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 »
It is sometimes called ‘the butterfly effect’: a butterfly, flapping its wings in one corner of the world can trigger a tsunami elsewhere on the planet – maybe days or weeks later. A minor, apparently trivial change can trigger an unforeseen set of consequences within the same system, and a major chain reaction further down
Is the new maul law working out as intended? Read More »
Can your players turn defence into possession? Turnover ball creates some of the best attacking opportunities in rugby. But players need to recognise when to contest, make the right decision and execute the right technique. This week we solve our 4th Coaching Problem: HOW TO WIN THE DEFENSIVE BREAKDOWN FREE COACHING CHALLENGE Download the How
How to Win the Defensive Breakdown Read More »
The Greatest Rivalry series in 2026 has been rugby’s equivalent of a game of ‘chicken’. There has been a massive clash of styles, and the three Tests so far have a told a tale of two diametrically-opposed philosophies meeting on rugby’s highway straight ahead, on a collision course. Neither has been willing to give way
‘Skrum, skrum, skrum’ part 2 – what the Boks want to do and how to stop it Read More »
‘Oom’ Paul Roos’ famous telegram to the 1937 Springboks contained only three words: ‘skrum, skrum, skrum’. Those legendary Boks remain the only South African side to have won a series away from home in New Zealand, and that one word distils much of the double world champions’ attitude to the game. If you cannot dominate
Skrum, skrum, skrum: what is the future of the scrum after RGR 3? – part one 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 »
The inaugural Nations Championship marked a watershed in rugby’s professional era. Across 18 matches, 653,210 people attended the opening three rounds of the Nations Championship, with and average attendance of 36,289 per match and 80% stadium occupancy at venues all around the globe. At the home of the 2027 World Cup in Australia, the outcomes
Attack, Attack and More Attack 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 »
The big question in French rugby revolves around the top two clubs in the domestic league, Stade Toulousain and Union Bordeaux-Bègles. Toulouse is the only club side with six stars on its fabled rouge-et-noir jersey, having won the European Champions Cup on six occasions. UBB is the new kid on the block, having won the
Why you don’t always need a 10 out of 10 – the vertical axis attack off scrum-half Read More »
How do you convert expectation into reality on attack, or deny it on defence? One of the most important new metrics developed over the last decade in the U.S National Football League is ‘Expected Points’, or EP for short. An Expected Points [EP] model can be run before and after a play, to check whether
How Union Bordeaux-Bègles overturned the odds in the Champions Cup final 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 »
It may not be exactly a return to the bad old days of ‘kick and clap’, but the amount of kicking in the game of rugby is beginning to worry some high-profile pundits and influencers. When the rules around the pursuit of a high ball were tweaked in late 2024, with the ‘escort service’ previously
Are the current kick-chase rules sustainable? 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 »
In 1974, and the National Football League moved the posts from the goal-line to the back of the so-called end-zone, the equivalent of the in-goal area in rugby. It added 10 yards to any goal-kicking attempt and conveniently stopped players from running into the posts, but it did not add more scoring to the game.
How to put a twist in the tale of your attacking play from 9 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 »
