The aggressive Hurricanes defence needs a stronger foundation
The Hurricanes came up with mixed results on defence against the Chiefs as they came out looking to take the intensity up a notch with fierce line speed. Although their aggressive intent was admirable, issues around the tight five of the interior defence became apparent.
Their aggressive defensive scheme looked good in patches, but, at other times, it fell apart all too easily as Hurricanes players made bad reads, lacked urgency or just failed to dominate the collision.
This style of defence, an aggressive line speed that takes away time for the ball carrier, has to be disciplined. When one player doesn’t do his job, holes open up.
That happens all too frequently with the Hurricanes, who try to engage in two-man tackles against the primary ball carrier.
In the defensive set moments before Perenara’s opening intercept try, prop Pouri Rakete-Stones and flanker Reed Prinsep pressed well off the line to take down Chiefs lock Laghlan McWhannell in a two-man tackle, illustrating what the Hurricanes like to do to opposition pods off 9.
This was good execution from the Hurricanes’ pack to force the Chiefs into a gain line loss.
Rakete-Stones and lock James Blackwell executed the two-man hit again in another good example below.
However, when the attacking side adds some variation, such as utilising a tip pass inside or out, this two-man tackle can become unreliable, allowing the attacking side to punch through and make good gain line either side of the two tacklers.
The Chiefs were able to exploit this on multiple occasions, such as below when lock Scott Scrafton and prop Tyrel Lomax tried to pressure the middle forward, with both players going for Chiefs captain Sam Cane.
In doing so, they left space available in the inside lane for Chiefs flanker Kaylum Boshier to punch through on the inside pass.
Rakete-Stones, acting as the inside cover defender, wasn’t up to it and was brushed off as the Chiefs got to the second line of defence and fractured the defensive line to create good momentum and front-foot ball.
Following on from that, the Chiefs used the tip pass to the outside, exposing Lomax coming outside-in for the two-man hit.
The pressure was on the next man, Scrafton, to cover the tip runner, and he did so with a low chop tackle, but the Hurricanes were lucky to escape from here as the offload was available with a huge running lane open.
The Chiefs turned the ball over, but, again, the attempted two-man tackle gave the Chiefs a decent chance to turn the tables on the interior rush defence.
When going after the two-man dominant hit, the onus has to be on the players inside and out to cover the tip passes more effectively. That means being switched on and pushing up in anticipation, which was lacking at times with this tight five.
There were also other miscommunications around the ruck when facing different formations.
After Josh Ioane had already cut open the Hurricanes in a wider channel earlier in the same sequence of play, the Chiefs first-five was at first receiver with the three-man pod to the outside, as can be seen in the example below.
Lomax drifted towards the forwards, leaving Ioane for the inside cover defender, Blackwell, who wasn’t able to stop the opposition playmaker despite slowing him down.
The lack of focus and communication around these channels from the Hurricanes’ tight five let the defence down at times.
When they do their job, they can produce dominant defence. Below, Scrafton provided pressure with quick line speed, but the rest of the defence stayed connected and pushed up and out, including the inside cover defenders, Lomax and Blackwell.
Ioane had nowhere to go and Lomax ate him up, forcing a hefty loss of metres. However, the Hurricanes do not produce this level of execution enough on a consistent basis. This is the level they must aim to achieve more frequently.
Their defence fell apart from the beginning of the second half, letting the Chiefs get back on top almost immediately after half-time.
In the first phase after a kick return from the Chiefs, sweeper TJ Perenara can be seen in the example below plugging a missing gap in the front line on the left side.
Perenara had to defend as he was in the defensive line, but instead he bailed as the ball was delivered and then shied away from contact, allowing Chiefs midfielder Quinn Tupaea to cut across the grain into the Hurricanes’ tight five.
Lomax slipped off his tackle, Blackwell went low with another weak attempt and the ball was able to be kept alive.
It was incredibly soft defence just four minutes into the second half that enabled the Chiefs to spark a 30-metre passage up the middle of the park from a situation that they should have been forced to kick their way out of.
Further down the park in the same sequence of play, Perenara came into the defensive line again but was hesitant to produce the line speed that paved the way for his intercept try earlier in the match. He was brushed aside by Emoni Narawa.
The next 20 minutes for the Hurricanes were awful as their discipline fell away, conceding six straight penalties. What was a 15-13 half-time lead quickly became a 30-15 deficit under the weight of pressure.
There were times where they won the gain line back, only to tire out and eventually break or give away a penalty. It was a Jekyll & Hyde act where they would go from a position of dominance, blunting the Chiefs’ phase backward, to conceding a try the phase after.
One area of improvement needed for the Hurricanes’ highly-aggressive defence is to run better angles while defending screen plays. As seen below, they are too slow to get past block runners during screen passes.
To build a defence that forces a big loss of metres, they have to be quicker at abandoning the short runner to pursue the guy out the back once the ball is gone.
In the example below, Ioane made light work of Hurricanes hooker Asafo Aumua, who was covering the short option for too long after the pass had been made.
Similarly, captain Ardie Savea and midfielder Billy Proctor were guilty of defensive misreads during screens plays out on the edge in the lead-up to tries scored by Chiefs duo Boshier and Chase Tiatia.
In either case, the ball was telegraphed to hit the back door option long before either Hurricane made contact with the first runner. Both were disconnected from the next defender, Julian Savea.
There were other positive aspects from the Hurricanes aggressive defensive which pointed to signs that this could be an effective point of difference for them.
The edge defence was asked to play high and force the ball over the top, which they did numerous times. At other times, the wings and centres timed their hits well and closed the Chiefs play before it made it wider.
But in order to cement themselves as a top Super Rugby team, the Hurricanes have to get stronger in the interior channels to start with. Getting sliced up the middle is a non-negotiable that cannot happen. If they are soft up the middle, there is no need to go wide.
When teams do go wide, they cannot waltz through by running a simple screen that draws poor reads so easily. All of these defensive improvements come down to better discipline and application within the defensive plan for the Hurricanes who are now 2-3 on the season.
The season is not lost yet, there is just a lot of work to do to build the foundation on defence to be a real contender.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
29 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
1 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 Crusades , you can keep going.
1 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!😭😭😭 !!!
29 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
29 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.
29 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 commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
29 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments