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It’s a question with no right or wrong answer – do coaches impede the effectiveness of their team’s attack through the frequent use of structures?
Some will say players aren’t robots and should be given licence to make decisions on how to attack based on what’s happening on the field.
This view can probably be summed up by the statement ‘let the players work it out for themselves – they’re on the field, not the coach.’
David Campese often expresses frustrations on Twitter at what he sees as over-coaching when there is a frequent use of structures and multi-phase plays in a game plan set by the coach. Others say that every team should have some base structures in place so that everyone in the team knows what’s happening next.
Of course, if an opportunity arises outside of the structure, it should be taken regardless of whether it was planned or not.
I’m firmly in the latter camp. As defences get better and better, it gets harder and harder to make line breaks, so attacking structures and multi-phase plays are a very important element.
The All Blacks play a very structured style of rugby, as do the Crusaders. This year we’ve seen an increased use of structures by the Waratahs, who are now the best attacking team in Super Rugby.
In my articles last week I showed you how the ‘Tahs are using a lot of decoy plays, even in general phase play. These are structures that everyone in the team knows and are initiated through the use of a specific call to implement a play – they’re not something the players come up with on-field.
My 3D analysis today looks at the simple structure the Tahs are using with their forwards to:
There are plenty of threats offered by the individual Waratah players, but it’s their forwards getting over the gain line that’s driving their attacking potency, and the effectiveness of their forwards is built on the frequent use of this structure.
The Tahs played really well against the Highlanders but on a closer review their execution still offers a lot of room for improvement, particularly the inaccuracy of much of their passing.
If they can find that improvement over the next few weeks, combined with their home ground advantage, they’re going to be very hard to beat in the finals.