Opinion
The figurehead flyhalf is definitely a statement of a team’s personality. However, a certain archetype has increasingly died out in today’s modern game. The shift towards athleticism and structure does give one definitive statement on the dearth of technicality in today’s game.
Think about the top 10s in today’s modern game. Richie Mo’unga, Romain Ntamack or Marcus Smith. They fit into the model of a modern 10, no longer the rigid lynchpin, they are allowed to flow through the attack with silky skills and extremely good pace and agility.
The floating flyhalf is the way to go, and the team hides them within the attack to strike when opportunities open up. Rugby, like soccer, seems to produce more and more system players. Ross Byrne, has locked down his place in the Irish squad as a near like for like cover of sexton.
In fact, most technical 10s have failed to make their mark. Jack Carty, for all his magic and Connacht excellence, has had few and far between starts for Ireland.
Even Sanchez, has struggled last season to get any game time, and was dropped from the starting Puma side. Argentina has looked for kick transition players with link up skills, a role that Santiago Carreras and Domingo Miotti have fulfilled perfectly.
However, we must first define a technical 10.
The idea of a technical 10 is in fact, is a playmaker that injects quality into every touch, unreliant on structure. Even without clean breaks, he fires his team forwards. Under pressure, he finds the way to turn it into a decent play. And on attack, few moves are required, but the clear and accurate decision making to unlock space and opportunities around him.
On top of their consistent sharpness with the ball in hand without the implementation of a strict structure, they tend to bring their brilliance everywhere they go, instead of needing a team to build around them. Their well-rounded skillset allows them to create plays in any attack.
The trademark wide positioning and triple threat follows them wherever they go, and was also a feature of Dan Carter’s game.
Here, he runs onto the ball in a wide line, using an excellent pass to unleash Nonu into space, beating the Bok cover. Nonu steps and straightens, creating a critical try for Barrett. It was this wide positioning and cool decision-making that allowed Carter to be a great flyhalf, not just his metronomic record off the tee or his breaking ability.
Sanchez has the same clarity and guileful execution laced into every aspect of his game.
Sanchez has a good step off both feet and has eyes in both directions, equally adept off both hands. He fires a long mispass to set up in space on the left edge, before running a perfect unders play.
Ball in two hands, right to the line. Most 10s would often go for the disconnect and try to step or pass through there, but Sanchez does not get tempted by the small hole, instead sticking to the best option and releasing the backs outside him.
The Brive shape changes on the fly, as Sanchez organises the Diamond formation on the second phase, allowing them to attack wide.
Once again, an excellent pass and a wide line to straighten and draw defenders. His pass action is extremely crisp and efficient, and he can fire the ball away quickly and easily.
Under a strong press, Sanchez has soft handling to get the ball away in contact, as well as the ability to resist the temptation of cheap metres.
With his agility, he could easily double-pump and get a highlight reel moment. However, sensing the overlap, he clears it to a forward, who despite over-running his line gets the ball into space.
Once again, he is a master of breaking down linespeed. He sees the shooting defender, so plays the flat pass to a forward, who can take the hole and generate momentum against a rushing defence. In modern rugby, many 10s emerge but few are truly linespeed resistant.
Finn Russell, Sexton, Farrell, and Handre Pollard seem to show that quality, but the former does that through 50/50 plays, with the latter three only managing this through an integrated attack structure.
Sanchez neither needs the risk or the constructions-he just develops his position and the attack on the fly, making consistent decisions.
It’s not just narrow plays that he’s linespeed resistant, he remains composed on wide plays and pushes the right buttons to get the backline going.
The scraggy possession sees him confronted with a rush defence, but he recovers, darting smartly and releasing the cutout ball to put his backs into space. I feel Brive’s backs pass the ball too soon, which killed what would have almost certainly been a linebreak masterminded by his technicality.
The stylistic strengths may seem like bread and butter play, but its proficiency and consistency are top-notch. Many 10s excel due to a structure built around their strengths and weaknesses, but Sanchez sets and evolves that structure over the course of a match, constantly shaping the lines his runners are hitting.
The technicality of such a 10 is rare to find and extremely niche-it’s easier to find a 90kg guy who can run straight and pass decently, or a fullback convert who’s adept at attacking off a pod, rather than a guy who blends basics and attacking spark to become a complete creator.
The 9 has been running much of the heavy crashball plays in general, for most sides these days. The idea of a modern 10 is a composed game-breaker, who steps in as a canonball off the 9, instead of running the ship himself. We’ve seen this with France, in Ntamack.
That’s not to say that a technical 10 does not quite have the breaking ability. Sanchez has been a solid side-stepper and a sharp option-taker.
The problem however, is that modern teams revolve around a system rather than a style, which means that technical tens do not have the clarity in their options anymore. One fine example would be Dan Biggar’s increasing ineffectiveness with Wales, in contrast to his excellent ball playing at Toulon.
Nicolas Sanchez (Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)
Too often, there were no real options set up, as the pod structures degraded into a lateral line. Biggar’s wide positioning and the narrow alignments counteract each other, making him extremely predictable.
Biggar’s played well in 2020/2021 of the Pivac era, but the lack of a kicking game saw the Welsh attack structures grow stodgy and get chewed up in 2022, Biggar stuck in the mire.. In 2023, things became even bleaker.Yet, despite the claims of him not being an elite 10 in terms of playmaking, his performances for Toulon showed just why he is a general.
A technical 10 does not need tight structures, but for players to adjust their running lines: hardline, arc, straight, or support based on the 10’s actions for the 10 to thrive and flourish.
Although Brive are bottom of the league, you see a lethality each time they get the ball, and work off Sanchez.
Dan Biggar and Wales are a cautionary tale-and thus more and more players are fitting into a system, or established players having systems built around them. However, Sanchez remains a gold standard for the technical tasks in a flyhalf’s jurisdiction, a reminder of the vintage class of the golden generation in Carter and Giteau.
He may not have the fairy tale comeback in 2023, but his goal-kicking seems as good as ever and his passing and attacking have been incredibly sharp this season, and serve as a template for the basics of playing 10.
PS-Disclaimer: This is not to say that Sanchez is stylistically the best 10 in the world, just saying he is a last of a kind. Guys of an integrated attack system like Farrell and Pollard are class, and so are creative magicians like Ntamack and Mo’unga. It’s just that this style of playing 10 is a dying art and should be appreciated before it goes extinct.
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