One of Brendan Venter’s early moves as returning Saracens boss was to blast an intimidating chorus of howling wolves over the sound system as his players ran out for their first home game of the season against Sale on Sunday.
It was a nod to the club’s period of dominance, before the salary-cap scandal, when their gameplan was defined by their feared ‘Wolfpack’ defence. Venter is a trendsetter – not a trend follower – and he has ambitions to break the PREM’s cycle of attacking supremacy. The eccentric South African may be on a one-man crusade.
In the opening 10 games of this season, the winning team has scored 38 points on average. The number of tries is higher than ever and, if you ask PREM attack coaches, that should be a fillip for Steve Borthwick’s England.
Tweaks to the game’s laws mean 97 per cent of points now come from tries and conversions. Kicking for three points no longer stacks up. Northampton and Bristol lead the way with their high-intensity attacks but their rivals are catching up.
So, what has led to the PREM becoming a try-fest? Is it good for England? And can Venter stop it?
RULE CHANGES
‘There are loads of little governance changes that have made the game quicker,’ Northampton attack coach Sam Vesty tells Daily Mail Sport.
Tommy Freeman of Northampton goes over to score in what has been a try-fest of a PREM season so far
Louis Rees-Zammit of Gloucester is top try-scorer with four so far
‘For example, a few years ago, you could stand with one foot off the pitch and one foot on to catch the ball and it would be out. You get a breather. They switched that rule so it’s impossible to take the ball out now. Therefore, the ball’s on the pitch for that little bit longer, there’s more fatigue and more space to go and attack.
Tackle height plays a part too.
‘If you tackle high, you are now highly sanctioned,’ Vesty adds. ‘Therefore, people are tackling a bit lower. If you tackle lower, the player being tackled has their hands free and the ball is available to offload easily.
‘Plus, historically, people would say you’re overplaying if you had the ball around the halfway line. But now we say keep playing because you’re going to create something. It’s more productive to have the ball deeper on the pitch than it is to kick it away.
‘And then there’s the offside line. It is being refereed more harshly than it has been previously. Therefore, there’s a little bit more space.
‘If you think 10 years ago, when Saracens were winning lots of stuff, a lot of that would have been based on a high kick game and a very good defence. The game has changed a lot since then and it’s refereed very differently as well.’
Freddie Steward of Leicester offloads the ball in the tackle. The lower tackle height means it is easier for players to keep the ball alive
ATTACKING INTENT
Financial pressure put the brakes on PREM clubs recruiting the biggest and most powerful players. Many instead moved to France or Japan in search of bigger salaries. There are fewer bulldozing carriers and a greater premium on movement, skill and sleight of hand. High-possession teams are thriving.
‘I watch all the line breaks and tries in the league every week,’ says Gloucester attack coach James Lightfoot-Brown, who has been named in the England A management team for this autumn.
‘There’s a real intent to score from every possession, which maybe you wouldn’t have seen before. Firstly, you have to credit the cohesion and the accuracy.
‘Defences have not just stopped defending. Now teams are attacking with 15 players. Look at some of the movements off the ball from the back three to create numbers and then some of the speed off the floor from forwards.
‘There’s a desire to work. Modern back three players don’t just stand on the wing anymore. When we played Exeter two weeks ago, Manny Feyi-Waboso was everywhere. Popping off nine, popping up on the other wing.
‘We want to see the number on the back disappear from a back-three perspective when we have the ball. How quickly can we get an overload? How quickly can we get our best players on the ball?
‘There are different nuances. These guys are no longer just runners. They can link, they can pop up on shoulders and get an additional pass or an offload. Northampton are the best at it. They are so fluid. If players want to get to the next level, they’ve got to get involvements.’
Exeter winger Manny Feyi-Waboso does not stick to the touchline but roams the park to get his hands on the ball
Rees-Zammit celebrates going over for another try
Bath’s new attack coach, Mike Prendergast, agrees.
‘Teams are looking for space and playing to edges,’ he says. ‘When you get into that opposition 22, a lot of tries are being scored on the edges. That’s quite an interesting trend.
‘There’s a huge amount of speed here. England have got a lot of very good, quick back-three players. I’ve seen that first hand over the last couple of weeks, including some of our own players at Bath.
‘There are some exceptional athletes, especially out wide. A lot of the ball in play has been quite high in the first two rounds, which is great in terms of a spectacle.’
Teams have also been adapting their selection to maximise player output. Louis Rees-Zammit, for example, is the league’s top try-scorer with four and has been prolific since he was shifted back to the wing by Bristol from full-back.
RISK-TAKING
‘Teams are taking more risks,’ Lightfoot-Brown continues. ‘They are running from deep and putting defences under pressure all the time. We used to see a couple of phases of probing, seeing what the defence is going to do.
‘There’s no probing going on at the moment. Teams are trying to score or they’re kicking the ball. There’s no middle ground, which makes for an exciting product.’
The warm weather conditions have promoted ball-passing and fast-track pitches which also help explain why 94 tries have already been scored.
‘The time of the year has an effect,’ says Prendergast. ‘The good weather means we’ve generally been playing with dry balls.’
‘The time of the year has an effect,’ says Bath coach Mike Prendergast. ‘The good weather means we’ve generally been playing with dry balls’
BROKEN-FIELD BONUSES
The bulk of attacking opportunities now come from broken-field situations.
Last season, 29.3 per cent of attacking chances came from kick returns and 16 per cent from turnovers. Attack coaches have been encouraging their teams to react to unstructured defences, with harsher officiating of the breakdown ensuring the attacking team has the advantage.
‘Referees are not rewarding negative defensive actions as much as they used to,’ adds Lightfoot-Brown. ‘It’s becoming very clear that the jackal attempt has to be a genuine positive action. No hands on the floor.
‘It can’t just be a post-tackle effort to slow up the ball. We always want to reward good defensive work on the floor, but they’re not letting teams cynically slow things down.’
CAT AND MOUSE MAUL
But the most significant change this season has been around the maul. Defending forwards now have less freedom to disrupt the set-piece play, which means they have to commit more players to stop the drive. The byproduct has been additional space to attack.
‘The maul has come back into the game,’ says Prendergast. ‘Outside of the 22, the maul probably went away. Now we’re seeing a lot of mauls around the halfway line and up.
‘The forwards coaches are looking to get it moving forwards or moving in towards the 15 so you can create space on the edge. The defence has to put numbers in to negate it or keep numbers out on their feet.
‘It’s a bit of cat and mouse at the moment and everyone is trying to figure it out. It’s certainly something teams are looking to exploit.’
Nathan Michelow of Saracens controls the maul during the match against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road
SO, IS IT GOOD FOR ENGLAND?
Bigger collisions, better jackallers and stronger set-piece all change the game at international level but there seems to be a consensus that the level of PREM attacking play should boost the national side.
‘People follow what has been successful,’ says Vesty. ‘People look at the way Bordeaux and Toulouse keep the ball alive and score loads of points. The high tempo game has been successful so people go after that.
Marcus Smith scores a try for England – but can the PREM’s attacking instincts rub off on Steve Borthwick’s national team?
‘New Zealand are playing in a quite PREM style at the moment. Because the Springboks have so much power, if you try to take them on at that you are going to come second.
‘The All Blacks have been high speed and high possession and they look really good at it. People talk about high numbers of phases but if you do it well then you don’t need loads of phases. They would rather have a crack as a first option and use a kicking game to move up the field as almost a second option.
‘The PREM is a better product but we need to make sure it doesn’t become a basketball-style try-fest. The beauty of the game is that you can win in a lot of ways. If it just turns into a basketball, you score, we score, you score type affair, it gets a bit boring. We’re not there yet but we need to be mindful.’
As autumn descends and Venter gets his claws in deeper, the PREM will find out if the Wolfpack can make defence fashionable again.
