Establishing Patterns from the Ruck

Establishing Patterns from the Ruck.

Nowadays with defences being very well organized and creating huge amounts of pressure on the attacking team at ruck time it is noticeable that at the highest levels many teams are making long, flat passes from the halfback to a forward quite a distance away so as to take out the close in tacklers and begin the next phase from there. Like most things the opposition will soon pick up on this and isolate the ball carrier which will no doubt see the attacking side revert to close in hits with a player latching on the ball carrier to drive him through and beyond the first tackler or alternately the ball carrier offloading at the tackle to another bursting forward. With a little imagination there can be patterns devised that will out manouvre the defenders and put the attackers on the strong foot before the tackle takes place.  The following are some old ideas used by Eddie Jones’ Brumbies in the early 2000’s. Of course they will take a lot of practice in pressure situations before they will work.
Based on a few of these concepts your team could also make up some of their own patterns that take the predictability out of the attack and make life just a little more anxious for the defence. Don’t forget to experiment with the offload at the tackle as an alternative to just setting the ruck. If teams keep playing as they are at the moment then the game will become a boring spectacle indeed.

Set up of the Pattern

One player in pocket behind 9; another player in pocket behind 10.(Or first receiver/BC)

•    ½ to Ball Carrier (BC) – BC to Support player 1 (S1) – Support player 3 (S3) support inside BC – S2 support outside or inside S1 – plus variation of support lines.
•    Get depth correct for S3, S2.

“A” Pattern

(i) BC receives pass and heads back toward direction of pass; at same time S1 heads in opposite direction in effect splitting apart.
(ii)    Simultaneously they both converge and BC passes a short ball to S1 or passes behind to S2.
S2 supports wide and deep.
S3 supports in closest channel keeping defenders in close.

“B” Pattern

BC receives pass and simultaneously BC and S1 head in the direction of where the pass came from, attempting to move the defence in that direction.

Together both players change direction and pace and attempt to beat defenders on the outside.  BC should head to D2.
S3 can support as a decoy in the closest channel.
S2 can decoy against D1 or go really wide and deep.

“C” Pattern

BC attempts to engage both D1 and D2 by aggressively stepping off the inside foot and heading towards D2.  At the same time S1 attacks the outside shoulder of D2 and S2 receives the ball on the outside shoulder of D3 before straightening hard.
Or BC can pass to S1 on the inside or outside shoulder of D2   S3 needs to be the first support player for a pass or at the tackle.

“D” Pattern

9 runs and decoys in to S3. He passes to BC on the run and wraps BC. BC passes back to 9 who produces a short ball to S1 or a wider ball to S2 who has run wide and straightened up outside D3.
The spacing will need to be wider on this play particularly between 9 and BC.

“E” Pattern

9 runs laterally across the face of the defence as if to pass to BC (wide) or behind BC to 10. He then passes back inside to S3 who has started in the blind spot behind the ruck.  S2 should run close to 9 on his outside to hold the defence with BC running laterally with 9.

These are but a few ideas. Practice a couple of them as often as possible and find the ones that work for you. Quick ruck ball will not require anything too intricate but these concepts will be useful when slower ball is delivered.
Start in channels marked out by cones but as quickly as possible introduce the defenders.