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Split your squad into 2 equal strength sides. This is the aggregate strength of your team through the season. Your gameplan should be designed to be executable by these 2 sides.

The bell curve applied to a squad:
10% of your players will be A+ grade (would start on any other team in your league).
15% of your players will be A grade.
25% of your players will be B+ grade.
25% of your players will be B grade.
15% of your players will be C+ grade.
10% of your players will be C grade.

 

We also like to think of our squad in terms of the strength of each “positional couplet.”
1&3 The Strong Boys
2&7 The Fearless Boys
4&8 The Power Boys
5&6 The Workhorse Boys
9 The Driver
10&12 The Playmakers
13&11 The Gainliners
14&15 The Creators

We want to have each player capable of playing both positions in his couplet.
We don’t want a player who only plays Tight Lock.
We want him to learn the ropes of Eighth-man too.
We don’t want a player who only plays Fly-half.
We want him to learn the ropes of Inside Centre too.

We also want to build depth in each couplet.
The ideal is having 3 players capable of playing A-side minutes in each couplet.
The reality is that in some positions you will play the same 2 players through the season hoping they’ll finish the season un-injured.

We plan on 10% of our squad being unavailable every weekend, due to injury, obligations, sickness etc…
At some point you will be stretched thin at that couplet and so you will either play another player out of position to cover this one, or play a B side player above his grade.

So from the beginning of the season, map out the 3 players that could play this weak couplet and be sure to give that 3rd player some game time off the bench and special attention at practice.

The goal of my attack used to be to achieve one of two things: look to gain 2meters, and/or look to present a 2 second recycle.

However doing this over and over again would take 25 phases to get us from the halfway to the try line.
Not many teams can go more than 5 phases before losing possession.

So I had to change. Now, the clear goal of our attacking phase play is to break the line within 2 to 5 phases.

We still want to create a back foot defense (through the 2meter gain) and a disorganized defense (through the 2second recycle), but they are not our goal, they are the tools to achieve our goal.

Breaking the line, within 2 to 5 phases, is our goal.

None of my teams were coached to break the line.
I use to coach as if it were going to take us 25 phases of grinding.
And so when my players actually did make a linebreak, no one knew how to finish it off!

I had to change my whole philosophy of attack to coach my team with the goal of setting up a line break within 2 to 5 phases.
We found that the 9-ball and 10-ball platforms were great tools for manipulating defenses when stacked together in successive phases.
But once we had that backfoot/disorganized defense we had to do something with it: strike it immediately with a 3v2 style attack.

And then once we make that line break, we have a job to do! Finish it off!

We found that the normal passing drills that we had grown up on had made us lazy in the most crucial parts of attack: striking backfoot/disorganized defenders, and then running support lines after the linebreak.

We would watch New Zealand players make line breaks and then ALWAYS find the pass back inside to the support runner.
They were coached to run that line! There had to be a drill to practice that line!

We use a 2v1progressing into a 3v2 drill to simulate striking a 2nd-to-5th phase defense.
We add 2 sweepers into the drill behind the defenders, this forces the 1st ball passer to follow through and receive the offload, and the 2nd ball passer to then follow through and receive the next offload.

We have all witnessed those moments in a match when the offensive team is going absolutely no where. They are exhausted. One player after another tries to do something on his own. The defense just smothers them. Their team mates aren’t reading their runs. The 9 & 10 go deer in the head lights. The wheels have come off. No one knows how to get them going again. Someone finally ends the suffering… & just boots the ball down field, or knocks it on.

The main dynamic going wrong here is communication, what a lot of people would call “leadership.”

Communication is crucial on attack.

Simplified, it comes to this “Tell people what you are going to do, so they know how to help you.”

Good & clear communication is built upon well drilled moves and phase play patterns.

If we have drilled a play where the 9 passes to the 9-ball forward & then runs a loop around him to get the ball back, we now have a “play” that the team knows what is going to happen next & where they should be to capitalize on this “move.”

We then give this move a name: “epic name here,” so that when someone shouts this, everyone immediately knows what is going to happen next.
We then develop this a bit & add options to the move.
Option A, the 9 gets the ball back & passes it wide to the 10.
Option B the 9 gets dummied & the blindside wing gets an inside ball.
Option C the forward shows the pass & then goes himself.

If you drill each move’s options well, you can either pre-meditate which option you are going to do, or leave it up to the players to read what is in front of them as the move plays out.

Our team has 5 attacking “patterns” that we drill over & over to the point where I’m sure the lads are able to do it while texting.
This enables the 9, 10, & 12 (our playmakers) to call a pattern, or preferably a sequence of patterns, which the team then plays to.
They know where they have to be, what options they need to run, & where the next ruck needs to be cleaned.

When they get stuck, they can now decide on a move or pattern for that situation to try get momentum/linebreak going again.

There are 5 basic platforms used to bring forwards into an attacking phase play.

1. the pick and go from the ruck
   this is where 2 forwards bulldoze against the pillar defense to win hard yards. Great when your forwards are huge and your backline struggling.
   Terrible when defenders are disorganized and your backs are ready to roll.
2. the 9 ball pod
   the forwards (2 to 4 of them) stand flat in front of the 10 for a pass from the 9.
   Great when your forwards run between the defenders and bring in an offload before or after contact.
   Also great if you can get them to run wider from the ruck, at the 3rd or 4th channel defender.
   If defense is eating them up, use them as a decoy and pass behind them to the 10.
3. the 10 ball pod
   this is used in 2 ways:
   1)a punch where the forwards (2 or 3 of them) stand flat in front of the 12 for a pass from the 10 or they get passed behind as a decoy for the backs.
   2) a hang where forwards (1 or 2 of them) hang on either side of the 10 for a pull back pass or offload as he attacks the line (use this if you have a Creator at 10 instead of a Playmaker at 10).
4. the wide pod
   this is most often seen in teams who use the “2-4-2” pattern, or some variation of it.
   Forwards (1 to 3 of them) stand in the Touch-5m-15m tram lines to stretch the defense wide, and/or create size mismatches with forwards on backs.
   Great when you have backs who can pass, or a 10 who can cross kick, terrible when they don’t get the ball and are wasted out on the wing. If you use this pattern you need to bring this wide pod into play at most every 4th phase to make it worth it. The two-pass-rule comes in handy here, otherwise there is potential to have many phases of un-involved forwards.
5. The Fiji mod
   this is where the forwards slot into the backline nearest where they got up from the previous phase.
   Great on a blindside where they can contribute a quick catch pass, terrible on an openside where they crowd out and slow down the backs.
   Far better in my opinion for them to get in front of the backs and hit a punch/decoy  option.

The majority of attacking play happens in fewer than 2 passes.

Top tier players have the skill to outwork another pass or two, but at the amateur level we often see the big boys catch and crash, and the most athletic kid in the team play at 10 so he can catch and attack.

This is the hardest attacking platform as the default for a defense is to focus on the 1st receiver. He therefore has the most attention focused on him from before he even gets the ball.

Because the 1st receiver has all the defensive focus we want to use him as a playmaker rather than a line breaker.

The scrumhalf passes to a first receiver, who must make a decision under pressure.
Many people don’t like making decisions, they want to be told what to do.
Some practical ways for the 1st receiver to shift the point of attack are to introduce some “Attacking Rules” for your boys.

“One pop” for the forwards running the 9 ball, and “two pass rule” for the backs.

Alot of the time we are thinking only of catching and making meters and so it cuts us off from responding to the options in front of us. If a boy knows that at 1st reciever he HAS to pass, then he actually thinks about getting himself in position to do so, and about who he is going to pass to and when/how to get that guy into a good position.

This allows you to move your star athlete from 1st reciever, where he has all the defenders focusing on him, to the 13 channel where he can attack with less pressure and more space.

Now we can play rugby!

These two rules build upon our ball skills warmup and 3v2 drills that we do at the beginning of every practice.

 

In general there are 3 different ways to beat a defense.

Most teams will major on one and perhaps meddle with another.
Really good teams are able to switch through elements of all 3 within the changing dynamics of one match.

Over: Kick for territory and pressure defend for mistakes.

This is useful in wet weather and on those occasions when your attack is struggling with ball in hand.

But isn’t this giving the ball away? How can you call this attack?

Many teams thrive on this form of territorial game, especially when your opponent’s have an inferior set-piece and counter-attack and you can smother them in their half and force knock ons, pressure passes and relieving kicks.

Not the most entertaining rugby, but it is effective if your defense is disciplined and fit enough to hard press, for 3 or 4 continuous phases. Doubly effective if you have a opensider/hooker who can poach. Triply effective if your line out & scrum is dominant.

Most pro teams will play this way when they are anywhere within their own 40 meter line.

 

Into: Bigboys bashing it up, seeking contact.

This is useful if you have massive units and superior athletes.
Heavy use of the pick & go and 9-ball game to accumulate meters and intimidate the smaller players.

A lot of teams will try get their bigger ball carriers to purposefully seek out the opposition playmakers to make contact with.

Do you even run at space bro? Nope but I destroyed their flyhalf….

Used phase after phase this gets very attritional on your ball carriers especially over a long season.

This schoolboy mentality of physical dominance over gainline effectiveness is counterproductive to playing best possible rugby.

The best use of a big ball carrier is to get him over the gainline, sucking in 2 defenders by going between them, off of a “1 pop” shift pass rather than at them as a 1st receiver.
This setup also makes him a possible decoy runner for someone out the back.

Most pro teams will play this way when they are within 10 meters from the try line.

 

Through & Around: Moving the ball into space, avoiding contact.

This is the hardest and riskiest of the three methods because it requires players to 1) take responsibility to be in the right place at the right time, 2) make decisions, and 3) execute those decisions under pressure.

This is where the joy of coaching, playing, and watching rugby is found.
To see a line break or an overlap happen in real time is to witness the visitation of eternal freedom upon mortal man.

The elements required to pull this method off are a manipulation of defensive units, and a coordination of attacking patterns, over successive phases.

If you watch most pro teams long enough, you will pick out deliberate attacking patterns that they use in specific situations, and often over 2 or more phases. They rehearse these patterns over and over until every player knows what they should be doing and when/where they should be doing it.

For example:
Phase 1, three forwards take a 9-ball crash to suck in 2 defenders, get the defense to back track, and set up quick recycle ball.

Phase 2, the flyhalf gets the ball with 4 options:
a) pop to the two forwards running a punch line into the 10/12 channel.
b) pass behind the two forwards to the 12 sliding out into space.
c) pop inside to the blindside wing.
d) show and go to attack the space himself.

Phase 3, quick recycle into a 3v2 style drill where there are two quick draw-and-passes to exploit the short side defense. Some teams like to use this middle-field ruck to switch the play the other direction, hoping to catch the defense napping.

These are just two examples of the endless ways to stack attacking patterns to manipulate a defense over successive phases.

If you want to take your attack to the next level, you will want to master the basic attack style that best suits your player group (“Over” or “Into”), and then begin to build into a simple multi-phase attacking plan.