THE ELUSIVE FIRST-phase try.
It’s a sheer joy to be involved in, and it’s certainly a pleasure to watch. Players and coaches alike take great pride in their ability to carry out a pre-planned move so effectively that it leads to a try without the opposition defence even laying a hand on them.
Ulster produced such a moment in their 25-18 defeat to Leicester on Saturday, with Tommy Bowe finishing off a sweeping move to bring the Irish province back into the game.
The first thing to point out is that Ulster are effective at the line-out here, a relative rarity in this game. The failure of Neil Doak’s side at that set-piece was probably the major reason they lost at Welford Road, starving them of a quality platform as it did.
In this instance, Ulster shorten the line-out to just four men, with Lewis Stevenson dummying, before Andrew Warwick [at the front] and Robbie Diack [at the back] lift Franco van der Merwe.
What follows is a clear demonstration of what Ulster’s backs can do when the platform is of a high quality, although a handful of forwards play crucial roles.
The first distraction for the Leicester defence are the decoy lines run by Wiehahn Herbst and Roger Wilson outside Paddy Jackson, allowing the Ulster out-half to throw a screen pass behind to Stuart Olding.
We can see those decoy runs in the images above and below, with Herbst and Wilson briefly forcing Julian Salvi [7] and Freddie Burns [10] to ‘sit down,’ or just pause for a split second before they drift out onto the next attacking player.
These lines from Wilson and Hebrst also serve to give Olding a little more time on the ball, running an outside arc in what is his first touch of the game.
As we can see in the video and the GIF of the try above, Burns does manage to drift out on to Olding, but the Ulster centre gets his pass away before the Leicester out-half can get a tackle in.
Olding’s delivery of the ball to Jared Payne is again a screened pass behind a decoy runner, this time Chris Henry. The Ulster flanker runs an excellent line to take Owen Williams [12] out of the game and leave the Irish province with a 3-on-2 in the wide channel.
The first thing to note in the screenshot above is that Williams is briefly attracted inside to Olding [as indicated by the red arrow]. That goes back to Wilson’s holding line on Burns, with Williams just a smidgeon uncertain whether or not Burns will get to Olding.
At the very same moment, Henry is beginning his decoy run in the direction of Williams’ outside shoulder [as indicated by the yellow arrow]. It means Williams is going to have a little less time to react when he sees Henry coming at him on a hard line, less space to push past the Ulster flanker and drift out.
As we see above, Payne is already running that outward arcing line behind Henry [as indicated by the green line], and Niki Goneva [11] is in the process of making a decision. Henry’s line also briefly serves to distract Goneva, causing that split-second ‘sitting down’ again.
When the pass does go from Olding to Payne behind Henry, we can see that the Ulster openside has managed to get a great block in on Williams [below, red circle].
That leaves Williams completely out of the game, and essentially means Ulster have worked the 3-on-2 in the outside channel. If Goneva tackles Payne, and Miles Benjamin [23] tackles Louis Ludik, Tommy Bowe is in the clear down the right.
Still, Leicester – and most teams – would expect to defend a 3-on-2 successfully, using the touchline as a third defender and holding off in the tackle to drift out onto Bowe.
The major problem is that Benjamin is so tight to Goneva, leaving himself a full 15 metres if he is going to drift out onto Bowe.
We see above that when Ludik gets the ball, both Goneva and Benjamin are struggling hard to get to him and at this stage it’s going to be really difficult for the latter to shift out onto Bowe.
It’s poor play from a defensive point of view in that wide channel from Leicester, but keeping our Ulster cap on, it goes back to Henry’s decoy line. Benjamin is watching it all unfold and just begins to bite in a little too much at that early stage.
When Bowe does break up the right touchline, the class of himself and Payne takes over as they finish wonderfully. It’s worth noting Payne’s energy in staying alive after his initial pass to Ludik, looking for that second touch.
It’s something Joe Schmidt is massive on, and in that sense it is positive to see from an Ireland point of view.
There is time for one more poor bit of defensive decision making from Leicester, as Matthew Tait fails to take Bowe out of the game after the Ulster wing’s pass back inside to Payne.
As we can see above, Tait pulls out of the contact with Bowe just after the pass is released.
His director of rugby Richard Cockerill probably would have liked to have seen Tait unleash a hit on Bowe regardless, but even if the Leicester fullback was worried about being done for a late hit, he’s got to impede Bowe to a greater degree.
Instead, Bowe brushes past the England international, keeps himself alive and runs a clever little line inside Payne to take the switch as Blaine Scully covers across from the far wing.
All the various elements fitted together perfectly for Ulster in this instance, allowing them to exploit failings in the Leicester defence. The underlying issue is that Neil Doak’s backs showed exactly what they can do when given an excellent attacking platform.
Fixing the set-piece for Saturday’s meeting with Toulon at Kingspan Stadium is essential.
