Aggressive defence and decisive attack

Rugby coaching tips to build strong and successful teams.

What is it that makes a team strong enough to win a tournament? To sparkle often or simply grind out results match after match?

By playing to their strengths. That's what South Africa did to win the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

The South African RWC plan

South Africa's game plans during the Rugby World Cup was based around three key aspects:

A strong lineout game.
An aggressive defence.
Turning other teams' mistakes into points.

Lineouts win games

Here's the stats:

There were an average 31 lineouts in each World Cup game.

The principal southern hemisphere team - New Zealand, South Africa and Australia - stole around a third of the opposition ball, meaning they could attack from at least five extra lineouts.

Lineout possession represented the main source of tries in the 2007 Rugby World Cup. In fact, a third of tries in the World Cup came from lineouts, with less than a fifth from scrums.

All in all, Australia scored three tries from lineout turnovers and South Africa two throughout the tournament.

Lesson 1
South Africa were extremely successful in the lineout. They won 89% of their own throws and 32% of their opponent's.
Lesson 2
It's maybe no surprise to learn that the top sides regularly practise lineout turnovers.

Phase play doesn't win games

Here are some more stats:

The side that scores most tries wins 81% of the time.

In the 2007 World Cup, just like the previous one, 75% of tries needed two or fewer rucks to score.

This does not mean that your team does not need to ruck or maul. At the international level a team is likely to ruck about 70 times in possession of the ball.

What is does suggest, however, is that you should not be expecting to ruck lots of times if your main objective is to score tries.

Lesson 3
South Africa rucked far less than the other major teams. This in part was because their forwards were far more likely to pass the ball when they received it.
For instance, during the knockout stages of the tournament, the South African front row passed 45% of all possession they received.
Indeed, only the Welsh forwards passed more frequently that their South African counterparts.

Summary

Concentrate on winning your lineout and on winning the opposition's.
Practise how you're going to make use of your lineout turnover possession.
Encourage your forwards to pass before contact and reduce the number of rucks they're involved in.

This article is from the monthly International Rugby Technical Journal publication.

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