Analysis: Will the Blues' backs ever get the ball?
The Blues 24-22 loss at the hands of the Crusaders was promising and heartbreaking at the same time. The Blues were dominant at times and had the Crusaders there for the taking multiple times, but failed to capitalise making this a hard pill to swallow given they had the chance to take down the defending champions.
What did we see from the Blues for the first time under new head coach Leon Macdonald, and where are the improvement areas for the side?
Compounding mistakes
After having only three points to show from two early entries into the Crusaders’ 22, the Blues quickly conceded the first try of the match on the back of compounding mistakes.
Defending on halfway, the Blues conceded a line break that was more about disjointed defence than anything special the Crusaders did.
The Crusaders have a five-on-four advantage down this left side, with the only free man being George Bridge (circled) on the touchline.
With Jonathan Ruru (9) playing sweeper, a passive up-and-out defence can push this ball to the sideline and shut this down without having to do anything special but see each pass go wider without committing any defenders.
Dalton Papalii (7) is bringing more line speed than any of his teammates with alignment on Braydon Ennor (13), however, he changes his angle in search of a dominant tackle on Ryan Crotty (12), who just lets the ball fly across his face.
There is no need for Papalii to jam in, and it allows Ennor to burst through the line in the vacant hole left behind. The young Blues flanker’s over-eagerness to put a shot on illustrates how the Blues don’t always sing from the same song sheet, and perhaps shows a lack of communication on this occasion.
The lesson for Papalii is understanding situational defence and leverage, knowing when and when not to rush, and how to play non-committal coverage to keep your line intact and reduce the numbers advantage. He might have a license to rush and bring pressure from anywhere, but the decision to take a man already covered wasn’t wise.
The Blues do scramble and force a knock-on in the tackle, winning a scrum on their own 10-metre line. From there, Ruru’s exit kick is charged down and the Crusaders win an attacking scrum in prime real estate.
Here are both second rows before the charge down. Both have the same job of getting up from the scrum. The Crusaders pair is there ready to bring pressure but only one Blues lock, Josh Goodhue (5), is positioned ready to shield.
The Crusaders just work harder at the little things off the ball to create opportunities and Quinten Strange (5) is able to charge unobstructed and win possession.
The last Blues blunder is Michael Collins’ dropped ball on the cross-kick from the resulting scrum which gifts Crusaders winger Manasa Mataele five points. A slew of mental and execution errors compounding ended in five Crusaders points when the Blues had all the control.
8-man rugby
For all the talent the Blues have at their disposal, this was almost 8-man rugby for 80-minutes.
Leon Macdonald’s transformation of the Blues won’t happen overnight and against the Crusaders they played pretty conservatively but were plagued by execution and pressure in the red zone in the first half.
The Blues had five entries with possession into the Crusaders’ 22 in the first half and only came away with three points, a measly return of 0.6 points per entry.
Almost every entry was characterised by carries, carries and more carries. The pack tried to bully their way over and were limited, with the likes of Matt Todd and Scott Barrett attacking the breakdown and the ball carrier and winning crucial turnovers.
In the second half, they tried more of the same and were able to change their fortunes, scoring three tries from five 22-visits for a return of 3.8 points per entry.
A dominant second half doesn’t make up for a poor first one, but the Blues did push the Crusaders all the way in the game. In these tight games, clinical details matter and all the little moments make the difference. A full-80 minute performance is required to beat the Crusaders.
Too much Akira-ball?
Rieko Ioane’s 12-metres on four carries is criminal underuse of one of the game’s premier attacking weapons.
Having an 8 that likes to carry and a 9 that likes to run is bad news for the backs. A massive 60 percent of the Blues’ scrum plays inside the Crusaders’ half were carries off the back for Akira Ioane.
His younger brother had just two designed plays off set-piece, carrying down the 10 channel twice, and got the ball just once on his left flank in the game.
From 17 attacking set-piece opportunities in the opposition half, the Blues attacked wide just once on the first phase. There weren’t many setups for second or third phase stings either, instead, using the forwards around the corner continuously.
Macdonald’s fingerprints
The Blues’ shape in the middle third has changed under Leon Macdonald. They have adopted Tasman’s 5-3 forward split to set up a large open side with a central two-man pod and a midfielder out the back, but this was only visible briefly as there wasn’t much continuity in phase play in this area of the field.
This is generally going to be the ‘backs playground’, with a license to play with some width and work to open up the opposition, but when they did have possession there, we saw the depth issues that plagued the Blues last year, with extremely deep outsides that aren’t bringing any pace onto it.
The first visible sign of Macdonald’s genius play-designs was a halfback-wrap out of a kick formation in the second half, using the 10 from a deep kicking option as an inside option of the runner.
The Blues setup for a clearing kick from Harry Plummer (22), but Ruru (9) feeds Tom Robinson (6) and performs a wrap around, pulling some the Crusaders’ interior defenders wider.
Ruru’s line pulls Luke Romano (19) wider, while Bryn Hall (9) identifies Plummer and points him out. With Romano pushing wider, Robinson takes the one-on-one matchup with Hall and pokes through before getting an offload away to Plummer at pace who streaks away downfield.
If the Blues want to ignite their backs more often, the balance of the side might be better suited having Sam Nock starting at halfback and someone like Jordan Trainor at fullback. The most experienced 10 on the roster at Super Rugby level, Stephen Perofeta, was not in the matchday-23.
Last year Perofeta proved to be a dangerous running and ball-playing threat capable of playing direct and unlocking defensive lines, something that Otere Black didn’t do yesterday in his 52-minute performance.
They physically matched and bettered the Crusaders, but were outsmarted and outplayed by small margins. It wasn’t the prettiest game by the Blues but ultimately they did have the chance to win and fought to the end, proving they will be a much tougher ask to overcome than last year.
Comments on RugbyPass
The Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt 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 comments