The Anscombe Plan Starting to Unfold

[ruckover]

There's a clear plan (as highlighted by BBC Wales) involving Williams where he draws 2-3 tacklers leaving space for the other players outside him. Watched the ITM Cup on Sky on Saturday morning and saw the same thing happening, albeit to a lesser effect. Maybe all we needed to click was a NZ style after all?

[kingofthehill]

One thing I noticed was that we have started to what NZ sides quite often do, and Irish sides very rarely do, which is after a couple of phases retain a nice deep realignment, and the first receiver (usually PJ) passes behind a screen player or 2 in midfield to a second receiver (usually Payne) with a nice deep back alignmemt outside him. In contrast to the Irish bad habit of just churning through phases with the backs getting gradually more flat and lateral. The other thing I like is the flexibility at first receiver - at various stages of the game PJ, Payne and Paddy were all stepping in seemlessly.

Ireland tried to adopt this after seeing Western Force do it successfully.

Seems to be filtering through!

[browner]

For the record...Williams lost control at the base twice...one he recovered and resulted in a Marshall break down the short side, the other the Cardiff scrum-half sharply stole.
He lost the ball in contact three times...twice forwards and one back.

[BuckRogers]

That's one of the things I was being "disingenuous" about BR!

Wilson has great composure at the back of the scrum and has the skill set required of a NH 8. Nick is gloriously destructive and inventive but has an issue or two. Great problem for the coaches.

LK one was not saying you were disingenuous about Fat Nick's control rather that to say he is not as good 'technically' as Wilson is to do a disservice to Williams other talents. Perhaps that is what you meant in the first place and I picked it up wrong.

In my opinion Williams is actually a technically good No.8; one of his tries against the NGD for Munster he dribbled the ball over the line with excellent precision for example. His handling ability is almost definitely somewhat ahead of the majority of our forwards, potentially even our backs, and his physicality in attack and defence is rivalled probably only by Ferris. My concerns when we signed him were primarily fitness and attitude related but it would seem both of these have proved quite unfounded.

Beyond single players our backrow, certainly in terms of those vying for the 6&8 jerseys, is really quite an area of depth. Would pick up on D/L's concern about 7...Birch is still injured as far as I know, certainly wasn't playing for Gannon against the Binmen on Friday night so would hazzard a guess he's still suffering the effects of that 'tack;le' against Newcastle. Doyle seems to be a decent enough carrier but relatively ineffective over the ball which upon his signing I would have thought the opposite to be true.

[BuckRogers]

Indeed, I suppose they key thing will be balance and whether the dynamism of Williams is off more worth than the work-rate and 'dirty work' of Wilson.

The main thing I take from this is that we are no longer going to be so toothless in the Rabo, or in the absence of Ferris in a more general sense. Wannenburg was a great servant for UR however he was not a like for like replacement for Ferris (few are) and as a result our backrow were oft underpowered when Ferris was injured or unavailable.

[darkside lightside]

There's a clear plan (as highlighted by BBC Wales) involving Williams where he draws 2-3 tacklers leaving space for the other players outside him. Watched the ITM Cup on Sky on Saturday morning and saw the same thing happening, albeit to a lesser effect. Maybe all we needed to click was a NZ style after all?

At the risk of concentrating too much on Williams, this is an important point as well, Leinster have shown over the last couple of seasons the benefits of having ball-carriers who the other side fear to hold defences with dummy runs, notably SOB and Heaslip - a good example was that class try by BOD against Cardiff in the QF hammering at the Aviva, the big gap that Sexton and Fitz ran into was created by SOB peeling around the lineout..

[darkside lightside]

And another thing - it's not all Anscombe, our defence has been smashing again this year, following on from the second half of that year, so Jonny Bell take a bow.. Nobody has ever won a thing without a rock-solid defence - and we have leaked fewer tries than anybody else in the league (4, while Scarlets, Munster & Glasgow in the next 3 spots have conceded 9, 8 and 9 respectively)

[againstthehead]

And another thing - it's not all Anscombe, our defence has been smashing again this year, following on from the second half of that year, so Jonny Bell take a bow.. Nobody has ever won a thing without a rock-solid defence - and we have leaked fewer tries than anybody else in the league (4, while Scarlets, Munster & Glasgow in the next 3 spots have conceded 9, 8 and 9 respectively)

Super point the lightside. In addition, I would say our discipline at the breakdown has improved week by week. We seem to have confidence in our defence to roll away quickly and not feel compelled to slow ball down unduly. Our counter-rucking isn't quite there but that might be just a tactic - you seem to get penalized for counter-rucking these days...

[Snipe Watson]

Roger wins on control and possibly on defence. Nick wins on hands and scariness. This point is well made by DL and Agin. Nick will worry defences and with our other carrying options, the opposition midfield defence becomes more vulnerable to a 1F attack so they tighten in a leave space out wide. Multiple threats are the answer to modern defences and if they rush up to eliminate the wide ball, they leave gaps behind with our three pronged kicking game making ground. We also have an excellent defence. Only leaked 4 tries so far.

Now if this all works we’ll win a lot of games and Nick is key.

[Amiga500]

And another thing - it's not all Anscombe, our defence has been smashing again this year, following on from the second half of that year, so Jonny Bell take a bow.. Nobody has ever won a thing without a rock-solid defence - and we have leaked fewer tries than anybody else in the league (4, while Scarlets, Munster & Glasgow in the next 3 spots have conceded 9, 8 and 9 respectively)

I'd just like to add some praise to Hulk (big Nick) for the defense too.

He's a helluva good man for hitting someone and knocking them back beyond the gain line.

He certainly made some crucial interventions right at the end of the Munster game.

[Amiga500]

Multiple threats are the answer to modern defences and if they rush up to eliminate the wide ball, they leave gaps behind with our three pronged kicking game making ground.

Even better than that - we can (and did a few times on Fri night) tie in the opposition backrow with a big Nick run. PJ then whips the ball back to PW or JP joining the line, then its fired out to the wingers pronto. You've three potential points of attack right there with Nick, the centres and the wings.

That game plan will only get better when RP comes back so the ball can be moved further from the initial ruck and 1F can join the decoy runners.

Jared Payne hitting the line and acting as an inside centre will continue to be a real fruitful tactic for us as the year goes on. Him and Paddy Wallace are two great distributors.

[ruckover]

I think Williams is better used as a 65-70 min impact sub. I think he would be about ten times scarier to a tired defence if he was coming off the bench. Could be a game changer.

[Rooster]

I think Williams is better used as a 65-70 min impact sub. I think he would be about ten times scarier to a tired defence if he was coming off the bench. Could be a game changer.

That's leaving it a bit late, the big lump regularly takes 3 players to stop him and that leaves us with 14 v 12 so there has to be a gap somewhere.

[Cornerfleg]

I am not that worried who when and where we play people now in the back row - I'm just delighted to have serious players all of whom can bring something worthwhile to the table.

Never more so is this about squads and team wins - when or where Fat Nick bulldozes over some poor wee bugger I'll let MA decide.