The 2013 Brumbies were coached by IRB Hall of Famer Jake White.
His achievement list includes coaching the South African under 21s to a World Cup win in 2002 and then backing up with the South African senior side to a win in 2007.
2013 was a successful year for the Brumbies team as they made the Super Rugby final just falling short to the Chiefs and defeated the touring British and Irish Lions 14-12, becoming the first provincial side to do so since 1997.
For the season they had a 3-win 2-loss record against Kiwi opposition, with one loss being by five points in the final versus the Chiefs and the other being a seven-point loss to the Crusaders (a home game which they were actually 1.60 favourites with the bookies to win).
The Brumbies’ game plan was a simple age-old rugby strategy: territory and pressure. They played the ball deep in the opponent’s half through their kicking game (they made the second most kick metres in the comp) and then pressured the breakdown to win penalties and turnovers. And it worked. They scored a lot of points and conceded very little:
They had the fourth best attack in the competition scoring 430 points.
They had the second best defence in the competition conceding only 295 points.
Simple, effective and classic rugby.
If you contrast the Brumbies of 2013 to the Australian Super Rugby teams of today, it is like night and day. Our teams uniformly play a game based on possession and not territory and have foregone breakdown pressure to ‘have more men in the defensive line’.
And the results… well we all just have to sit through the embarrassment of 23 losses to just two wins to the Super Rugby TT.
Matt To’omua, Scott Sio, Nic White, Ian Prior and Tevita Kuridrani. These are all players who were in that 2013 Brumbies team who are still playing in Australian Super Rugby teams.
All good senior players. I find it hard to believe that they don’t have memories of playing in a team that had such success against the Kiwis and the British and Irish Lions. Aren’t they sick of losing now? Us fans sure are.
Surely, they can see that they are playing by a completely flawed strategy and might have a word in the coach’s ear. But, not one Australian coach has noticeably changed their team’s game plan after getting thumped week in week out in TT. No breakdown pressure, no territory.
(Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images)
Sadly too, I look at Dave Rennie’s Wallabies squad and think is that a pack that can win you the ball back? No, would definitely be the answer. It is predominantly running pack. It takes a lot of two or three metre runs by a forward pack to equal a 40-metre punt to the corner.
I remember my earlier years of watching Australian rugby yelling at the TV “Don’t kick again! Just have a go!”. Now I yell “Kick the bloody thing! You are running into a brick wall!”.
When we were defending, I would say “Oh no, not another penalty! Get your hands out of the ruck” Now I yell “Get in the breakdown! The Kiwis are just gonna run in another try if you give them a free ride… oh no, is that five? five tries for Sean Wainui?”
Yep, Australian Rugby has changed pretty quickly and not for the better unfortunately. Like a lot of fans, I will continue to watch in hope for a change.
numpty
Roar Rookie
Stewart, paisami and JOC all made grubbers from halfway into Oppo 22 during srau, some of which were 50:22s. But didn't see this used in srtt.
Rhys Bosley
Roar Pro
You are right, McKeller built a running attack onto the traditional Jake Ball attack off the lineout, providing additional opinions to score if the rolling maul didn’t get the job done. It was a step ahead but still relied heavily on kicking for territory, preferably after drawing a penalty, and playing the ball in the opposition 22, like Jakeball. Where it fell apart was when the Reds learned to match the Brumbies forwards and kicking game, stay in touch with good goal kicking and then having backs who could score from anywhere on the park as fatigue set in. The scrum was of course also a strength, but the Reds ability to play what is in front of them was a critical point of difference. The Brumbies appear to have started to allow their backs to run it more in TT and while they have lots of work to do to catch up to the Reds, I definitely think their evolution will make them more competitive.
Bentnuc
Roar Pro
Good points. Putting it out from a kick is a big one you touch on. Can you remember one time an ozzie team put the ball out from a kick (not from our own 22)? I can’t, I really can’t recall once we found grass and went over the sideline in their half from all the games I watched. People were talking about how Ireland have done well against the kiwis in recent years. Finding the sideline in the opp 22 was Sextons favourite move in his prime and put the opposition under massive pressure. Never ever done in oz rugby nowdays. I have seen every game Ireland has played since 2012 and in the schmidt era they very very rarely played in their own half.
Bentnuc
Roar Pro
The possession we gave the kiwi teams was in good territory or when we were under pressure from their defence because we held onto the ball too long. The kiwis knew all they had to do was kick it to us and we would predictably run the ball one out into a brick wall of defence until they forced a turnover or penalty. Then they either scored off the turnover ball or were well within our 22 to attack. We only kicked it whenever we were in our own 22 (which happened often because we played too much footy around the half way line and never kicked to their 22)
numpty
Roar Rookie
Yes but this is Aus, not NZ and we can't counter attack like they do or defend them. SA had fast line speed, one of the factors I noted in a winning formula. But they did not win the sky and let in multiple tries from counter attacks because they kicked so often (still not as often as NZ). You can kick but put it out. Be physical in the tackle but be very selective on hitting the ruck.
Woolfe
Roar Rookie
Well we saw the results when you give possession to the best and most skilful attacking teams in the world.
Rhys Bosley
Roar Pro
Yup, I remember it well.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Yup
Ex force fan
Guest
I would rate the Force fiasco as a much greater Pulver disaster. It cost him his job along with his executive team and several Board members and split the rugby community and we still haven’t recovered. It hand-over control of RA to NSW and QLD as well.
jcmasher
Roar Rookie
Yeah but a lot of that was also because all kiwi teams can pass both ways, catch and pass, tackle and transition from defence to attack and back really fast. All stemming from being able to make good decisions under pressure. All skills that most Australian players only have some of
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
Also Rennie viewed his reserves as "spark plugs" who could make things happen, whereas White kept the experience on. So we had Pulu making breaks from 9, Aki making the first break for the winning try and the fullback Robinson racing through the gap to score. Whereas Nic White and your 15 made decisive kicking errors near the end.
Bentnuc
Roar Pro
Cheers SW, you are right it is a basic template and I agree I can't recall too many successful teams that havent used it. None of our super rugby teams have used this template in the last 6 or 7 years
Bentnuc
Roar Pro
Brilliant post. It shows how quickly the right strategy can turn around a team. We missed out big time
Bentnuc
Roar Pro
Yeh very true. You hit the nail on the head with rugby trying to compete with AFL and NRL. But unfortunatley the ball in hand approach has backfired because the results are so poor that no casual punters even care about rugby anymore.
Bentnuc
Roar Pro
Yep JN no one comes to watch "entertaining" losers do they :laughing: Although our current style of play isnt even entertaining in my oppinion.
Bentnuc
Roar Pro
Yep, great call Tooly. We had the chance in late 2018 when they were in talk with White again to replace cheika but that flew by too. Im no saying that his coaching strategies are the be all and end all but we could certainly benefit from a move more to that style of play
Bentnuc
Roar Pro
Cheers Jacko, us armchair coaches have no voice (or hair) left by now!
Bentnuc
Roar Pro
I see where you are coming from and everything evolves but playing territory is a common and successful strategy still in rugby and many other sports. If one of our Aus teams tried it I'm sure the results would be better
Bentnuc
Roar Pro
Cheers Rebel, good stats there. If you look throughout any rugby stats as you say there is a very high correlation between teams that kick often and winning. I'm not saying kick for the sake of it and as you say we need to kick more but smarter. A lot of our kicks have been low percentage chips and regathers when the game is already passed use too. Australian teams used to have differing gameplans. In 2011 the Tahs kicked the most in SR and Reds 2nd most. The Rebels kicked the least. The Reds won the cup, Tahs made the play offs and Rebels finished dead last. It all changed after the Tahs won the trophy in 2014 kicking very little. All of Aus super rugby have adopted the same approach and we all know the results since
Bentnuc
Roar Pro
I see where you are coming from however you know who has the best record against the kiwi teams... the other kiwi teams. None of which play possession, they all play territory, attack the breakdowns hard, and do the majority of their attacking damage on the 1st phase. All the oz teams kicked less and won less turnovers than the kiwi counterparts in TT. Possession is the style of game all of Aus rubgy have played since the cheika era and the results speak for themselves. SA last 4 results versus the kiwis (Since Rassie took over and implemented a territory based game plan) have been a win, draw and 2 losses (2 points and 10 points).