Deans one step ahead of Henry in adjusting to whole new maul game

Spiro Zavos
June 16, 2009

AS Rex Mossop might have said, it was deja vu all over again (Come on Spiro, he may of but it was Yogi Berra who coined the phrase...) for the All Blacks against France on Saturday night. Just as they did at Cardiff in the 2007 World Cup quarter-final, France made more tackles (153 to 87), had only 40 per cent of the territory, lost the lineouts, and managed to win only 38 rucks to the All Blacks' 98. But when the final whistle blew, the All Blacks were trying to snatch a victory with their final play.

The most crucial element in the defeat, though, is that Graham Henry failed to understand the implications of the law changes that applied to this Test. On the other hand, Robbie Deans, the Wallabies coach who was rejected by the NZRU, had his team brilliantly prepared for its Test against Italy and got a strong result against a "sticky" opposition.

These were the first two Tests played under the modified ELVs. The sanction against kicking out after taking the ball back into the 22 still applies. But mauls can no longer be pulled down. The ruck law has been tweaked to allow the player who first gets his hands on the ball to keep fighting for possession even when the ruck forms, as long as he is on his feet.

Danie Craven, the most important authority on the laws in the history of the game, once said that when one change was made it often affected other aspects of play. He used the analogy of pulling a thread from a jersey and seeing, say, the bottom half unravel. His argument was that coaches must have the insight to see the implications of changes.

The ELVs that were played in the Southern Hemisphere to the end of the Super 14 tournament favoured a free-flowing game (except when the Waratahs were playing). Because the rolling maul could be pulled down, sides moved the ball away from the set pieces. With short-arm penalty sanctions in force at the ruck, teams got plenty of quick restarts to keep the flow of the match going.

The laws now allow for more driving and mauling. Play is more structured in that there are more set pieces. The rucks have become more of a contest if a side has a genuine openside breakaway to get his hands on the ball first.

The All Blacks went into Saturday's Test with a tall blindside breakaway, Adam Thomson, as their "fetcher". Against Italy, the Wallabies had the incomparable poacher George Smith. The All Blacks conceded a number of crucial turnovers in the first half. The Wallabies won turnovers throughout their Test. When France mauled from the lineouts, the All Blacks had no idea how to stop the drives. The Wallabies, however, confronted the mauling Italians, stopped their forward progress and drove them sideways. They also mauled effectively themselves.

It was clear that the Wallabies had well-planned systems and patterns to cope with the implications of the latest laws. There was a well-executed kicking game, which gave field position. The back three acted as a single unit to run back wayward kicks. Inside their opponents' 22, the Wallabies had a variety of set plays that confounded the Italians, while the All Blacks banged away with one-off hit-ups. The Wallabies' first try came from a rehearsed move that gave James O'Connor an easy run to the line.

The two Tests were essentially decided at half-time when France led New Zealand 17-11, and Australia led Italy 17-3. The scores reflected the fact that Henry had got it wrong and Deans had got it right.

spiro@theroar.com.au