Digby wrote:Do they really want all the tight five to pass? It's great if they can, but it's not just about the execution but also the decision making and it's unlikely everyone has improved enough to design a system which forces them to pass over and over.
NZ for instance play a lot splitting their forwards 2 wide on each flank and 4 up the middle, with the 4 in the middle tending to be tight five players, and that system puts a huge emphasis on the handling in the tight five, which is fine for NZ 'cuase they do have a good skills standard. The Lions did something similar, but stacked the forwards in with 1 further wide each side and then tried to get the other 6 into 2 pods of 3, which is an easier system, and means also those little triangles puts an emphasis on the skill and in particular decision making of the tip of the triangle, which is just two players at any one time, so for me it's an easier system to run which still seeks to get more from the forwards
Exactly, I'm pretty sure that all pro players can pass a ball but it's about making the right decisions on when to pass, I suppose if players have been playing truck it up rugby like the Ospreys then this would need to be worked upon as we have seen from their lateral play over the past couple of seasons.
The sad thing is apparently our attack coach can't realise this, in the article he says the regions were spoken to post the 2016 NZ tour, well they certainly haven't told the Os.