Skill of the round

First topic message reminder :

My call:

Rougerie's one handed quarterback style offload, whilst on his back on the floor.


Do you agree?

I remember thinking at the time, who the hells that giant winger?!?!?!?!

oh, its croft, makes sense hes out there instead of supporting his 2nd row colleague charging forward

From the camera behind the posts all you see is a wall of big men in white closing in like a net and a small red dot evading them.

oh, its croft, makes sense hes out there instead of supporting his 2nd row colleague charging forward

Well if Lawes had looked, rather than merely dipping his head and running into the nearest defenders, there was quite the overlap out wide with the majority of England's backrow and centres waiting to attack. Ben Youngs was shouting at him to get the ball away from the contact.

From the camera behind the posts all you see is a wall of big men in white closing in like a net and a small red dot evading them..

Evading? Pretty much a straight line run in, he didn't have to pull any 'ickle Shane style moves out. He must have known it was all good when the ball bounced straight into his hands, even then Croft was inches away with the tap tackle.

If Croft had pulled off that tap-tackle (which would have been ridiculous), I would have personally baked him a cake

Was it Croft out wide who tried the diving the cover tackle? id assumed it was Strettle

I'm pretty sure it was Croft, PSW.

Am sure there's a pic when Scott goes over that shows Strettle still chasing him in the background, when the guy who did that attempted cover tackle was still sprawled on the floor

formerly known as Sam wrote:

oh, its croft, makes sense hes out there instead of supporting his 2nd row colleague charging forward

Well if Lawes had looked, rather than merely dipping his head and running into the nearest defenders, there was quite the overlap out wide with the majority of England's backrow and centres waiting to attack. Ben Youngs was shouting at him to get the ball away from the contact.

From the camera behind the posts all you see is a wall of big men in white closing in like a net and a small red dot evading them..

Evading? Pretty much a straight line run in, he didn't have to pull any 'ickle Shane style moves out. He must have known it was all good when the ball bounced straight into his hands, even then Croft was inches away with the tap tackle.

Lawes really was awful in that little passage of play. Goes for contact when there are men out wide screaming for the ball, then gets it ripped off him by a centre who runs in for the try. Also I thought Croft had a good game.

Yeah what he should have done is chucked a suicide pas like Youngs had a few minutes earlier , ceded posession and let Wales score a turn over penalty. Everyones slagging him for doing that, then Lawes does the opposite and gets abussed for it.
Instead he took the pragamatic decision to keep the ball safe, mantain possesion and push up the field gradualy.

Realisticaly how often do we see a Wales player even try and strip the ball? Its not exactly something he wouldve predicted when calculating the percentages.

I was only joking regarding Croft, he had a good game.

Pete, its actually something Wales have been doing very well every game since the world cup warm ups, part of their defence work is dedicated to 1. sealing off the ball in the tackle itself (creating slow ball to start with, before they get their hands in there) or 2. trying to rip it from the attacker as another defender goes low.

it was point 2. that was perfectly worked on Lawes when he ran away from support. This defensive training, and how its evolved is one of the reasons the welsh defence is so much better than it used to be. they seem to enjoy it!

Wales players very often go to strip the ball, especially the Scarlets ones. It's something both the Scarlets and Wales train at. Roberts, Hook and Scott Williams are the three main players that usually go for it though.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Yeah what he should have done is chucked a suicide pas like Youngs had a few minutes earlier , ceded posession and let Wales score a turn over penalty. Everyones slagging him for doing that, then Lawes does the opposite and gets abussed for it.
Instead he took the pragamatic decision to keep the ball safe, mantain possesion and push up the field gradualy.

Realisticaly how often do we see a Wales player even try and strip the ball? Its not exactly something he wouldve predicted when calculating the percentages.

Or he could have just thrown a simple pass?

Also he certainly did make the ball safe didn't he.. maintained the possession perfectly.

It was a much easier game for Croft to get involved in. The tight affairs with limited ball movement and emphasis on contact don't suit him. Plentiful kick chases and wider attacking plays are what suit him and it showed, he was probably the pick of the backrow this week.

These one handed offloads. They're only good when the supporting player gets them. So where's the 'Wow' - with the offloader or the offloadee? I say the offloadee makes the offloader look good...and if he misses he can make the offloader look dense

SecretFly wrote:These one handed offloads. They're only good when the supporting player gets them. So where's the 'Wow' - with the offloader or the offloadee? I say the offloadee makes the offloader look good...and if he misses he can make the offloader look dense

Very true. I remember having a debate about why Nonu is better than SBW, and why I thought SBW was pretty overrated. NZ have support runners at 1 through to 15. That is the game they play, and there is always someone there to receive the ball from SBW. If SBW played for Ireland or somewhere, he wouldn't have looked half as effective.

If SBW played for Ireland or somewhere, he wouldn't have looked half as effective..

I'm pretty sure that BOD would have picked up his intensions ball in hand pretty quickly. SBW making the intial break and offloading to BOD as he comes steaming through. Bet that would have worked a few times.

Rory_Gallagher wrote: NZ have support runners at 1 through to 15.

The Holy Grail. The Path to Enlightenment. When all the tactics and scrum talk and individual player qualities are talked through, that will still be the one rule that rules them all.

Rory, I agree with you, and that it says more about the lack of support in other teams and their inability to read the game and take calculated gambles on their team-mates strengths.

Its those differences that make NZ the best team in the world!