Quote: The Avenger "I’ve tried to explain this on numerous occasions, edge defence starts at marker and pressure on the attack ripples from marker out toward the wing as the ball travels through the attack out toward the edges.
The reason edge defence gets caught with 2 or 3 Vs 1 is because defenders on the inside don’t push out as the ball travels out. That then forces the edge defence to jam in trying to kill the overlap before it happens or to position themselves between the opposition winger and centre (no mans land). If the ball bypasses the winger via clever passing then it looks like the edge has failed but most often it’s the middle that caused it.
There are other skills that can help like edges jamming in as a unit or folding as a unit to avoid committing too early but they’re all symptoms of bad, lazy or poor decisions made by the middle.
Chester and Co seem to have zero clue how to coach edge defence - YES but they can’t coach defence - PERIOD!'"
Thanks for the technical insight Avenger...it makes you wonder whether the Coaches actually watch any other matches to try and work out why we are so poor at edge defence and what needs to be done to rectify the problem, 'cos it sure ain't rocket science !!
Are we taking bets on Eden getting a hat-trick on Friday night ??