Defence wins championships! Well, that might not be entirely true but it’s true that the three teams leading the United Rugby Championship, Top 14, and Premiership as Leinster, Toulouse and Bath also rank top by fewest points conceded.
In the international game, the success of the Springboks has been built on a sturdy base of solid defence.
The last time they conceded more than 30 points was 25 games ago against New Zealand when they lost 35-20. In that time they’ve kept their opponents to single figures on five occasions.
The importance of defence hasn’t changed, but the method has. We’re not just talking about line speed and all-out blitzes. The fundamentals of defence have shifted.
How defence has evolved
When I was learning the rugby ropes as a kid back in the late 1990s, you could make it look like you enjoyed defending by shouting ‘my man’. You’d point at the attacker opposite you and shout it and then you’d try and tackle them. This is an example of man-marking.
Everyone on the pitch, in theory, takes one of their opponents and you get the benefit of a simple defence.
Except, this doesn’t work as soon as the attack adds any complexity at all. If they run a loop then you need to work with the players on either side of you to ensure that you don’t both take the same player.
Even if you do man-mark efficiently you still need to make the tackle. A tackle you might need to make when you’re in a lot of space and facing a much quicker or stronger opponent.
Watch: Sam’s deep dive into modern defences:
So what’s the solution? The key is to understand that the threat is not the man but the ball. Jonah Lomu isn’t a threat if he’s 50m away from the ball on the touchline.
He only becomes a threat when the ball moves into his orbit. Modern defences operate by stacking their men close to the ball with narrow gaps between them. Then as they move further away from the ball the gaps open up and they try to cover as much of the pitch as possible. They are marking the space rather than specifically marking players.
This is generally the way modern teams defend at the basic level but that can evolve into all kinds of different defensive structures.
South Africa for example want to blast off the defensive line and protect that potentially exposed space out wide by putting so much pressure on the attack that they can’t get the ball there.
Less aggressive teams will let the attack get the ball there but drift with them, shifting their strength across the pitch. Then they can make the tackle out wide which gives a good opportunity to turn the ball over as the ball carrier is often isolated.
Less aggressive but not less effective
Other teams will use both aggressive line speed defences and more passive ones depending on the field position and whether the previous phase was a positive or negative one for the attack. But all will think first about defending the space closest to the ball.
The defensive backfield has changed as well. In the past teams would use a pendulum defence where the full-back would always cover the space the attack might kick into but he would be joined by one winger.
If play was on the far left of the pitch then the full-back would drift left and the right winger would drop back and fill the space on the right. Then if play moved to the right the full-back would move right, the right winger would push into the defensive line, and the left winger would drop back.
As you can tell, it’s pretty complicated and easy to break apart. If you attack right and then quickly switch left you can end up in a situation where only the full-back is deep and suddenly they can’t defend all the space.
To fix this, teams often play with two permanently deep defenders, usually the fly-half and full-back. The two wingers might play a little deeper if the attack are in an obvious kicking position and a scrum-half might sweep but there’s far less complexity than you would have found in the past. Far less complexity means it’s harder to break under pressure.
Big hits and breathtaking turnovers get the heart pumping. But, it’s often the basics of defence that win matches. Those basics done well might not be exciting, but if you know what to look for, they’re beautiful!
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/to-blitz-or-not-to-blitz-how-the-best-teams-in-the-world-defend-in-the-golden-age-of-rugby
