Set-pieces which make the difference

Paul Rees canvasses expert opinion on how scrums and lineouts can separate the two codes of rugby

Last month, World Rugby launched a new version of the game. Called T1 Rugby, it is designed for seven players in each team and while it contains traditional elements like scrums, lineouts and breakdowns, it is strictly non-contact with defenders touching a ball-carrier rather than tackling them.

The aim behind it, in World Rugby's words, is to supercharge participation and engagement by making the sport more relevant and accessible to the young.

The set-pieces are uncontested, with the scrum a huddle in which heads do not touch, and teams have seven attempts to score a try before turning over possession, shades of rugby league.

The hope is that it will take off in clubs and schools from around the world. Smaller unions like Vietnam and Laos had an input in its formation, along with more established unions, as World Rugby looks to increase the game's global reach.

The initiative comes at a time when some in the professional game are concerned at a focus on increasing the ball in play time at the expense of some of the sport's traditional staples, the scrum especially but also the lineout.

Rucking has gone the way of the four-point drop goal and the lack of bodies in a breakdown has spawned a rugby league style defensive wall spread across the field.

The two set-pieces best reflect the difference between the two codes of rugby, but if in recent years the lineout has become more of a contest for possession, the conniving at crooked feeds means the scrum has become more a contest for physical supremacy than for the ball.

“The key in the scrum is to get the opposition into a contest,” said Exeter's director of rugby, Rob Baxter, below. “We cannot complain about set-pieces in the World Cup if we do not try and get a scrum contest in the Premiership.

“In the past, it has been too easy to avoid a contest at the scrum. We have to get on top of that now because a scrum is about pinning down 16 guys and making it a genuine pushing contest that is fatiguing for the big guys and gives backs the chance to run around their opposite numbers and score tries.

“We have completely lost that element of the game. If it is not a pushing contest it can be over in three seconds because someone drives to the floor, engages early or pulls the prop and 16 guys are in the game with no fatigue element.

“If they know it will be a pushing contest you then have a platform to attack from because the opposition back row has to stay down. If the opposition does not want to commit to the physical contest, you have the chance to win penalties and kick for position.

“If we return to trying to make that happen across the game, and that comes down to television, refereeing and coaching, I think you will see the scrum becoming a very important element of the game, but what we keep trying to do is circumvent it with law changes and tweaks.

“That is the last thing we need. We should not be trying to have a complete ball-in-play time without a physical contest with 30 guys on the field. It does not create a game of rugby because there is no space and you end up with a 15-a side version of rugby league.

“We cannot let the game get like that because it would not be a spectacle for anybody. We keep thinking we are creating a better game by constantly changing the laws, but we are making it harder for ourselves. Why do we keep doing this? You do not see it in any other sport.

“We have had good games in the past and when someone asks why rugby is not as good as it was three years ago, it is because we keep changing the laws to make it a better game. Stop now and let everyone get comfortable with it, make a firm decision on what are rugby incidents in head contacts and I think the game would fly in the next five years.

“Referee the laws as they are, get proper scrum and maul contests, keep players on the field when you can and you would have an amazing product very quickly. It is very odd when you are trying to grow the sport to change the laws every five minutes, especially when no one knows what the repercussions will be.”

The Premiership side with the best scrum percentage after the first six rounds, one third of the schedule, was Harlequins with 98.7, followed by Gloucester and Northampton. Quins were second in the lineout table behind Bristol, the only two sides to average more than 90 per cent.

Teams had a 100 per cent scrum success record 33 times in the opening six rounds. When it came to lineouts, the total dropped to 11, reflecting the higher number of that set-piece in matches as well as the contest for possession. Saracens are the most adept at sabotaging opposition throws.

“We had best lineout three years ago, but we have dropped off a bit,” said Gloucester's director of rugby George Skivington, above, a second row in his playing days. “We have had two wobbly games: Saracens changed their lineout defence and we did not adapt while Sale had a more simple plan which we did not take advantage of.

“Saracens gambled hard and it worked. They got in the air and took our ball and that was a trend in the World Cup. What I have noticed this season is that the maul seems to have dropped off a bit and it is hard to say whether it is because teams are defending it better or are getting in the air a bit more.

“The tap and go has become more prevalent, but we will continue to maul. The lineout is one of the few areas of the game where you know how the opposition will set up in defence and it is a great opportunity to pick it apart. You get more launches from lineouts than scrums and it is sensible to put more energy into them.

“That said, you need a good scrum in this league. I am a big advocate of it: if you are not strong in that area you will get dominated. Most teams use it to have a crack at getting penalties, but you have the option of playing out of the back.”

Pushover tries have become a rare sight in the professional game, victim of a law change a few seasons ago which saw a team that took the ball over the line without grounding it face a goal-line dropout rather than feed into a five-metre scrum.

“The scrum comes down to a team's philosophy,” said Northampton's director of rugby, Phil Dowson, below. “Leicester built their victory over us last week on the scrum, exerting pressure that saw one of our guys go to the sin-bin.

“It is a valuable asset in the game and an intriguing part of play, but it cannot dominate everything else and slow down a match to the extent it stops. I do not know if you can put a stop clock on how quickly you have to reset, but I think the process needs to be hurried up without destabilising an area where the competition is not for the ball when it comes in but as you push.

“The lineout has changed in the last couple of years and is now one of the most competitive areas in the game. It is a real weapon when you are trying to put pressure on a team and there are athletes, like Lewis Ludlow in Gloucester and Cameron Wilkins in France, who get high in the lift to disrupt.”

Newcastle's director of rugby Alex Codling, below, another former second row, echoes Baxter in believing that protecting the set-pieces is vital to prevent a drift towards rugby league. “The set-piece is key because it is what separates us from league,” he said. “I know people want to depower the scrum but a scrum can change games and have an impact. And it makes our game different.

“Lose that and it becomes too similar to rugby league. Trying to get the ascendancy up front is always important, particularly when playing in the north-east when it is four degrees, pouring with rain and blowing a gale!

“I love lineouts. They have been the best part of my life for 28 years and they are like a game of chess. We have a big jumping day in training, taking 25 or 30 minutes because the shorter the session the more intense it can be. We monitor a number of things and you have to make sure the players are energised.

“There was a drive to speed the game up, but it seems to have dropped off when it comes to resets and huddles before a lineout. We have to remember we are an entertainment game and there are lots of other things for people to do.

“They do not pay to watch guys doing up their laces or forming a huddle. You can lose the fabric of a game when you tinker with it, which is why I think the emphasis should be on speeding it up to ensure more moments of brilliance.”

The second row Kiran McDonald joined Newcastle in the summer excited at the prospect of working with Codling. “I pride myself in the lineout and Alex's big thing is detail,” he said. “I have already learned a lot from him.

“The lineout in the Premiership did not used to be as competitive as in other leagues, but it has grown in the last few years and is a pivotal part of the game. If you do not have the ball, you cannot attack and you spend the week working on it.

“You always have stock calls you can go back to if things are not going well or the weather has changed and you develop specific calls for different teams. I remember when I was a young buck in the academy and the coach told me to call an eyes to the tail.

“I shouted eyes thinking that was the call to let the hooker know and suddenly everyone was on the floor laughing, much to my confusion. It turned out that I should have raised my eyebrows to indicate where the ball should go.”

Hookers started throwing the ball into the lineout 50 years ago. Before that, it tended to be the wing on whose side the set-piece was formed.

“You have to get it spot on,” said Sam Matavesi, the Fiji and Northampton hooker. “You know that if you are not getting it right the next one in line at your club will and that competition only helps you.

“If you can stop the opposition winning ball at source it negates everything. A lot of sides are trying to do that now. Gloucester have probably the best maul in the Premiership and it makes sense to stop it by challenging them at the lineout. Why give them an opportunity to have easy ball to do something they are very good at?

“The scrum is tough, an important part of the game that I love. It is a unique place. We want the ball to get to the back of the scrum quickly so that we can play, but as your opponents cannot win the heel, they have to disrupt.

“It comes down to the dark arts, different to the ones in the old days. It comes down to small things and if you can get an edge, you are worth your weight in gold. The hardest thing is to have a contest and get the right outcome.

“Referees are in a very difficult position. Spectators do not want to see six resets, but we should not take anything away from the scrum. It is why rugby union is one of the best sports.”

The two teams with the best lineouts this season, Bristol and Harlequins, are more renowned for how they use the ball rather than win it, but with Quins also having the most efficient scrum, they recognise that being lethal in possession is not much use if you live off scraps.

“The lineout is a really important area and teams try and avoid giving us the ball,” said Pat Lam, Bristol's director of rugby. “Mark Irish and Chris Morgan are doing a tremendous job and a number of statistics in our favour like that show we are not far away.

“Both set-pieces are very important, as the World Cup highlighted. A dominant scrum provides a platform for the backs or a penalty to gain territory. You alter your system to fit what certain teams do and make sure you have one to break every defence.”

Exeter based their rise up the Premiership on set-piece superiority, but after a couple of seasons when their efficiency dropped, they have made it a focus again and they have had a 100 per cent scrum success rate in their last five matches, although they have had a few lineout wobbles.

“Our scrum has improved notably and it is considerably better than it has been in the last couple of seasons,” said Baxter. “We have invested time and money in it and brought in Ross McMillan who dedicates time to it during the training week.

“We still have a way to go and we have some very good set-piece teams we will be playing, but a young pack has a good connection in how it wants to scrum. The lineout is not as straightforward as it has been in the past. There are teams who will back themselves and put a lot of pressure on certain areas which makes it harder to start mauls. Sarries do that very well and we were caught in a double defensive pod by Gloucester last week which made it tough.

“You have to hold your nerve and get things right, but there have been a number of games this season where lineout defence has been a key factor and I think that will continue because teams are more likely to gamble on winning the ball, especially in the middle third because that is where you get your chance when you have a throw.”