LONG READ Is defence going out of fashion? 'The trick now is how quickly you stop the bleeding'

One week is a very long time in sporting journalism. Only a few days ago, I penned an article which concluded with a quote from defence guru Shaun Edwards. He was lamenting the growing difficulties of his job, as the game rolls relentlessly down ‘entertainment road’ – more points, more tries and ever more content:

“World Rugby want more points, and a lot of the rules have changed in favour of the attack. The quality of the pitches [is] unrecognisable. Most people when they go to watch rugby don’t go to watch defence, they go to watch attack. I used to say ‘keep them to under 20 points’ – so 16, 17 points. But now, a good day at the office for defence is 21, 22 points.”

Now the most decorated defence coach of the professional era appears to be persona non grata in the French coaching set-up, and soon to be joining the massed ranks of the unemployed. According to a recent report in L’Equipe, Edwards is set to be replaced by Gérald Bastide, the defence coach for the French women, before the fixture against England ‘A’ in Vannes on 19 June, with ex-Montpellier centre Geoffrey Doumayrou touted for the position in the long term.

It is a remarkable development in the career of the man who has been, hands-down, the premier D coach in the world over the last 20 years, whether he was coaching as part of Warren Gatland’s teams with Wasps and Wales or crossing the channel after the 2019 World Cup. Everywhere Edwards has gone, the uptick in performance has been both categorical and immediate. He is a proven winner, yet now he is surplus to requirements with Fabien Galthié’s Tricolores.

The reason behind his departure reflects the underlying trends in the game which the man himself described, and it should give pause to any knee-jerk reaction calling for the dismissal of current England supremo Steve Borthwick. Rugby Pass’ own Andy Goode could hardly contain his excitement: ‘If the news of Shaun Edwards parting ways with France rugby is true, you’d hope [RFU chief executive] Bill Sweeney has the cojones to pick up the phone and offer him a five-year deal to run through the next two World Cups. We can’t miss out on him again!’

Would Edwards have been a great English appointment back in 2006 [when incumbent coach Andy Robinson first asked him to do the job], or after the 2019 World Cup when he was let go by Wales? Absolutely. The situation is not as clear now as it was back then. Edwards would likely restructure England around the core principles of a long in-field kicking game and strong D on chase, as he did so successfully with Wales and France. But the game has moved on and you now need to be able to score four tries or 30 points to win a game of international rugby.

When the men in white finally made the improvement every red rose supporter wanted in the very last match of the Six Nations against Les Bleus, they did it by scoring tries – seven of them in all – and scoring 46 points. That performance was a reflection of the attacking character of the Prem and its top teams like Northampton Saints, who would be providing most of the backs for the national side. Would Edwards pick attack-minded aficionados Fin Smith and George Furbank, when he preferred those devotees of defence and the kicking game, Dan Biggar and Leigh Halfpenny, with Wales? The jury is out.

Defence coaches like to coach defence. While Edwards would improve England’s porous Six Nations showing, the lion’s share of tracksuit coaching time would be allotted to defence, just as it has been by Springboks World Cup winner Jacques Nienaber as the senior coach of Irish giants Leinster.

The scoring is not going to stop, the tries will continue to cascade, and the meaning of defence has subtly shifted. It is very rarely possible to stop elite attacks in their tracks

The balance in Leinster’s game has been more ‘off’ than ‘on’ as a result. Ex-Leinster and Scotland coach Matt Williams bemoaned the lack of balance between attack and defence which resulted in Leinster’s resounding 41-19 loss to UBB in his column for The Irish Times. The Girondins completed a massive 93% of their 215 tackles on the day.

“In the sweltering heat of Bilbao, it was obvious that both Leinster’s attacking and defensive systems required a major overhaul,” Williams wrote.

“There is no doubt Jacques Nienaber is a fine coach. His defensive system has won World Cups. However, he is not the first coach who has tried to take a system that worked with a high degree of success at one organisation to another club, and found it was not transferable.

“Leinster’s defensive system is no longer fit for purpose and must be either discarded or deeply modified. To continue with Nienaber’s current system is a folly and will lead to another catastrophic failure somewhere down the line.”

When Springbok Svengali Rassie Erasmus had a choice between persisting with ‘Tony-ball’, or swinging back to the tried-and-trusted double World Cup-winning methods of 2019 and 2023, of which Nienaber was an integral part, he eventually decided to twist rather than stick.

After treading water with Handré Pollard at number 10 in rounds two and three of the 2025 Rugby Championship, Rassie screwed his courage to the sticking point and pushed his chips all-in on Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Damian Willemse in round four at Wellington’s Cake Tin. South Africa overwhelmed the All Blacks 43-10 and the Springboks have not stopped or taken a backward glance since.

It distils the choice every coach faces at the top end of the game. The scoring is not going to stop, the tries will continue to cascade, and the meaning of defence has subtly shifted. It is very rarely possible to stop elite attacks in their tracks; now it is more a case of managing them to the point where you can turn over the ball, whether it is holding the ball up over your own goal-line or pilfering it after a line-break further downfield.

In their November tour game against France, the Springboks gave a master-class in the third quarter, even though they were permanently down to 14 men after the straight red card issued to second-row Lood De Jager at the end of the first period. They only conceded three points in 20 minutes, while delivering an object lesson in scramble defence after breaks had been made against them.

At the 2026 Six Nations, England ranked dead last in one critical metric on defence: 44% of the breaks they gave up were converted into tries by the opposition. In the third quarter at the Stade de France, the Bokke conceded six line-breaks but turned over possession at all of France’s four attacking possessions. It was the natural outcome of the dynamic balance between the French attack and the South African cover defence:

pic.twitter.com/PiMQEbpRKV

— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) June 1, 2026

This is close to the ideal counter-attack scenario for Les Bleus: turnover ball at a ruck in midfield moved towards Louis Bielle-Biarrey on the left-hand side of the field. Although the Boks try to shut down the play via the blitz, the ball is successfully transferred outside and two short breaks are made, both by the Bordeaux flyer – one down the left at 43:15, the second after a kick reclaim down the right at 43:37. Despite the twin breaks, France are outmuscled at the final ruck and South Africa win a turnover lineout.

The relative failure of the French attack and the success of the Boks’ defence can be illustrated perfectly by comparing two screenshots taken from within the sequence:

The first shows the ‘Dupont attack formation’ France were employing at the time, with four forwards assembled in a block outside their scrum-half, Nolann Le Garrec. The idea is for the forwards to overwhelm the interior defence and create a definite breach for Romain Ntamack and the rest of the backs to exploit.

The overhead shot illustrates both the commitment of the South African scramble and the deficiencies of the French attack. As Bielle-Biarrey climbs high to reclaim the kick by his club colleague Damian Penaud, there are seven Springboks around the ball to France’s five, and four against two in the vicinity of the ruck. South Africa is winning the battle of numbers even with one man less on the field of play.

The same situation arose only three minutes later:

pic.twitter.com/J5vGd9VDGk

— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) June 1, 2026

Once again, Les Bleus start with their block of four forwards off nine and successfully circumnavigate the Springbok blitz to create a break on Bielle-Biarrey’s side of the field, but the little magician is swallowed up at the point of contact, with the Boks enjoying a 7-4 advantage in numbers around the ball at the critical moment.

The final example occurred just before South Africa took the game by the scruff of the neck in the final quarter:

pic.twitter.com/kCWTZo50La

— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) June 1, 2026

The block of forwards outside Le Garrec creates more space for little Louis down the left, but on the way back from the sideline, the Springboks are the undisputed masters. First Cobus Reinach dives in at the foot of an under-resourced ruck and the handling of the French forwards is under severe pressure thereafter.

Even if the ball clears the blitz on the left of the D, there are Boks aplenty folding across in cover, ready to mop up the remnants of the French attack. That is why Galthié changed course so radically at the 2026 Six Nations, and it is why Matthieu Jalibert became the poster boy for a new attacking campaign.

Would the appointment of Shaun Edwards to the England head coaching role improve the men in white? Back in 2006 and 2019 when it really was on the cards, almost certainly. Now? Not so much. The game is moving beyond defence coaches at an alarming rate of knots, and it has become much harder to stop the flow of tries and points.

Scoring is the name of the game, and the entire concept of defence is being re-evaluated, and forced to adjust to the flow. Rassie Erasmus knows it, and where he goes others will follow. You won’t plug all the leaks, but your repair kit has to be in tip-top condition. There will be blood, and sometimes a lot of it. The trick now is how quickly you stop the bleeding, reset, and remember who you are.