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Are the Wallabies overemphasising attack off the lineout?

Roar Guru
6th January, 2018
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Wallabies coach Michael Cheika needs to avoid picking too many older players this year. (Photo by Jason O'Brien/Getty Images)
Roar Guru
6th January, 2018
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1484 Reads

If there is a signature characteristic of the Wallabies that has developed since the 2015 World Cup, it is the variety of attacking moves off the lineout that we see them converting into tries.

I take that to be Stephen Larkham’s influence as attack coach, as that was what the Brumbies started doing after Jake White left that club, though in 2017 we didn’t see it so much. I put this down to the Brumbies best playmakers, Matt Toomua and Christian Leiliifano, having left and their replacements not being quite up to it.

Some of the Australian commentators of Larkham’s era have also spoken about how the team in the 1990s and 2000s had dozens of attacking moves off the lineout, which suggests to me that it might be Larkham’s influence. One comment, I think by Greg Martin, stood out for me. After a particularly spectacular try off the lineout, the commentator enthused that “in training you spend hours and hours on these moves”.

Reflecting on the inconsistent and disappointing year for the Wallabies, I wonder if too much time is being invested in practising these moves at the expense of things like honing defence, breakdown and set piece skills, kicking, handling, restarts and exits.

The midyear Scotland test in particular demonstrated how a well-drilled team of players who would generally be considered less talented in the attacking sense can embarrass the Wallabies by just making fewer mistakes and having individuals good enough to capitalise on Wallabies errors. The theme was repeated on a number of occasions throughout the season, with the Wallabies showing plenty of talent in attack but letting themselves down with errors and ill-discipline.

(AAP Image/David Moir)

There are a couple of points to consider here. Firstly, adding set piece running attacks from the set piece to the Brumbies repertoire worked reasonably well for Larkham at the Brumbies, and I happen to think that during 2016 he was very unlucky with injuries to key players and should have done better in the competition.

However, it has to be remembered that the Brumbies had the unfairly maligned ‘Jakeball’ drilled into their DNA by that stage, so their defence, kicking and forward work was already rock solid. Larkham could most likely afford to spend more time on lineout moves because the platform was there, while this is not the case with the Wallabies.

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Secondly, I understand that Michael Cheika was hamstrung by receiving a team of players out of underperforming Super Rugby franchises last year, hence skills that he might expect to be up to scratch by the time June came around weren’t there.

However, that probably gives even more reason to focus on the basics instead of lineout moves. He certainly emphasised improving the Wallabies’ fitness prior to June, and I suspect that had he insisted the team spend as much time developing bulletproof basics, the Wallabies would have had a much better season.

Thirdly, I know that the Wallabies have been under pressure from the Rugby Australia suits to play an ‘entertaining Australian brand’ of running rugby, but I would suggest that Australians find nothing less entertaining than losing.

(Jason O’Brien/Getty Images)

Moreover, Australian rugby players already have the skills to instinctively play entertaining rugby, probably due to the emphasis on running football in rugby union as well as in rugby league and touch football, with all of our players playing one or more of these games from a young age.

Spending less time on set-piece attack isn’t going to stop Will Genia running 40 metres off the base of the scrum to set up a try or Reece Hodge or Israel Folau scoring off an intercept or Kurtley Beale finding space where there is none to put one of his teammates away. The list of entertaining but instinctive Wallabies attacking plays goes on. I don’t think that stepping back on the set-piece plays would undermine the entertainment value of the game whatsoever.

Finally, the benchmark for entertaining running rugby, the All Blacks, don’t seem to emphasise lineout attacks at all, with their attack seeming entirely instinctive and based on micro skills.

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I remember another comment in a slightly derisive tone by a Kiwi commentator about the Brumbies along the lines of, “Here is another one of their big flash lineout moves”, which is perhaps an indication the value given to these sorts of tactics across the ditch. It seems to me that the time the Kiwis spend practising stealing lineouts to ensure that the Australian lineout move never happens is better spent than what the Wallabies are doing with their lineout attacks.

I hope that Michael Cheika inherits better prepared players come June this year than last, but I also hope he emphasises basics over complex attacking moves from the start.

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