Short Q&A with Royce in Big League Today

[madunit]

Page 4, the Numbers game part

5 - The number of Tigers Props missing from their clash with the Eels last Sunday

How have the absences affected the Tigers' gameplan?
Assistant coach Royce Simmons:
It influences the go-forward in attack, being able to cart the ball up and take it over the advantage line and get quick play-the-balls. The other area is the defence in the middle of the ruck, the bigger the man the greater the ability to do a one-on-one tackle and dominate more tackles around the play-the-ball area.

How does the team improve it's performance?
If we're a bit smaller we've got to do everything else better, like have better ball control and have heads in motion around the play-the-ball to make it harder for the opposition to make gang tackles. If you do that and run more angles you can isolate a defender and get a quicker play-the-ball. In defence you've got to have a really quick line rather than rely on brute strength.

Firstly, the Tigers pack all year, irrespective of the injuries, probably misses more tackles than 75% of the competition. And because our forwards (even our best fully fit side) aren't as big as most teams, we can never be too successful at one on one tackles in the middle of the ruck.

Secondly, He talks about how we need heads in motion, ie, support play everywhere looking for offloads to keep moving forward and keep the opposition forwards busy all match. Good idea, but my main concern is the fact that our forwards struggle to get any offloads away, mainly because the bigger packs we come up against are able to dominate our pack and shut down any off-load opportunities.

The player with the most off-loads for the Tigers is Brett Hodgson. We should have a player running alongside Hodgo whenever he takes on the line. Any defence that knows he has a strong ability at getting the ball away when tackled will always try to commit two player at him, to shut him down and to shut down the person he may off load to.

We're smaller and faster, we should be running decoys everywhere, running out of dummy half a heap more etc.

Instead when the chips are down we contract our game and take all the risks out. It becomes almost a Souths like attack.

thoughts on Royce's comments?

 

[innsaneink]

Errors and poor completions lead to more defense, these two areas seem to be up this year, I imagine this contibutes to fairly lethargic offense and a lack of bodys in motion ala 05 when we do get the ball.
Missing Payten & Gibbs big time.
Payten was playin Buckets role in often ball playing before the line...one area thats gone with Payten off.

 

[TV Ted Ellery]

Errors and poor completions lead to more defense, these two areas seem to be up this year, I imagine this contibutes to fairly lethargic offense and a lack of bodys in motion ala 05 when we do get the ball.
Missing Payten & Gibbs big time.
Payten was playin Buckets role in often ball playing before the line...one area thats gone with Payten off.

Lifted straight off NRL.com-

WT have committed the least amount of errors of all clubs and have the second best completion rate behind Manly.


It's scary... you'd never think so after sitting through the Roosters game.

 

[madunit]

those are great stats to have if you have a big forward pack making plenty of metres up the middle.

but we don't

so we should risk a few errors and go for off loads more. even if 7 of 10 off loads stick, its extra tackles the defenders have to make and its more momentum and opportunities for us.

going to ground with the ball, especially when we have a small pack, well it's practically suicide. We'd struggle to make 30 metres a set if we continue one outs with our pack, we need to get off-loads away, always back up the ball carrier, keep options open, keep the ball alive.

 

[rupertpupkin]

Perhaps the coaching staff should try something different. The approach to defence, which seems to be the crux of the problem is not working. Watching the team every week, it looks like they have been drilled to play the wrestling, "hold 'em up" game, to delay the PTB and wrap up the ball. It might be delaying the PTB somewhat, but they still can't stop offloads. The attack, with bigger forwards continue to gain metres, while WT attempt to ride them to ground, and still manage to offload regularly. While it might be "wearing down" the bigger guys some, it is also chewing up the energy of the multiple tacklers.

With the Parra game, and the team selected, would have thought the way to go was a radical change in defence. Especially considering the history of conceding offloads. But it was the same old stuff. This defence might be effective for other teams, but Tigers just cannot seem to make it work. They have been at it for years now.

Instead of wrestling, and failing, why not employ old school leg tackling. 1x around the ankles, and 1x around the ball. Get them to ground quickly, to shut down the offloads. It may provide a faster PTB for the opposition, but Tigers are supposed to have this "faster, mobile pack". Use it to advantage in defence. Instead of 3 to 4 in a tackle burning juice, just use 2. Finish it quick, and use the energy saved, and "more mobile" pack to set the defence faster. At least they won't have to make 3 or more tackles after the first, due to offloads.

Farah and Hodgo employ lower leg tackling most often out of the team (although not always on first contact), particularly Farah. When they do, the runner is put down, and offloads are turned off. Applied as a strategy, it would burn more energy, and result in quicker PTB's... but could it be worse than the workload they are creating for themselves with the status quo?

Not saying here that the style that is being used can't work for them. But it seems like it isn't, for whatever reason. And they haven't been able to make it work for some time. Apart from weak, struggling teams, on occasion
etc.

 

[madunit]

The current style works a treat, if you have a few big blokes in the side.

something we don't have.

 

[rupertpupkin]

The current style works a treat, if you have a few big blokes in the side.

something we don't have.

Agreed. Looking at it from the POV that the Coaching staff are going to persist with a mostly propless side. Also, not certain that the defensive coaching actually has a handle on the current style.

 

[madunit]

Royce should know how to work with a lightweight pack, he played with one in the early to mid 80's.

They became successful behind classy halves and backs initially.

He had a big pack at Penrith and the defence style he uses now would have been perfect then, but he had it around the wrong way.