will be injured) and Ardie at 8.
33 Go to commentsArdie’s preferred position 7? Where do they get these writers from? I've no idea where he's playing in Japan, but the previous two seasons he wore the 7 jersey exactly twice.
17 Go to commentsNot good to hear Ulster described as “financially troubled”. Did not think it was getting to that level. I would hope the Irish system of spreading players of talent away from Leinster would kick in now. Better to have a Leinster fringe player with Ulster or Connacht, then getting only a few games a season in Dublin. 10, for example, would seem to be a case for spreading the talent. I would not be at all adverse to a SA man coming in as head coach/DR. Ludeke is worth trying. Certainly got a long and impressive coaching career at this level…..149 games in SR, then Japan, 30 years experience. And Ulster’s ledger of successful SA coaches and players is on the positive side. Is talk of Ruan Pienaar interested in coming back as a coach…..could be a good combination with Ludeke. And Pienaar and family would have no settling in to do, one would judge. He loved life in Ulster when there, by all reports.
1 Go to commentsSome thoughts to consider here, Sam. Thanks
2 Go to comments