What's Wrong With Our Attack?

Quote: Cherry.Pie "The team don't seem to relentlessly put pressure on the opposition forwards or try to overwork the players around the ruck area.

We've got some good forwards who can make strong runs but no pressure is built from them. As soon as a good run is made there is generally no one on his shoulder waiting for an offload as the halves are stood well away trying to organise the next sweeping passing move. Those big drives don't seem to be followed by a quick play the ball and another big drive by a forward.

It's as if one good run by a prop is all that's needed and from that point on it's time to swing the ball from left to right, but the good defences aren't going to be troubled by that at all.

You don't find overlaps by throwing the ball wide all the time, you create them by tying players into the middle of the pitch. The most effective way to do that is hammer the players in the middle of the park relentlessly before going wide. The vast majority of overlaps out wide are created in field, by forwards not sliding across quicker in defence, not numbering up correctly or by being too slow retreating from the tackle. It's as if the team has either forgotten this or they are deliberately ignoring it.

Maguire's style at Wigan was ultra conservative - possibly too conservative for Super League, but I'd argue that the set plays put on under Maguire had a much higher success rate. They used to be our try scoring plays - when you knew the team was going for something big. Now cross field passing moves are the default option.

Prop forwards seem to be taking the ball to the line and passing as often as taking a drive. Too often those runs to the line are half hearted and give the game away and it's too easy for defences to slide across and deal with our players out wide.

If the team was a little more willing to do the boring stuff and try to focus the big men down the middle repeatedly or to look for an offload and have players backing up then there might be a bit more space created out wide.

In the cup final there was so much pressure, so much possession and territory but the Hull defenders out wide kept rushing up to cut out the passing moves. It's not surprise because there were never any overlaps being created. They could afford to hold their line when rushing up because there was no risk of a gap being created from a quick pass. Hull did defend well in that game but Wigan made it easy.'"

Yep.

I'm not an RL coach. There are aspects of RL on a tactical level that are simply "above me".

However, on a strategic level, RL is a very simple game.

Dominate in the forwards and you will dominate the game. I look to Bradford in the days of the "awesome foursome". Look at how many tries Vainokola (sp?) scored.

He went to RU and couldn't score for toffee.

Reality is that in contact games like RL "a good big 'un will beat a good little 'un". Often coaches try and overcomplicate it.
It really is very simple. Get on the front foot in the forwards and the game becomes easier.

Think back to when our pack was enthusiastic but small. We battled to a GF ..........then got hammered vs Bradford.

Dominate in the forwards, have decent half backs and the rest will take care of itself.