The coach who guided Fiji to gold and our resident columnist
BEN RYAN
F
IFTEEN-A-SIDE
rugbyincreasingly
looks like 14- or
13-a-side as cards
seem to be coming out
with more frequency. The
U20 World Cup had yellow
and red cards issued that
significantly influenced the
outcome of matches.
There’s a zero-tolerance
approach to high tackles
and a rise in rucks means
an increase in the number
of possible penalised acts.
Unfortunately some ruck
laws are being ignored, but it remains
likely that teams will end up without
their full contingent on more than a few
occasions at the World Cup in Japan.
Four years planning could go down the
drain with an early red card. Or will it?
What can you do to mitigate the impact
it will have? Similarly, if your opponents
suddenly lose a player (or two), how do
you maximise that numerical superiority?
I’m going to focus on red cards, where
the effect is greater and the thinking has
to be cleverer. There are lots of moving
parts, such as score, weather, time left
and the position you lose. Lose a winger
and you’re likely to keep the team as it
is; lose a hooker, half-back or goalkicker
and it probably triggers a substitution.
Then you have to decide who goes off.
Normally it is a winger or a back-rower.
Defensively decisions also have to be
made. If your policy was to contest every
ruck, you might need to pick your battles
more carefully. If it’s an opposition scrum
or lineout deep in their half, keep a full
back-line and lose a back-row. In your22, it’s the opposite as the set-piece
might need to be negated, then utilise
the nine and full-back more defensively.
I’d put a proviso in, though, that if you
lose a forward and ask a back to go into
a scrum or lineout, make sure they have
done it before or it could be a waste of
time. We’ve all seen backs try to bind on
a scrum when they have less than no
idea what they are doing. Makes for a
viral video but won’t help the team.
Coaches can do a ‘pre-mortem’ –
present what-if scenarios to get players
problem-solving. Do a team run-through
and tell players the ten has been sent
off. Give them the scoreline and time left,
then let them decide what to do next.
Throw in scenarios to get them thinking
and feeling in control. Listen to their
decision-making process and let it
unfold. Then chat about it afterwards.
Losing a player can stiffen the sinews
and provide more focus. It isn’t always
a death knell if you make the right
decisions and use coping strategies, so
preparation like this helps. Team sportcan be a strange beast and
don’t underestimate the
power of cohesion when
a team feels hard done
by or under the cosh.
If you are on the other
end of the decision and
playing a team one light,
it’s all about manipulating
the space to expose the
hole left by the player
they have lost. If it’s a
back-rower, a little more
attacking play around the
fringes to engineer half a
gap might be the answer.
Why not use a back-row move?
If your plan was to have short lineouts,
revert to a full lineout to make the extra
man count. Squeeze at the scrum too.
If the red card has meant a positional
switch, a winger moving to full-back or
centre for example, look to get into their
defensive space and see if their systems
still work. You will probably have worked
out their pod system in attack, too, and
will be able to see if they have kept it
but left themselves light in one area.
That might trigger a counter-ruck call.
It might be that you don’t do anything
other than continue to play your game,
but you need to run through the process
so you either make the most of having
the extra man, or reduce or even negate
the situation if you’re a man down.
Losing a player early in the game is a
blow to every team, but it should never
be a knockout blow if you have the right
decision-making process. Teams in this
World Cup are going to have to do that
and their resulting actions could make
or break their title challenge. n“A red card isn’t a death knell if you
use the right coping strategies”
Pivotal moment
Sam Warburton was sent
off for this tackle in 2011