Defence
How to recognize opportunities to attack wide versus a ‘jockey’ defence
Using some recent examples from Super Rugby Pacific 2023 Nick Bishop explains just why the more passive forms of defe...
Insight & analysis
Articles
Deep dives on the modern game from The Rugby Site's contributors and coaches.
Attack
How the All Blacks are becoming a typical Dave Rennie team on exit counters
Current New Zealand supremo Dave Rennie has brought the same principles to the running of the All Blacks that he espoused in the Waikato ...
Set Piece
Is the new maul law working out as intended?
A minor, apparently trivial change can trigger an unforeseen set of consequences within the same system, and a major chain reaction furth...
Latest posts
Breakdown
Why the wide ruck can be a big Achilles heel for the attack
A ‘sweet spot’ exists where the defence can move over to the attack at the breakdown as Nick Bishop outlines in this ...
Attack
How the new law trial at the scrum is creating new possibilities for the attack
Nick Bishop highlights some new ideas to create clean attacking ball from scrums encouraged by the latest law-trials,...
Defence
How to cover the break on defence, and bring ‘chaos’ back to ‘structure’
How can the defence return from ‘chaos’ back to ‘structure’, and the odds shift in the defence’s favour from an attac...
Breakdown
How to get a second bite at the cherry at the breakdown
The recent changes in officiating guidelines at the breakdown outlawed a second move on the deck, and reduced the opt...
Set Piece
The Lineout Drive - Beauty or Beast
Is the lineout drive a ‘blight’ on the game or one of the most fruitful areas for set-piece attack in modern praxis. ...
Attack
How to get into shape on attack and use your ‘spares’ – the modern way!
The speed of modern ruck ball has now increased to a point where formations have had to become more flexible to maint...
Attack
How to run the “I” formation and mask your intentions on attack
Nick Bishop details how Italy has extended the ‘I’ attack formation to great effect in their recent international mat...
Attack
How to turn a profit from off-the-ball work on kick returns
It takes a lot of hard work to create a platform to unlock a good opposing kicking game, and the chase which backs it...
Tackling
Why rugby has yet to find consistency in contact height
Nick Bishop investigates why consistently refereeing a tackle height is proving challenging for match officials.
Kicking
How to split the middle with your kicking game
In open play as well as from formal restarts, the kick straight up the middle is becoming an increasingly viable opti...
Attack
How to move the point of contact close to the goal-line
If you play it safe, it can often lead to the sporting syndrome of ‘tightening up’ psychologically. Typically, sports...
