Apart from communication, ARG can also learn from how RSA attempted to attack(and also learn from RSA’s mistakes in failing to capitalise on the breaks that their key playmakers create). Sanchez has a booming boot which is extremely useful.
Also, i think copying some of SA’s plays would help, with a class pass from 10 to get outside the defence being the cornerstone of their wide strikes. Le Roux tends to chip in the 15 m zones, and this can be replicated to a decent degree with a 10/15 of Sanchez/Carreras

Springbok attack 

For all the talk of misfiring options on attack, i think this instance can prove it all wrong

yeah i think Cooper/Marcus Smith is good for exploiting a defence, while the likes of Farrell/Lolesio are better for striking holes(which must be there in the first place). Eg Marcus Smith and Cooper lead their respective attacks to beat the Springboks-because of their short ball and fluidic interchanging playstyle.
On the other hand, Pollard, Biggar, Sanchez are somewhere in between…. These guys excel on high quality individual phases with great passing/kicking and extremely good accuracy….but they have the vision and anticipation to build as well. They are pacey but not lightning quick, while they are less subtle and more sharp & direct.
Concerning Argentina, they need to recognise that to build a team you need the constructive attacking 10 instead of the transitional attacker, and thus the passing and creating game is more important than the individual running game. Sanchez, like Pollard/Biggar are very good in bringing runners onto the ball and taking structured options, but isn’t so much of a transition wide striking attacker. He has some positive passages for Argentina, but he kicked way too much to be effective. They need to have a strong momentous structure because the 1-3-3-1 is becoming increasingly outdated. It’s either crash through or wide-to-wide, as compared to the 1-3-2-2, or a 3-3-2, where the decision-makers can use the quality of pass to select the runners.
Against a lower-level team a transition attacker is better, while against structured defences you need a structured attacking game(as Sanchez demonstrated)

Hi FR, insightful and complex article, your comparison between Sanchez and carreras is very interesting: Sanchez is a classic 10-think Johnny Wilkinson: strong distribution, traditional kicking game, natural eye for space. Carreras is a wild card-like Damian Willemse for the Boks:Big boot, agile broken play strike. The attributes of Carreras resemble a quality 15 more…..
What they can learn from the Boks is to use a distributor at 10 and play flat (or dovetail) of first receiver.
The Boks really implemented a proper attacking structure in the autumn, which means the 10/12/13/15 are fixed as a combo to execute the explosive sharp plays they use.

SA lost the game marginally but 2 penalty misses from 10(Pollard) and one conversion miss from 22(Janjities) which would have made it a 7 point win. England worked out the Bok defence twice, once through lovely passing on quick strike, once on phaseplay. England played better in terms of taking their chances and making them count
I think Pollard was great with the ball in hand, giving his classic flat passes, and the kicking was okay, far from great. The Boks will rue their missed chances, while England took theirs.
TaSanalytics made an interesting ref analysis here, Kwagga’s disallowed penalty try if correctly awarded…well, would have made the Boks win.
Kudos to England, but if Nienaber says that the Boks aren’t where they need to be yet, in fact far from it, they will be superb in attack, defence, kicking, and hopefully goal-kicking all-round when they are where they want to be. Even not at their best, they still are no. 1 in the world. A decent year which leaves many learning points for the 2019 World Champions

This year, Springboks and Nienaber lost 3 straight games. People were calling for the management to get sacked and the key decision makers(Faf, Pollard, Wille), who honestly were far below their excellent standards, to be dropped.
The Boks stuck to their coaching team, kept their 9/10/15 playmaking and kicking axis. They beat Wales and the All Blacks, and with a rotational change of Pollard for Janjities, they also beat Scotland.
The coaching team demonstrated the ability to adapt their game plan-they attacked smartly and sharply against Wales, Scotland, and England. It wasn’t flash but it was strong.
The All Blacks looked to do the same, but the thing is that they didn’t adapt to rush defence or develop an in built kicking game.
Thus, it is no surprise that both Ireland and France could pose convincing scorelines over them.
Speaking of their attack, compare two instances between the Boks and the ABs.

View post on imgur.com

Pollard(10) stands deep and gives a precise flat pass to De Allende to burst the shooting line
No guy is in space, so Mo’unga distributes. The loop to Havilli isn’t on, but they aren’t targeting the half gaps which England, RSA, Wallabies, France, Ireland work so hard to exploit. Thus, this will be the main reason behind their lack of continuel attacking game that cant score enough points against teams like France that are more than capable of putting so many points on you as well

Most elite teams-England, Boks, Ireland, Wales-like to pass well off 9 and 10(or 13 and 15) , ruck and recycle, and compress the defence before striking wide. The ABs don’t build ruck and recycle patterns and thus their strike play potence is naturally halved

Pollard and Wille have that connection on counter-attack. Yes, i haven’t seen the same quality of playing to and for each other when they launch attacks off high bal

Their most successful period was with Cubelli at 9 and Sanchez at 10-that NZL game. Cubelli is still quite good, not world class tho

Argentina have played about 9 games, have lost 6. 3 wins, two solid ones against top opposition in Wales(who in my opinion should be 5/6/7) and then 6 straight losses in the RC. The SH sides of Aus, RSA, and NZL are like the Big 3 of rugby at the moment, just like how the bIg 6 was in the EPL. Should Argentina join the 6N, they would beat Italy at least, but he other 5-well, I’m not too sure. Miotti at FB? Two power centres- de la fuente and Chocabares, a complete package 10 in sanchez and quick ball of cubelli. Power play off 10, can they shift the point of focus?

Hey Harry, do you suggest Du Toit or Kwagga. Those are both 7s. I love to have my cake and eat it, so i say 6-7-8 of Kolisi, Kwagga, Vermuelen. Du Toit at 5.

Sanchez is the man. Great player, was brilliant last year but his form slipped without ball and the attempt to attack-crash-kick pattern. I saw Carreras play last year- i thought his distribution wasn’t great. Will Jordan made two intercepts off him, but he isn’t a great option-taker, and they didn’t give him much protection from the pressure. I think Sanchez would have created those two tries instead of gifting them.
Carreras is not a bad player, but simply not a flyhalf.

QC doesn’t have hard fast balls, though he is capable of it. He just keeps picking the right option, and giving optimal distribution. Good for 1-3-2-2. i recall the last few sides that used 1-3-3-1.
Allister Coetzee Boks-lost 57-0 against All Blacks
2019 ABs-lost in SF to England
2019 Wallabies-knocked out in QF
This is not to blame the 1-3-3-1. While it is made of dynamic attacking play, it’s built on heavy power plays and it cannot be the only structure. The Boks have the biggest pack ever, so they can go 2-2-2-2, though i doubt any other team would use that for crashing up, tho Eddie Jones Japan used it for expansive rugby.
I think it’s a good system, but can get easily worked out due to the easily recognisable shape of 3-pods and the playmakers.
They should try 2-2-2-2, use Sanchez as a distributor. They don’t have the quality of the second playmaker for 1-3-3-1 or 1-3-2-2. Playing 2-pass phases can be a bit toiling, but once again i stress the quality of pass and the option-taking of Sanchez is up there with the likes of Pollard, Biggar, Finn, Mo’unga-basically the best in the world.

They’re becoming like the All Blacks now. There’s competition in every position. However, I think Pollard can create very well but he doesn’t have that waiting, lurking x-factor unlike EJ. Skills are about the same, while Pollard can pass flat very well, his flat lining is not as good as EJ. Pollard is still a top 10, and i want to see EJ 10, Pollard 12 against England.
OE my bias but i still think Pollard’s quality of pass is top-notch and edges out most world-class 10s. (Maybe not Finn, Biggar’s certainly somewhere around his level)

Cheers FR. Love your youtube analysis-it’s really great.
I think their attack is okay, the problem is the decision-making. Cubelli has quick ball, and he did see opportunity. If Carreras(10) ran the pocket line on that phase, it would have been good. Also, the last bit where they decided to bomb it into the 22, was a mega-mistake. There was an overlap, and a wide pass or a flat grubber would have done the trick. I don’t think Carreras is a bad player, he’s a promising talent, and the mistake he made was committed by Pollard and Biggar(but to be fair the kicking structure killed any passing for the two playmakers).
Sanchez is good, just needs to have a more creative structure. 1-3-2-2, or 1-3-3-1 with the playmakers playing through the two 3-pods, like how the Boks like to: https://imgur.com/lWad1y6

Not sure Erasmus was behind that burner….Nice analysis of the kick-chase, i didn’t notice that from before. Herschel and Cobus can’t kick as well as Faf, but Cobus has that speed and skill it’s a shame to see him on the bench

Cobus is my man for the 9 jersey. Maybe i like seeing Pollard getting the ball a bit more. Faf has the best pass and kick, but he falls into kick-mode way too often.

https://imgur.com/xTiEh1
the gif for the phaseplay development(DDA initial break and pollard grubber to am) was missed out, here it is

Pollard is playing 12 for Montpellier right now…not much ball

Great to see Janjities and WLR coming back.

Midfield is nailed down so far. 10-12-13 are all extremely good, skilful. DDA is the most established and a heavy power ball carrier. Am has slick hands and really good vision. Pollard-I’ve described him more than enough.
The wings of Mapimpi and Kolbe are certain-one is the most electric sidestepper in the world, the other is one of the most clinical speedy finishers.
Only questions are 9 and 15.
Faf slows down the ball a bit more, and as we saw Herschel give quicker ball and check his 10 a lot more against Wales. My pick is Reinach, as he and Pollard just have that connection from playing together and Montpellier. Also, his ball delivery is quick and good-not an assertive presence at rucks and Pollard is mostly the key figure. Faf has the best skillset, but he likes to slow the ball down a lot. He has the best box-kick also, so you can’t really drop him.

I would say the new system they are adopting could uose a WLR, but perhaps he’s not the right kind of guy. If your 10 is a great player and isn’t getting much ball in the middle third of the field by width.
Playing off Pollard is more reliant on quality passes manipulating the line and big ball-carriers. However, they aren’t going anywhere without big carries. There were few 15m zone attacking strikes that they did, perhaps that they don’t attack well in the middle zone.
Wille Le Roux has one of the best passing hands in the world like Pollard, and his ball-handling, vision are top-notch. His high ball is atrocious post-Lions, but he’s a unique player. High ball and defence aside, he was quite good-made some big kicks and tackled like a beast at times.
I think Pollard and Le Roux have a natural connection and they look to take the ball to the line and pass crisp balls, playing to and for each other, even in kick-receive plays(final passages in Townsville).
Le Roux is crucial for massive strike plays, because a flyhalf spinning it wide doesn’t work well, we saw that against Australia.
I think they should keep Le Roux, but give Pollard more control in the 15m strike zones instead of just having WLR step in all the time.

Pollard built and executed two clear-cut opportunities-the grubbers to Am, Mapimpi. His passing was very good also.
One great pass to KoLISI and another deep flat ball to DDA. Few people notice it, but quality of pass(the quality of spin, speed of travel, and angle of pass ) are the subtle differences that creates attacking opportunities.
Shame none of them were used properly. If Mapimpi held the ball and offloaded, it would have been a try. An offload from Am would have been a try-pass.

Nice to see EJ get a start for a change. With two strike-attack players as compared to a main controller, will be interesting to watch. I think Pollard played generally very well against Wales, but he didn’t get much ball. Particularly like his 4 line-break assists, few in World Rugby could pass the ball with his quality or grubber so deftly.

Cheers. He could pass enough to facilitate attack, kick solidly, and smash in insane kicks. The GOAT no. 22?

Interesting post. Pollard had a couple of attacking passages or Montpellier-classy distributor working hard in the background-humble guy and great flyhalf