The All Black's current midfield balance.
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@delicatessen said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:
Would love to see someone like squidge examine it tbh. Surely there's something I'm missing, because the coaches and players are supposed to be the best in the world, and most of them have lived and breathed rugby their whole lives. So why do they look so ordinary when there's a defensive line in front of them?
Maybe I'm over-simplifying but SR, or indeed club rugby at any level, doesn't give the experience to cope with a Sean Edwards style ultra rush/press defense.
I hope it changes but feel it may require a long-term move to an ultra-skilled 23 before it happens. Brodie Retallick like skills in every forward. Which tbf I see the AB's trying to achieve.
Squidge will analyse it and conclude a new flexi 1-4-3-2 pod system which exists only in his imagination (and yes I do love his enthusiasm and miss his earlier uncensored work especially!)
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@bovidae said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:
Beauden is at his best when he takes the line on. No surprise that those line breaks often lead to tries. But when he just shuffles the ball along the rest of the backs are stifled, particularly if the 2nd 5 doesn't provide a bail-out option (what @bones wrote).
There's a great piece of post (or-mid) game punditry with Jonny Wilkinson taking about about a first-five earning their pay when they have "no good options" at all, and that moment "ALL the forwards turn to look at you to see what you're going to do". He talks about the decision making process in that split-second.
Very enlightening, Sean Fitzpatrick was there too and grinning broadly as Jonny talked. Obviously Sean understood that moment too!
I'll post a link if I can find it again.
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@l_n_p some of our backs just need to get better to running to support and how to go to ground and recycle, its a worry how many are getting held up or getting isolated and turning the ball over
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@kiwiwomble said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:
@l_n_p some of our backs just need to get better to running to support and how to go to ground and recycle, its a worry how many are getting held up or getting isolated and turning the ball over
You just described George Bridge.
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@crazy-horse i dont know, i would say his biggest fault is he always runs infield, i assume looking for support, never backs himself out wide, fair call re not recycling though
i was actually thinking of DMac, the only reason he doesnt get caught with the ball a lot is he'll just throw it away if there a chance he'll get tackled (exaggerating i know) or Havili, in the first test, it wasn;t all his fault he was getting the ball under huge pressure but rather than accepting the odds of breaking the line were low and looking to recycle he would run upright into the tackle hoping to break it and often either get held up or get isolated
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@kiwiwomble said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:
@l_n_p some of our backs just need to get better to running to support and how to go to ground and recycle, its a worry how many are getting held up or getting isolated and turning the ball over
This is a good point and I wonder if it comes from the obsession with the offload.
Rather than running a support line behind the guy with the ball so you have options to clean out or change or angle to get in space and receive a pass, our support runners are often lateral to receive a pass and so when the pass doesn't come we end up over running the tackle area and having to clean out from the wrong side and with no momentum
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@junior i think that might be the case, and i think that comes from this approach to try and open a team up from anywhere on the field...which is great if you can do it....but if you cant and keep trying you can get yourself in trouble
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I wondered about Bridge - if he was told to always do that, lacked confidence, or if it just seemed the safest thing to do.
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@nostrildamus said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:
I wondered about Bridge - if he was told to always do that, lacked confidence, or if it just seemed the safest thing to do.
It was so single minded, I'm pretty confident that he was under instruction. He wasn't, however, told to fix buckets where his hands should be.
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@bones said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:
@nostrildamus said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:
I wondered about Bridge - if he was told to always do that, lacked confidence, or if it just seemed the safest thing to do.
It was so single minded, I'm pretty confident that he was under instruction. He wasn't, however, told to fix buckets where his hands should be.
Brad Shields had a good career for someone with toasters for hands I must say.
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@bones said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:
@nostrildamus said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:
I wondered about Bridge - if he was told to always do that, lacked confidence, or if it just seemed the safest thing to do.
It was so single minded, I'm pretty confident that he was under instruction. He wasn't, however, told to fix buckets where his hands should be.
yeah. little to discuss re his efforts under the highball
His efforst with the ball in hand are more interesting, to me ti looked like he was under direction, someone was trying to "fix" his game by hammering into him to always run to support and really it just made things worse, before he went between invisible to ineffective....in that game he topped the list for almost losing the game
edit: writing this made me think, Its something i noticed clarke doing last year, at first i thought "good, safe play from the new guy" but then as it became more obvious i started thinking "back ya self mate!" and getting a little frustrated
Im wondering if its someone in the coaching team thats preaching it....and i dont like it for a left winger. most peoples dominate pass is right to left and so the left winger should have the luxury of as much space as he likes and so should be looking to get outside his man or stretching the defence to make a hole midifield, left winger defaulting to running out to in just seems a waste
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@kiwiwomble said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:
most peoples dominate pass is right to left
Think that's a thing of the past.
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@bones the majority of people being right handed is a ting of the past?
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@kiwiwomble said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:
@bones the majority of people being right handed is a ting of the past?
Can't see where I said that.
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@bones said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:
@kiwiwomble said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:
@bones the majority of people being right handed is a ting of the past?
Can't see where I said that.
ok, we'll as far as i understand it is almost always more natural for a right handed person to pass right to left, which is all i was saying, not that people CANT pass both ways
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@kiwiwomble said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:
@bones said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:
@kiwiwomble said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:
@bones the majority of people being right handed is a ting of the past?
Can't see where I said that.
ok, we'll as far as i understand it is almost always more natural for a right handed person to pass right to left, which is all i was saying, not that people CANT pass both ways
More natural? Not sure what bearing that has on anything. I highly doubt that's a consideration when rugby has been pro for close to 30 years. Even at decent club level it's not a common thing for passing left to right to be considered a handicap.
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@bones in my experience with a club this year it 100% is a thing, we had coaches down from the Rebels teaching right to left back line flushes and left to right broken by forward pods for exactly this reason, whole sessions on kick offs to the receiving teams left to make unleashing the backline slightly harder, explanations about if our only a meter or two less from your right to left...by the time that's propagated through 4-6 passes in a backline your winger might need to be 5-8 m infield
of course there are lots of people who are just as good one way as the other...ive also see professionals spin and face their own line so they can pass further on their dominant side and as i say ive seen professional coaches talk about this stuff this year
all i can do it talk my experience so if your sure it has no relevance then feel free to ignore
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@kiwiwomble fucken Aussies eh! 15 years ago in Welly it wasn't a common thing and even over here I can only think of one centre who couldn't pass right. But he could hardly pass left either.
Maybe it's more common where players come late to the game.
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@bones ...kiwi coach for the 1's and a kiwi and french bloke for the 2's at the club actually, only a quarter of the people playing club rugby in melbourne are actually aussies
there is a difference between not being able to pass to your right and just being better going left than right, as i say, small difference can propagate over the length of the whole backine
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@kiwiwomble said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:
there is a difference between not being able to pass to your right and just being better going left than right, as i say, small difference can propagate over the length of the whole backine
You don't say...
So anyway there's your coaching master stroke. Teach your players to be just as competent passing to their right (at least to the level of a Kiwi/UK club player 😉) and your opposition will stop and watch in awe.
