Ex-All Blacks left confused after bizarre game strategy

Through eight rounds of Super Rugby Pacific, there has been more ball in play, closer winning margins and high-scoring games.

This has meant teams are playing more free-flowing, attacking rugby, with more opportunities to score tries, and with some teams taking this to a new extreme. Has there been a shift in-game strategy?

On Friday in the game between the Chiefs and the Reds in Hamilton, Reds captain Tate McDermott continued the Queensland side’s theme of not taking a single penalty attempt this season, going to the corner for a lineout drive.

In the first half it worked perfectly, as their forwards pushed their way over the line. In the second half, the Chiefs stopped the dangerous lineout maul, leaving the Reds without any points from that particular visit to the 22.

When asked about the decision post-match, McDermott backed his decision, explaining that not taking a three-point shot this season isn’t a pre-meditated plan.

“The decision was made as a conversation on the field, we had 14 men so you’ve got to weigh up whether taking the three and then receiving a ball in your own 22, having to kick out with three minutes to play with 14 men, or do you back the boys for another five minutes like we did in the first half.

“That’s something I’ll wear on my shoulders, I’m the captain. I made the decision. But again, it comes down to what team we are and it’s not something we talked about, oh, we’re not taking a three,” McDermott said to media post-match in Hamilton.

“It’s in game moments that we make the split-second decision and we’ve trusted the boys and the forwards have gone to work the whole year.”

101-Test former All Black Mils Muliaina is confused about why teams are often giving up three points, saying that the coach’s decisions has confused him the most. 

“We’re halfway through the regular season and the decision-making to go to points and I know the weather is getting a little bit wet now as well, a little bit colder, slippery too. But the interesting part for me is the coaches are saying it’s purely up to the leaders to decide whether they go for the penalty,” Muliaina said on The Breakdown.

“I mean, on this occasion, the Hurricanes, they went for the lineout. They were a man down, they got another penalty and they decided to go for a shot at goal when you would have thought, maybe perhaps they might have another crack.

“Again, the Reds, I just can’t get over the stat, 30 odd points they’ve turned down? They haven’t taken a shot at goal all year.”

Sky Sports commentator and analyst Jeff Wilson still believes that leaving the opposition’s 22 with three points sometimes is a better option than chasing the points.

“I don’t understand it when I think about rugby IQ and circumstances and changing momentums and shifting scoreboard pressure and earning the points.

“When you’ve been in a situation where you go, I’ve got to come away with something. It just seems as if some teams are just happy to not come away with something. They’re happy to chase more points.”

Former All Black Justin Marshall says the Hurricanes’ decision to go to the lineout was ‘bizarre’.

“Traditionally, more so in the modern game, it’s been about, we can get more than three, isn’t it, and particularly when they are not bankable threes,” Marshall said.

“If they’re 40 meters out whatever, there’s a little bit of 50/50 aspect in it, they’re quite confidently going to go for touch and go for the more, lucrative option.”

Wilson thinks that later on in the Super Rugby Pacific season, teams will start banking the three because they want home advantage come playoff time.

“All of a sudden the coaches from upstairs are going to say that we might need to take a little bit of control in the situation. They’ll need to take a bit of control, we’ll talk about the table, and how it’s tightly contested.

“When this competition is at this sort of business end of the season, you’re thinking, I’m banking points because I want a home final.”