When current New Zealand supremo Dave Rennie first linked up with the Glasgow Warriors in 2017, I was working as a strategist for Stuart Lancaster and Leo Cullen at Leinster. Both clubs played in the same league – the URC as it is now, the Pro 12 or Pro 14 as it was back then, […]
How the All Blacks are becoming a typical Dave Rennie team on exit counters Read More »
The Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series has reached the halfway point, and the score is even at one win apiece. The All Blacks claimed victory at Ellis Park and the Springboks took their revenge in Cape Town. But very few of the two chapters in the storybook thus far have been either fair or balanced. The
Will All Black smarts outperform Springbok brawn in the RGR series? Read More »
Attack, Attack and more Attack tracked some of the newer developments in the game at ruck and maul in the practice of the recent Nations Championship. The first three rounds of that competition provided a very tasty primo to the secondo course, a full-bore, seven-week tour of South Africa by the All Blacks which begins on
Why the Greatest Rivalry tour will be a battle of contrasts Read More »
Cometh the hour, and there was no repletion of the 2025 mismatch. There was no better fixture to kick off the newly-minted Nations Championship than the All Blacks against Les Bleus, but it did not always look that way. Wind the clock back to July 2025, and the swirl and eddies of controversy that surrounded
How the repeat involvement theory is stacking up for number 9’s Read More »
Scott Robertson was not a bad All Blacks coach, not by a long chalk. When he was unexpectedly sacked on 15 January 2026 after a damning internal review by New Zealand Rugby, he was still a man who had won 74% of matches in charge of his country. Yes, he was coming second to ‘Rassie’
Are the All Blacks primed for revival under Dave Rennie? Read More »
There is something new in the water in the Six Nations. A record 111 tries in the 2026 tournament, up from 108 one year previously. The days of ‘kick and clap’ are a dim and distant memory, and the competition no longer relies on the strength of tribal rivalries alone to sustain interest. Now the
Six Nations explosion! What has happened in the northern hemisphere? Read More »
It all seemed so unlikely after Scotland’s rain-soaked defeat to Italy in round one of the 2026 Six Nations. While the Saltires toiled in the Roman rain with ball in hand, building 139 rucks for a meagre return of two tries and 15 points, England were setting the pace with their 12th consecutive victory over
Successful Multi-phase Rugby Alive and Well Read More »
Modern pod systems have been transformed by the new breakdown guidelines, which quickened the tempo of attack considerably. But if the new emphasis on lightning-quick, 0-3 second ball from the ruck created myriad problems for the defence, it also generated a fair few for the attacking side as well. ‘The quickening’ allowed less time for
How to work a modern pod system with LQB Read More »
Attacking presence in the so-called ‘red zone’ deep inside the opposition 22m area generally means only one thing: offensive claustrophobia. The wings play up and flat and there are usually 14 defenders manning the line. It can be intimidating and force the attacking side back into its shell. More often than not, the attack tends
Why a counter-intuitive kick can be the red zone panacea Read More »
With the introduction of the new breakdown guidelines four years ago, the speed of ruck resolution changed overnight. Defenders were suddenly allowed to win the ball by the simple action of lifting the ball off the ground, tacklers were required to roll away from the cleanout ‘runway’ immediately, instant release of both the tackled player,
How to implement the ‘double jackal’ on D Read More »
One the most popular measurements of scoring efficiency in the modern game is the so-called ‘red zone entry number’. Every time you enter the opposition the 22, you make a note of how many points you score, then average the number of points accrued out over the number of entries. Anything over three points per
How to make a point with your 5m driving maul Read More »
The new rules for the defending 9 at the scrum mean that he/she can no longer’ chase to the base’. They may not advance beyond the mid-line of the set-piece and spoil the opposition feed from a position well ahead of the rest of their team-mates. Instead, they are forced to adopt one of two
How to use the new scrum guidelines to free your attacking #9 Read More »
The new rules for ‘escort runners’ – defenders ahead of a high kick forming a pocket of protection around the intended receiver – were first trialed in the November series of Tests in 2024. Previously, defenders in front of the ball were legal if they did not deliberately change running lines to block a chaser.
What the new ‘escort’ rules mean for aerial contestables Read More »
Ten years ago, it was very much ‘the day of the jackal’ at the breakdown, with outstanding crop of number 7’s like George Smith, Richie McCaw, Michael Hooper, Sean O’Brien and Sam Warburton always looking to pilfer ball at the tackle. They all tended to play the same blue-riband position, at open-side flanker. Measuring the
What defines the impact and effectiveness of a Jackaler/Pilferer? Read More »
Of all the top clubs in European rugby, none have undergone a bigger face-lift than perennial URC leaders and EPCR Champions Cup contenders Leinster over the last three years. At the end of the 2022-2023 season, one coaching mastermind on attack, Stuart Lancaster, was replaced South Africa’s world cup-winning defensive Svengali Jacques Nienaber. It was
How to make hay in the grey area at the defensive breakdown Read More »
One of the biggest talking points in contemporary professional rugby coaching is ‘how to get best use out of an eight-man bench?’ The fires for that discussion were first lit by South African supremo Rassie Erasmus’ switch to a 6-2 bench split [six forwards, two backs] in 2019. They were stoked further by his move
What is the best solution to an eight-man bench? Read More »
Believe it or not, but there was a time when Sir Wayne Smith’s coaching methods were not de rigueur in the rugby world. ‘The Professor’ was no martinet who drilled his charges into submission, and into the dirt of the training ground. He wanted to ask questions, to create curiosity and provoke more self-awareness in
Upwardly mobile or treading water? Are Razor’s All Blacks still on trend? Read More »
