Wide Attack at Phase

Wide Attack at Phase

When you are planning your final strike at the try line after phases of play, you need to work backwards and visualize just how you see the try being scored.
Is it to be scored by a rampaging forward on the burst, or by outflanking the opposition with speed and numbers?  Is it scored because you have planned a ‘move’ when you are in a three versus three situation, or a two versus two?
The whole point is that more often than not once the ball takes its final route across the field, the attack team has no planned plays and has not manipulated the opposition so that they have additional players to mount the attack. A single player is asked to break the line or the player on the end of the chain is left with a two or more defenders facing him.
Therefore what I am suggesting is that you make a plan working from the try, back a couple or more phases to the scrum or lineout.  It is a good idea to then isolate your last play in the phases and practice it against opposition. An idea would be to have a three man drift defence with another in behind against a group of four who have received the ball near the far 15m line. Juggle the numbers based on the teams’ ability and make sure you also set up situations where the same number of attackers has to manipulate the same number of defenders. Evasive skills, running lines and support roles, or even a planned ‘move, can be part of the overall practice.
Which players do you want to be wide? What do you anticipate happening with this group of four? Do they have a play to carry out? What formation have they taken up to start this attack? How do they manipulate the opposition to get in behind them? What are the requirements to maintain the continuity and score?  The opposed defence will highlight aspects that need to be remedied in the attack. There will be plenty of questions for the coach to sort out before he has a plan, similar to all the planning and practicing he carries out for a strike play from a scrum or a driving lineout.  This concept though will give the team a lot more confidence in playing wide and using the width of the field.
Depending on the ability of your team the sequence can be developed by implementing one, two or three phases before striking for the line.  If you have a young team there may be something as simple as hitting in midfield from a scrum, using some dummy runners wrapping around, and changing direction of the attack with the hooker and six waiting on the sideline, the fullback, wing and a good decision maker being the attackers with the ball, and the later arriving forwards running through as decoys.
Think about what this group will do when it has the ball. How will you use the running skills of the two forwards and the fullback? What lines will they run? How will the continuity occur? Have you got a change of direction play using three of the players? Have you deceived enough of the opposition so that you have space on the attacking side of the field?  Do you need to keep another forward out in a secondary line to continue the play once the attack is in behind the defence? What is the plan to maintain the continuity? Where do the players go who had run through as decoys? There are lots of questions to be answered.  The fun is in making the plan and getting excited about implementing it.
If you are to use two rucks or more the key to your thinking is how to win the ball with as few in the ruck as befits the teams ability, and that of the opposition, how to have as many players as possible still in the game and not in front of the ball carrier/s; and how to organize each phase so that at the end of it all you have the players with the strike power receiving the ball out wide.  Working these aspects out will decide on how successful the attack is likely to be.
If you were to follow the same attack pattern at the scrum with a hit in midfield and have two phases, the next phase could be with the second group of forwards arriving and receiving the ball running at an angle towards the tackle area and getting in behind that zone. Then you could use the same play as with the one ruck play. This may mean that you have one less forward wrapping so that he is with the group that carries the ball. The question to answer will be ‘how do you ensure the arriving opposition defenders wrap also?’  Do you send a back through the zone? Where are the extra backs aligned? Have the backs attacked the correct channel to ensure that the opposition has sent in at least two backs to the tackle area?
A three phase play could well start with the above pattern with the assumption that the hooker will get tackled near the far sideline and you are going to attack the opposite side of the field. Once again you need to consider how many players are in the rucks or acting as decoys but you need to sort out the four attackers on the far side before deciding on your plan at each phase and tackle zone. Subtle changes will make the difference. Of course each player will have roles to perform that ensures the opposition are threatened and have to commit to certain tackle areas.
With this three phase plan it is really important that the wide group know their alignment and the plan. Try getting this group to start deep off the players in midfield but with a flat alignment so that they are a threat running directly and not across the field. Juggle the alignment a little so that the outside man is in line with ball carrier and the other two are slightly deeper. Experiment with the passing and running options with this group.
If you plan this carefully you can practice isolated aspects prior to the season or as warm up skill activities in mini units. The whole sequence coming together will be an on-going process. When you watch games run your eye over how teams create these situations and what attack plan they have to finish off the play.
SUMMARY
Visualise the play that you will score from.
Practice with the players who you want to affect the play. Use an opposition.
Plan your tackle areas considering: how many to use in the ruck / how to keep players in the game (not in front of the ball) / whether or not the defence is committing enough defenders and how to create this, or how to drag defenders in to areas that you want them to be.
Make sure all the players know their roles when you piece it all together.