The attacking structure of Tony Brown was written all over South Africa's defeat of Ireland.
In the last two World Cups, South Africa have been dangerous with their possession. However, their tactics were very different. They had a heavy focus on their attack transition, sparking fast counter attacks when they won turnovers and forcing discomfort in the opposition by contesting heavily from kicks in the air, and breaking off the scraps that they won back.
South African rugby is full of pace, power and technical skills. Their club teams tend to show more of their attacking flair than the national team, however, under Brown we have seen glimpses of how he's going to exploit their attacking skills on the bigger stage.
While it looks like their attacking structure is now very different, they’re simply using different options within a similar enough setup.
In modern rugby, there’s a lot of talk about the attacking structure and how many forwards are in each pod. Teams are using two pods in the middle of the field, normally two pods of three forwards or one pod of three and variations in the second pod.
This will have an effect on how they play the game and how many forwards they leave in the wider channels to find mismatches with backs, while looking after their wide breakdown.
It can be very difficult at times to see the full extent of these attacking pods when watching on television and some of the professional teams use multiple different structures.
Australia scored an excellent try from Filipo Daugunu on Saturday morning by using two pods of three forwards in the middle of the pitch. As we often see in Ireland’s gameplan, Australia played through their first forward pod, they threw a deeper pass to a back, who then threw a deep pass to Daugunu behind the next pod of three forwards.
Mason Grady showed a bit of naivety in the middle of the pitch. He was too narrow to match Daugunu in behind the pod of three forwards. It was a clear example of a 1-3-3-1 shape, which is popular among teams, meaning they keep a forward on each wing, with two pods of three forwards going to work in the middle of the pitch.
However, with rugby at the top level, teams are well versed in swapping the numbers in their pods to run different plays, and therefore it’s not always that obvious.
You’d often see Ireland playing with a pod of three forwards on the inside and another pod of two, with a third forward slightly disconnected to give two very effective lines of attack.
While South Africa have always played a version of these attacking shapes, they looked to attack a lot more on Saturday afternoon, throwing many more passes than what we are used to.
Damien De Allende (above) had more passes in possession on Saturday than carries. Normally we expect to see his aggression, carrying the ball on the tackle line. We saw more balance in his game on Saturday.
While it wasn’t always perfect, the fact that South Africa are experimenting with some change in their attacking structures, while also winning top Test matches, shows just how far their game could go.
Instead of their usual personal battle in contact on the gainline, Brown had them cued to beat the narrow Irish defence.
They used a deeper pass behind the first pod of forwards, hitting Handre Pollard. Pollard then threw a deeper pass behind his next pod of two or three forwards to find Willie Le Roux, who showcased his wide passing range to play the ball to Ireland's more vulnerable spaces.
Interestingly, Brown focused on his personnel within that shape too. Le Roux roamed more infield, as we saw him doing with the Bulls. Jesse Kriel pushed outside him to run square in the outside channels. Le Roux was used as a distributor in the middle of the pitch, something that Kriel wouldn’t be as effective at.
Ireland were exposed by this after just four minutes when Kurt-Lee Arendse opened the scoring. South Africa played wide to both sides of the pitch, meaning that Jamie Osborne was over-exerted in covering the backfield.
He was dragged to one edge of the pitch in the first phase. As South Africa threw a few deep passes, the camera angle behind the goal showed Ireland’s forwards getting caught narrow and chasing back out.
Osborne had to race across to the far side because the defensive cover was narrow and beaten to the far side. He had to cover too much ground and gave a player with Arendse’s agility too big an opportunity to step back in.
I’m not sure if Ireland expected this type of attacking structure from South Africa, either way they were forced into making poor decisions in defence, as Peter O’ Mahony alluded to in his post-match comments.
Ireland will have learned from Saturday and you’d expect to see some defensive fixes in Durban.
While the South African attack deserves a lot of credit, they still look like a team transitioning to a different structure.
They used a lot more frontline options in their attack off rucks, with a second line of attack in behind. However, the hard runner in the front line was never a real option and was too easy to read which meant Irish defenders could ignore them and push off to the next attacking threat.
Their pace and multiple options in the second line of attack got South Africa out of trouble at times. However, when they get better at this attacking structure, not wasting any hard running lines, they’ll be incredibly hard to stop.
De Allende was far too early in some of his lines, rendering him ineffective, in some phases. The timing of some forwards running around the corner of the ruck was poor as well, meaning they didn’t wait for the ball to be available for Faf de Klerk, and they arrived too early without any threat.
Ireland did a great job of making life hard for De Klerk, and can be credited for upsetting that attacking rhythm. However, some of it was completely down to South African timing, which should improve a lot in their next few test matches.
Brown had his Japanese attack purring in the 2019 World Cup, when they beat Ireland. He now has the chance to create something really special because of the tools that he has at his disposal in South Africa.
He has a setpiece that can guarantee front-foot ball, which can allow for more creative attacking options. If South Africa’s attack struggles, they still have one of the most effective scrums and lineouts in the game, which will enable them to approach each game differently.
They will be an unstoppable force if this attack structure is embedded effectively, with Saturday suggesting the process is already well underway.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
