Let get ready to Rumble

Only one more day to go and the Rugby starts again. Whooopppeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am going to the game on Sunday and will take some photos and post some time on Monday once I have recovered.

Good luck to all the teams, I hope we have some good matches.

England's line up

Just read the starting 15 for England. Definitely putting in a faster pack which will allow us to compete for the ball as discussed in my previous post. At the same time keeps a bit of experience in the squad. This is good, however they won't have long to prepare and get an understanding running between them. Flood is a fast attacking player and may surprise the French, however he is inexperienced at this level and will find it hard going if the boys don't secure decent ball. With Catt providing experience at Flood's side like he did for Jonny in the world cup. Catt is unlikey to last the full game so expect to see Matthew tait at some point.

Overall a better selection, Wilkinson and Vickery weren't match fit anyway and it showed late on in the Ireland game. Moving Corry to second row is interesting, he is a very experienced player and leader in the side, and having him on the pitch is a bonus to the English team. At number 8 seemed a bit slow for this level, but at second row he could still bring a huge impact to the game if he can adapt.

Still expect France to win. For England a lot depends on how quickly they can adpat to the new squad and style of play it will bring. Competing for the ball in the forwards is key if we want to get momentum and bring in the pace Robinson, Lewsy and Strettle to open up the French side.

Ireland Vs England

Ireland vs England

A classic match and some great examples of classic strategy. Strategy isn’t just about what happens on the field it is about the whole picture. So this includes leadership, organisational structure, planning/preparation and leveraging your environment. I feel these areas of strategy had a big impact on the game as much as the on field action.

Leadership. Brain Ashton and Phil Vickery has only just taken over and the team is only just beginning to gel. In comparison to the length and strength of the Irish leadership that has been running for the last few years. I am not saying that the English guys are bad leaders they just haven’t had the team to make an impact yet. Plus captain of country but not at club is an interesting situation.

Organisational Structure. Basically we are talking about the whole club vs country row the structure of who has overall control of the English players. Plus what does Rob Andrew actually do? Who is in charge?

Preparation. Strategy texts state that battles are not won on the field, but in the HQ. In other words the planning and preparation is everything without them you are at an extreme disadvantage. This comes back to the club vs country row with the English players only having 2 training session prior to the game. This in comparison to the Irish whom with their central contracts had 2 weeks preparation time.

Leveraging your environment: It was an historic day with England playing at Croke park and the Irish players and crowd were sweating pure passion, and demanding a victory over the English. Strategy says to choose the were, the when of a battle and use the climate to your advantage. Games venues and times are obviously decided in advance, but home games are a definite advantage. With the home game you can set up the pitch to your style of play and you know the dimensions and markers around the pitch you can use them to gauge your position. You also know the ground and will feel at home giving you one less worry on the day. An example in football is Real Madrid whom like to put a small layer of water on the pitch as it helps a quicker passing game. The crowd can also motivate your side and de-motivate the opposition. The added historical importance of the day also had a huge impact ensuring the Irish players and crowd were pumped up for the match. In comparison the English players had been given history lessons into the tragic events that had happened at the site. This was bound to have positive impact for the Irish and a negative impact on the English players.

All this before the game has even kicked off, makes you realize the power of strategy when so much can be done in advance to achieve your mission.

Now finally the game itself.

England lost the competition in the forwards and at the breakdowns. Everyone has already said this, so it isn't much of a surprise. You basically can't win the game if you haven't got the ball. The Irish turned us over and slowed us down at the breakdown slowing down our momentum or swinging the momentum to their favour. We need a more mobile pack to compete at the break downs and support the players making the breaks. "Move out of old positions slowly and into new positions quickly" Art of War by Sun Tzu. You need to consider your defence when you attack. In this case the players behind the player making the break need to provide that defence by providing support to the player at the breakdown ,or to keep the move going by taking the pass and ensuring momentum is retained.

Now the backs didn't really get much of a go with the ball especially on a wet day and with poor ball. Like I said the momentum had been lost and the Irish defensive line re-established, meaning the English players were starting all over again ever time trying to break through a organised defense. Mr Austin Healey pointed at that Andy Farral wasn't keeping to the defensive patterns allowing the gaps to appear meaning the Irish could take advantage. I think he needs some more experience, so playing for the Saxons for the rest of the games may be a good idea. Just like the pack we need speed in our backs, as speed, momentum and surprise are essentials of a good attack. So at centre Matthew Tait could answer this need for speed, plus he can now tackle.
I will write a more detailed blog prior to the French game about what I think we need to change in the England side to stand a chance of victory over the French.

An interesting result the week before was Ireland A 0 - England Saxons 32.
This goes to show the differences in the depth in squads between the two countries. Also I don't believe many of the Irish A players have central contracts so probably only had the same preparation time as the England Saxon side. This gave our players a more level playing field when encountering their Irish counterparts.

Scotland v Italy

Scotland v Italy.

This was a very interesting match in terms of strategy as the state of the game was dictated to very early on with 3 Italian tries. It showed a huge the difference in attack and defence of the two teams very early on, and showed the mind set and beliefs of each team as the game progressed.

Italy was very obviously employing a blitz defence and bore early fruit in with a charge down and a try. I am a big fan of blitz defence as it ticks all the boxes with classic strategy. In “The book of five rings”, Miyamoto talks about defending at the first impulse of the attack. He says to stop them on the a of attack and l of the leap. Part of strategy is to use the opportunities presented to you quickly. You should never try to create opportunities or gaps but be prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that arise. Secondly in classic strategy speed and momentum of a move are the corner stones of attack. By employing the blitz defence you prevent this speed and momentum and the attackers are likey to make mistakes that you can capitalise upon. Miyamoto also takes about flustering your opponent and disrupting their rhythm. So the blitzing work and Italy scored an early try.

Scotland was obviously flustered and want to get back in the game quickly. They forced some passes in their own half and again fell foul of the Italians Blitz defence. On the subject of forcing the game we are back to not creating opportunities but seeking them out. “move into new positions quickly and out of old positions slowly” Art of War by Sun Tzu. My interpretation is always considered the defensive position of your new position created by your move. Strangely enough Scotland seemed even move flustered and hadn’t worked out the Italian defence and again forced the move which the Italians took advantage of by being in the right place at the right time due to the blitz defence.

21 points down the momentum of the game was in favour of the Italians and Scots need to get some points on the board. Later on Scotland had several chances to kick at goal and turned these down and went for terroritory and possibility of try. 7 points would have obviously given them some momentum and settled some nervous allowing the Scottish to regain their rhythm. However I think they underestimated the Italian defence, again. This terroritory attacking didn’t really work and when you consider it only takes 1 minute to kick for goal it is in terms of time to points ratio it is very cost efficient. In strategy we have something call cost of a move. A cheap move is the shortest distance involving the fewest people. This is why intercept tries are so great as the usually on involve 1 or 2 people to score across easy ground. Kicking to the 22 and lineout and involves most of your team plus the ground ahead is dangerous as it is packed with defenders/obstacles. The time this all takes to kick and walk down set up and throw into your line out you could be back in your own half receiving the ball again if you had kicked as the cost of the move is 1 person and maximum 1 minute. Considering Paterson’s excellent goal kicking the week before it seems a strange decision. I think Scotland wanted to regain momentum and didn’t believe the Italians defence was very good. Once 21 points up you can afford to defend, defence in strategy is always the easiest option as it puts the effort on the attacker. In the Art of War the worse attack you can make is against castle or fortress. Forcing the opposition into a siege drains them of resource and frustrates them leading to lowering of morale.

Scotland did regain some points but eventually they tried due to the siege of the Italian half. Once this happened the Italians were able to counter attack having weathered the siege of their try line. They took their penalties unlike Scotland and scored another try.

The first entry and the weekends 6 nations Super Saturday

So for my first post I might as well with what happened the previous weekend. Scotland vs Italy. England Vs Ireland and France vs Wales.
To make it easier to read I will write one a day so a separate blog entry for each. The idea will be what happened in the match and how strategy played its role in the result.
I do have lots of ideas on many areas of strategy and rugby but rather than an essay I thought a blog was a good way to discuss individual elements of strategy as they happen. So next entry on Scotland vs Italy.