Analysis: The Vunipola brothers bring another dimension to Saracens' lineout attack
The return of Number 8 Billy Vunipola to the Saracens starting lineup almost paid immediate dividends, with the bullocking loose forward crashing over out wide within the first 10 minutes against Sale.
However, it was the combined threat of both Vunipola brothers that opened things up in the lead-up work to set up Saracens’ opening try.
With both bulldozing ball carriers in the team, Saracens set-piece line out attack becomes much more dynamic, moving to five-man lineouts to utilise the Vunipolas in the back line. They attract so much attention that opposition must utilise their best defenders to neutralize the threat, which creates opportunities for others to be set free.
Saracens used a beautifully executed play with two parts – a loop around and a screen – based around their two primary ball-players, Owen Farrell and Alex Goode, and using the Vunipolas diverse skills to create the space.
In the set-up, Mako Vunipola (1) is lined up outside Owen Farrell and Billy Vunipola (8) is on the edge of a 6-player formation. As the play develops, two succinct levels become clear.
The presence of Mako Vunipola has also drawn the coverage of Sale’s best defender, Tom Curry (7). A smart play design by Saracens can make Curry redundant on this play, taking him away from the action.
The pass from the halfback is delivered directly for Mako Vunipola (1), and we see two levels forming.
Saracens dual playmakers Owen Farrell (10) and Alex Goode (15) are set up inside of each Vunipola brother in each of the two waves of attack.
On the first wave, Saracens run a loop around concept with Farrell coming around the back. Mako Vunipola is tasked with ball-playing at the line, choosing his short option Alex Lozowski (12), or Farrell.
Sale’s defence is passive so Vunipola opts to use the loop around from Farrell while drawing Curry into contact and taking Sale’s premier defender out of play.
At the point of release of Vunipola’s pass, Farrell is still at least a metre inside him, making this pass connection one based on timing and trust, a silky piece of skill for a front runner.
Vunipola can’t see his receiver Farrell, yet has to deliver the ball to allow him to get outside the dummy line of Lozowski (12), which he does.
It’s not until that Farrell catches the pass, just on the outside of Lozowski (12), that the players in the second wave break into their lines.
Simultaneous to the catch, Billy Vunipola (8) breaks to the inside while Alex Goode (15) starts to bounce outside underneath.
Billy Vunipola (8) runs a hard ‘unders’ line into James O’Connor’s (12) channel as a short option for Farrell. With O’Connor and Sam James (13) on their heels a little bit, Farrell pulls back the pass to Goode.
Again the pass is all based on timing. At the point of Farrell’s release, Goode is at least a metre inside Vunipola, yet he must receive the ball on his outside shoulder.
Farrell plays the pass flat, committing the defender in front of him while O’Connor has opted to commit to Vunipola, also taking himself out of play.
His decision to make the tackle is based in part by the threat that Billy Vunipola brings as a dominant ball carrier – he just won’t take the risk of letting him run free.
Farrell and Vunipola have legally taken out Sale’s interior back line by drawing them into contact, opening up the lane for Goode to play David Strettle (14) back on the inside.
Sale centre Sam James (13) has been isolated with a 2-on-1 in short space, which at this speed is difficult for any outside centre to defend.
He sat back a little too much and decided not to push the issue and jam in on Goode to try close the play, but came down quite far in the process. He’s too close to bail and not close enough to take Goode with the ball and kill the play.
You have to decide earlier to bail or shoot and in James’ case he did neither.
As Strettle goes through the gap, Goode is able to run around James, maintaining most of his momentum and become a supporting player, while James has to turn around start from almost a standing start to catch up.
This Saracens line break is brought down on the five just short but a few phases later with Sale struggling to reset, Billy Vunipola gets the ball on the edge and powers through some exhausted defence to score.
The ‘idea’ of the Vunipolas undid Sale as much as the reality. Mako was used as a ball-player in the first wave but still committed Curry, while Billy was a dummy runner and got O’Connor to bite.
The ability to execute these ‘secondary’ roles outside of being a one-dimensional battering ram is what makes the two valuable assets to Saracens, who can dress them up in these formations and use them to deceive.
The two ball-players, Farrell and Goode, also delivered perfectly timed line running and decision-making to turn the cogs on this exceptional play, which is one of the most impressive run so far this season.
The beauty of this play is in the complexity of all the required parts to make this happen.
Using six players in such close proximity to pull off a loop around followed by a screen has the tightest margin of error. One mistimed line or one early pass can blow up the whole play, but all these Saracens players were perfectly in sync.
If both Vunipolas can stay healthy then Saracens attack will expand further with more brilliantly designed plays like these, and it’s not hard to see that Saracens form will turn soon. With other top line players like Maro Itoje also due back, Saracens recent Premiership struggles won’t continue for long with set-piece attack firing like this.
Comments on RugbyPass
After their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
2 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
3 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to comments