First of all Happy New Year, and what better way to start it than with an example of some outstanding attacking play resulting in lovely try. So we’re going to have a quick look at a brilliant try from Wasps against Sale from round 12 of the Aviva Premiership.
The try is scored from a well worked strike move off first phase ball which is pretty much the holy grail of attacking rugby. Manipulating a defence over phases is one thing but working a sweetly timed move off a settled and zoned up defence is really something special and it’s a nice move. It's also very simple which is the hall mark of Wasps attacking play right now.
Wasps attacking play is based very much on simplicity. Yes there are screened passes and punch groups which makes it look and sound complicated but it’s essentially a formula of sending big ball carriers like Hughes and Johnson over the gain line and then exploiting the space left by a retreating defence.
Even here on this strike move the priority is clearly gain line, we can see the midfield is flooded with the big runners and that attracts the defenders allowing Millers nice line and Jacobs awareness to exploit the Sale mistake, and from there Wasps are clinical in their ability to finish the move. It’s also worth noting that it’s very nice pre-emptive line run by one of the dummy runners, Hughes, to then link with Miller.
It’s classic Wasps and owes a lot of its foundations to the style of Rugby Gatland and McGeechan.
As a Rugby Fan I’ve always supported Wasps, and I was really pleased to see them settle into such a magnificent stadium as the Ricoh. It’s going to be tough for them to fill it, but if they carry on playing the open attack minded rugby they’ve developed over the last few seasons they’ll go some way to doing just that.
Additionally a small word on the videos, we've changed the format again and have opted to try a voice over this time around. Please let us know in the comments here or on Youtube how you find it, or if you prefer the text based videos.
Author: The Dead Ball Area
Graeme Forbes has run The Dead Ball Area since 2014.
You can find his material on Green and Gold Rugby, Rugbydump Coaching and Youtube. You can also find him randomly arguing with people on Twitter.
