Making sense of the scrum.

Rugby is a game that demands a lot of those that dare to play it. It demands that you are relentless, that you are courageous. That you are able to run, tackle, pass, scrum even jump in the air like a cheer leader (not as gracefull though). Players have to play defence, offence, they are expected to field high balls as if they are playing Aussie rules football. Forwards do backline things and backs do forward things.

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If you consider any or majority of rugby players you may know, you may notice that they are the type of people that can be proficient or competitive at most sports or physical activities. They may not be the best at everything, but they are the type of people who do not shy away from testing themselves and they have this trust in their bodies and mind which can be the envy of many people.

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I mean every Rugby team has a prop that believes they can wing it like a winger and a scrumhalf that believes they can mix it with the biggest.

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And if you are not one of these people naturally, Rugby will turn you into one of those people. It creates confidence where there may have been doubt, it’s a place where courage learns to accompany natural fear.

For me, there are four positions in a Rugby union team that epitomise these traits and where these traits are not simply great to have, but they are demanded. In the forwards it is the three loose forwards and, in the Backline, it’s the inside centre position.

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The inside centre is often seen as a stand in forward for the Backline, so they are expected to be robust and strong on their feet. Especially of first phase ball when all the forwards are caught up in a scrum or lineout, the Fly-half will often call for some muscle to get the ball over the advantage line, and most of the time that muscle has a 12 on its back.

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Then they are also seen as a second number 10, a second playmaker outside the fly-half. In fact, in countries where the Fly-half is called the first five eights, the 12 is called the 2nd five eights, which gives a glimpse into how they think about the position. It is not strange to see a player play number 10 one week and then play number 12 the next.

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It is a bit of phenomenon in the game that twelves tend to be one of these two types of players, but every now and then we are lucky to have a player that is both.

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A player that comes up in this discussion topic a lot is Ma’a Nono, the All Black hit the scene as a young physical specimen that had the ability to both bulldoze the biggest and out pace the fastest. He was on track to be a great player, but it was his ability to work on and improve his distribution and kicking game in the later part of his international career that elevated him into one of the best inside centres to have played the game.

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Regardless of the type of offensive 12 you are, defensively there is a lot of demand placed on the 12. Their channel handles the most traffic, 2 reasons for that. When teams decide to attack the defensive line using a direct route, they usually do it close in and not out wide, because they are looking to contract the defence before out stretching it in a later phase.

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Also, teams like to test out the Fly half channel defensively, sometimes Fly halves can be a bit circumspect on defence, which means the 12 that lines up next to the 10 has to also step up in these situations.

During open play most 12’s would line up just outside the loose forwards on defence.

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If you have seen some of my past videos you may remember me saying that loose forwards generally line up outside of the tight 5. In other words, the tight 5 stand closest to the ruck on defence then just outside them the loose forwards, then just outside them the 12. Remember this is a default setting of sorts for a defensive system, but it can vary from team to team.

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Rugby players are rated on their physical attributes as well as their mental and skill attributes. Most positions place more importance on one over the other. For example a front rower has to be physically robust and powerful, it’s a non-negotiable, a prop that can distribute like a fly-half is a luxury, or a Fly half has to have good all round skill and have a good mental understanding of the game both tactically and instinctively, so some physical attributes can sometimes get overlooked, so a 10 that can be dominant in contact for example, is also luxury.

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But the 12 position is a position where these physical, skill and mental attributes are equally valued. A player in this position can add a lot of value to a team by possessing any of these attributes, especially if they have it all.

The 12 plays very close too what is called the decision-making access of the team. That axis always includes the 9 and 10 whist some teams would include the 12 and sometimes even the number 8 as part of their decision-making axis. It all comes down to the teams’ style of play as well as the players that occupy these positions.

If you have a 12 who plays the role of a second Fly-half, then they are most likely part of this axis.  What is meant by the decision-making axis is that these are the players entrusted with making decisions during open play in the heat of battle.

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Teams have structures and game plan strategies that dictate which decisions these players should be making in different situations, but they still have to make and execute the decisions in the moment as they see it.

Because all these players play close or at the base of the ruck, their early involvement in the chain of distribution means their ability to make the right decisions is particularly important to the team.

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If the 12 is more of a crash ball runner then they are likely not such a big part of the axis but rather a running weapon for the team to call on, Their job is simple, get the ball, run hard, get over the gain line as far as possible and draw in as many defenders as possible. I like to think of this type of inside centre’s as the Fly-half’s jab, when there is nothing on and the defence is set, the Fly-half can call on the 12 to prod at the defence, and to try and get things moving forward, or create an opening to exploit by using their physicality.

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Crash ball centres that have the ability to offload well in contact are well sought after, they create a lot of opportunities for the players outside them. The first player that comes to mind to most rugby lovers here is Sonny Bill Williams. It is a skill the former rugby league player brought into union. See Rugby league only allows attacking teams 6 tackles. If you are familiar with American Football this is similar to the down system. When a player gets tackled the defence has to fall back and the tackled player is allowed to recycle the ball back to their team. But they may only do this six times and then they have to handover possession of the ball to the other team. So, it is no surprise that the skill to offload the ball to a teammate in contact before the tackle is complete is a skill that was always going to evolve in Rugby league. When Sonny Bill Williams came over to union it proved to be a great attacking weapon.

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I watched a URC game the other day between the Lions from Johannesburg and the Glascow Warriors. The warriors were the favoured team in this match, and whilst them winning was not a far-gone conclusion, they would have been most bookies favourites. The warriors had Sione Tuipulotu playing inside centre that day. A centre well known for his barnstorming runs and not so much for his distribution. He is in every sense a crash ball centre. Now I don’t know if the universe wanted me to watch this match as I was typing down my little script for this video, but it ended up being a perfect example of a game plan that was clearly not suited to Tuipulotu’s natural strengths.

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You could see that there was a definite effort by him to play distributer more often than crash ball runner. I suspect this was a game plan by the warriors that forced Tuipulotu out of his comfort zone. It could have been a ploy to catch the Lions of guard or part of a long-term plan to develop Tuipulotu into a more rounded 12. I would say it was probably a combination of the two factors that lead to the game plan that was deployed by the warriors for that game.

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There where moments where the plan seemed to work. But for a lot of it, Tuipulotu looked uncomfortable, not quite so sure of himself as he would when running straight at an unfortunate defender. It felt like Glascow’s attack lacked fluency as a result and Tuipulotu seemed easier to read by the Lions than by his own teammates at times.

I would not say this is the main reason the warriors ended up losing the match unexpectedly, but it sure did not help matters.

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Then after that match I decided to watch another URC game between The Bulls from Pretoria and Benneton from Treviso. I noticed how the 10 12 combination for the Bulls seemed to have a great understanding. Harold Foster playing 12 seemed to be effortlessly switch between hitting the defensive line hard with strong carries and distributing to help set up tries. He also seemed to have good understanding of Johan Goosen his Fly half. The game ended up being a pretty one-sided game in favour of the Bulls.

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A lot is said about the centre partnership, the inside and outside-centre that is. But for me the understanding between the 10 and 12 is even more important, especially on attack. Defensively I believe the understanding between the 12 and 13 is more important, but if the 10 and 12 are not on the same page it can really restrict a backlines ability to launch effective attacks.

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There are pros and cons to each style of 12. A play making 12 gives a team the ability to pose real threat on both sides of the scrum and ruck as teams know that there is essentially a general on either side. But it also means that there are to many cooks in the kitchen, and it can be very ineffective if 10 and 12 are at cross purposes and there is no clear hierarchy.

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A crash ball 12 gives the team an easy and simple method to get over the advantage line, there does not need to be hours spent practicing elaborate moves to get the ball across the advantage line of first phase ball, but in this case, it’s strength is also its weakness, in it its simplicity it also offers predictability, which smart teams can work to counter.

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So teams do try and utilise their inside centres in both ways to keep opponents guessing.

Truth is Inside centres for the most part can do it all, it is just rare to find a player exceptional at both styles, it is usually a case that a player is naturally more gifted in one area over the other and has to work hard to keep the other side of 12 play up to scratch.

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For me just as loose forwards are the jack of all trades of the forwards, so the 12 is the jack of all trades of the backline. Thay also along with their centre partner, the outside centre number 13 have the awkward task of having to have the ability to both play well of a playmaker and contribute to setting up other players into space. They have to be mindful and maintain the ability to be both responsive to what the decision makers on their inside are doing and how their decisions are impacting the players outside them.

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I think a lot of people would describe the centres as the more awkward positions to play in the backline. They are the classic middle managers, caught between balancing the needs of those outside them with the demands of those inside them. Now if things always go to plan during an attacking move this should not be hard to do, but as you can imagine during the chaos of competitive rugby attacking moves hardly ever go exactly to plan and someone in the middle of the chain has the awkward task of making just the right adjustments as they see things unfolding in front of them.

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I love to mention how teams find a way to express themselves culturally when playing rugby. This is obviously more pronounced at the international level, and if we look at the games two most dominant international teams the All Blacks and the Springboks, these 2 countries view the game as an extension of their national identity and the contrast in how the 2 countries tend employ the 12 position for me is a perfect reflection of that.

Of course these are not hard and fast rules and we should be careful of making assumptions about how a team will play on the day purely based on where in the world they come from, but in the past the South Africa generally love to employ a crash ball inside centre and NZ are more likely to employ a distributing 2nd five eights. This is due in part to the type of players the 2 countries tended to produce but also how they like to express themselves in the game, the Springboks love the direct approach, you know the shortest wat to the try line is straight ahead and the All Blacks don’t mind  bit of wizardry to bamboozle opponents, because if you don’t look doing it, then why do it all.