They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that is indeed the case, then Rassie Erasmus will be luxuriating in a spa weekend for the Gods, courtesy of a complimentary voucher from his French counterpart Fabien Galthié.
Rassie’s latest triumph arose indirectly, courtesy of France copycatting his 7-1 bench innovation. Les Bleus used the 6-2 split for their first two rounds against Wales and England, winning one and losing the other. The French supremo introduced his massed forward substitutions around the 57th minute at Twickenham and England won that final 23 minutes 19-12.
Over the last three rounds of action, les bataillons en masse have arrived fortified by one extra forward off the pine and on average 10 minutes earlier. The men in blue have been supercharged by la colonne serée in that extended half-hour, winning it by an enormous combined margin of 70 points to 24 against Italy, Ireland and Scotland.
In the end, France lifted the title deservedly as a result. The 7-1 split suits the tight forwards produced by the Top 14 down to the ground: massive physical specimens built for stop-start play, and short, intense spurts of power. It also gels with the typical absence of out-and-out open-side flankers. Top 14 breeds number sevens in its own image, men who would play six or eight in other domestic competitions across the world.
There is every prospect 14 forwards with an afterthought of two-man rearguard behind will feature when the world and Six Nations champions clash this coming November. It will not be a day for any back who is not fleet-footed enough to escape the carnage being wrought in the middle the field. You would have to be a winged Hermes like Louis Bielle-Biarrey or Kurt-Lee Arendse to avoid those nuclear explosions between the two forward packs at scrum, maul and breakdown. It will be a sight to behold, at least if you have Sunblock 101 and a pair of Norman F Ramsey’s atomic goggles to hand.
In truth, planet rugby is moving in two different directions at once, and they are beginning to pull at one another in a philosophical tug-of-war. While Les Bleus were busy with their championship celebrations at Stade de France, the head coach of their doughty last round opponents Scotland was raising serious questions about the future viability of the 7-1.
At World Rugby’s ‘shape of the game’ event in London last week, Gregor Townsend had focused the issues for the majority of nations who cannot produce huge forwards in the required numbers.
“I do not think the bench was set up to suddenly have a new forward pack coming on,” he said. “But that is for World Rugby to decide what you do with the bench, and to make any changes.
“But just now you can put eight forwards on the bench if you want. We have faced it already with South Africa [South Africa won 32-15 at Murrayfield last November].
“If it happens again this week [versus France], we have got to do even better.
“Where do we think the game might end up? Is it going to be more a game where we need forwards in a 6-2 or 7-1? Or is it a game where we need backs because it’s going to be so open that we’ve got to make sure we’re bringing backs off the bench?”
In the event, France did employ the 7-1 split, and the ‘nuclear’ bench arrivals in the 47th minute were too big a wall for the stubborn Scots to climb.
The nation best placed to either follow, or buck the trend north of the equator is England. Like the senior side, the England Under-20s were edged out by France on the final weekend of the Six Nations. An unexpected 23-13 loss to their Welsh counterparts at Cardiff Arms Park denied the English juniors a Grand Slam, but the cards are stacked in favour of the those east of Offa’s Dyke in the coming years.
Two of their outstanding young forwards, hooker Kepu Tuipulotu and number eight Kane James, could have chosen to represent Wales but picked England instead. Tuipulotu’s father Sione played for Pontypool and the Dragons and his cousin Carwyn only recently moved from the Scarlets to Pau in the Top 14, but it is unlikely either will represent Wales in future.
Tuipulotu had received a call from then-head coach Warren Gatland to join a national training camp in 2024, but declined the offer.
“It was surreal to receive that phone call,” he said. “But I wanted to finish my academics [at Harrow School in London] and focus on rugby [at Bath Rugby] after that. I was already going through the England pathway.
“I feel like I’ve made the right decision. At the time I had not played a game of men’s rugby. I just took a step back and realised what is the best case for me in the long term.”
Likewise, James is on the books at Exeter Chiefs, will continue his education at the city’s university and follow the road carved out by Immanuel Feyi-Waboso into the England set-up.
The good ship Wales went down with all hands at the weekend by a record score to the auld enemy, and Gatland knows it will get a whole lot worse.
“There’s a lot of work to be done in terms of the pathways, the U20s programme,” he said.
“We got rid of the National Academy in 2015, which I think was a mistake. Wales U20s won a Grand Slam in 2016, and since 2017 they haven’t finished above fourth.
“We were saying for a long time, we’re just plugging the dam here with the success that we’re having [at national level], we’re papering over the cracks – and when the dam bursts, it’s going to take a while to [recover]. It’s going to take time to develop some strength in depth, to put the resources into the academies and the pathways.”
In future, there is far more chance of Wales becoming a semi-professional farm system for young players diverted on to English pathways and entering the academy and school network east of the Severn, than there is of a national revival of Welsh fortunes. Yes, it really is that bad.
Whether the regions are eventually absorbed into the English league, or are simply bled dry of young talent by it, is a conversation for another day. But make no mistake, it is the Premiership and England which is now driving northern hemisphere innovation, and the latest proof arrived with their unique use of the bench in their Super Saturday demolition of Wales.
England employed a 6-2 split but Steve Borthwick went without a specialist second row replacement. When Leicester lock Ollie Chessum left the field in the only the 18th minute, he was replaced by a dedicated number six in Harlequins’ Chandler Cunningham-South. England had already started the match with the three number sevens they selected against Ireland in the first round – the Curry twins on the flanks plus Ben Earl at eight – but by minute 48 Earl had shifted to inside centre to replace Tommy Freeman with another natural seven [Northampton’s Henry Pollock] filling in for him.
With half an hour left, and with skipper Maro Itoje having also started for England on the blind-side flank, England had no fewer than six bona-fide back-rowers on the field, four of whom were natural open-side flankers. That version of England scored 35 points in the last 32 minutes at a rate of over one point per minute. The men in red were lucky they didn’t ship 80.
The back-row surplus was phenomenal, on both sides of the ball.
Approximately two-thirds of England’s total effective forward was derived from back-rowers – even with a tight five featuring at least three outstanding performances from props Will Stuart and Ellis Genge, and skipper Itoje.
With all those number sevens in harness, Borthwick’s men were able to build line-speed and blanket the field in defence with more confidence than at any other time in the championship, knowing that another fetcher would be loitering around the next corner with a breakdown pilfer. They were also an integral part of England’s attacking boom period in the final 10 minutes.
First Cunningham-South rips the ball out of the top of a Welsh maul, then Ben Earl does his best impersonation of a 12 on the first carry, with young Pollock [he of Scottish parentage] in close attendance at first cleanout. A few moments later, Tom Willis is galloping straight through the soft centre of the Welsh D, crazy-legs style, to set up a touchdown for prop Joe Heyes. The first two to congratulate him? That would be a pair of England’s indefatigable ‘Duracell bunnies’, Tom Curry and Pollock.
It was another Cunningham-South turnover, this time engineered via a last-ditch tackle on Welsh wing Elliot Mee, which sparked England’s next score.
The Quins dynamo drags Mee down, Willis and Itoje complete the turnover, and Pollock is on hand to finish the move off a sumptuous inside pass from George Ford. The final score was also the cream on the back-rowers’ cake.
First Earl carries deep into the Welsh half from scrum, with Willis and Pollock applying the first clean. Then Earl and Cunningham-South combine on the next play, before Willis offloads to Itoje and the Harlequin finishes the move. It is back-rowers paradise.
Jac Morgan and Aaron Wainwright may have every right to believe they will be selected in Andy Farrell’s 2025 British and Irish Lions squad, but the Welsh loose trio were buried by the sheer quality and volume of English back-row presence. By the end, it was an avalanche.
Galthié’s France may have won the Six Nations, but it is England who are closer to the sharp tip of innovation. Their coven of not-so-secret sevens is showing it is possible to play the bench game a different way, without copying the Springboks 7-1 split and loading up with an entirely new tight five for the final half-hour.
France’s tour of New Zealand in July, and their game against the world champions on 8th November, will demonstrate whether copy-and-paste is enough to uproot the world’s best. For one of the very few times in their history, England will follow their own star, and give hope to the rest of a rugby world which cannot generate factory-fitted leviathans. It cannot come a moment too soon.
It worked wonders on Saturday but I reserve judgement until it runs into France/NZ/SA (or, heaven forbid, an Oz pack at full strength).
I was pleased for English friends about the ambition and speed they played with but the opposition were like children. Some of the play felt like a contested training run.
The questions asked of that forward pack by a team committing them to defensive work and making the yards hard to gain will be more interesting than we saw in Cardiff.
Yes it was like a semi-opposed practice for large periods, but that same Welsh team had gotten close to Ireland and Scotland previously, so I’d be more inclined to give England credit. And remember England were the only team to beat France and beat them at the scrum this 6N!
If the decision is that there must be at least three backs on the bench look forward to Kwagga starting to play No12. T what point can a forward not swap to being a back and visa versa. It is easy to decide who is front row not so easy to decide who can be loose forward. Rob Louw played No 12 early in his career and then you’ve got a guy like Werner Koch who can easily play loose forward. Looking forwards to a seeing where this goes.
Going further back you had guys like Pierre Spies and Radike Samo who could handle B/R and wing, Levani Botia has started at both 7 and 12 for Fiji. So Eddie Jones may have been right all along with his comments on Jack Nowell!
‘He of Scotch parentage’. He’s transcended that lowly origin story now.
Ah you can’t beat a bit of ‘transcendence’, esp when both parents are Scottish!
I’m not fully convinced this was any sort of deliberate grand plan by SB, other than perhaps a masterful way (as it transpired) of dealing with injuries to a couple of key players in positions that lack high calibre alternatives in SB’s view. Losing Martin and Lawrence was disruptive to the team England ideally wanted and pretty likely both start if they had been able to. Ted Hill clearly isn’t fully trusted, despite being on the bench vs Scotland and Italy, and Slade may have had his day in light of an winger being drafted in to start as Test centre for the first time. Moving Earl to centre is worthwhile, in the right circumstances, as a proving exercise for future reference but it’s not the way to go against any of the top teams.
So they may well have added another page to their emergency playbook but I’m doubtful it was a genuine attempt at cutting edge innovation. More a case of necessity being the mother of invention that happened to suit the opposition on that given day. I guess we’ll know more in the Autumn but it won’t be until next year in Paris that the first real test of that set up would come against a heavy power team, IF it’s still in use ofc…
It doesn’t really matter whether it proves SB is a coaching genius or not Ed. The point is that a new path has been found, whether by accident or design… And it probably has legs, both for England and other sides.
The best creative solutions are often found in a crisis, and I for one would be in no hurry to write it off just yet.
Hire Expert Certified Intelligence Cyber Wizard Assets Recovery Company for any job?
I was persuaded to buy cryptocurrency by someone I met online. They have access to a group of analysts who provide reliable predictions for the rise and fall of BTC. I initially attempted with a modest amount just to be sure, and I was successful in withdrawing money twice. This demonstrated a growth in the signals I was receiving. I decided to include corporate funds as well. When I tried to contact the individual at that point, he had banned all of his connections, which is when everything started to go wrong. I tried everything until a friend of mine introduced me to a hacker INTELLIGENCE CYBER WIZARD, a company that helps individuals and businesses recover their stolen BTC assets. They truly helped me to recover everything at an affordable fee and I was exultantly proud and joyful; in high spirits. If you are in the same mess, To learn more about them kindly reach out to them with the details below:
E-mail: intelligencecyberwizard@gmail.com
Mail: intelligencecyberwizard@mai
l.com
France using the 7-1, England using the 6-2, Ireland and Scotland have used it a few times as well and many nations are starting to adopt it. The reality is the game is changing. Administrators have made it faster and that is leading to more significant drop offs in the forwards. You have 2 options. Load your bench with forwards or alter your player conditioning which might mean more intense conditioning for forwards and a drop off in bulk. The game can still be played many ways. Every nation needs to adapt in their own way to suit their strengths. France have followed the Springbok model of tight forwards being preferred because it suits them. They have huge hunks of meat and the bench is as good as the starters so why not go for it? The Springboks have also used hybrids like Kwagga Smith, Schalk Britz, Deon Fourie, Franco Mostert and others. England are following that model instead and by putting 3 loosies there who can do damage in defence and make the breakdown a mess in the final quarter. It worked well against Wales but will be interested to see how it goes going forward against better opposition who can threaten their lineout and scrum. All the talk around bench limitations to stop the 7-1 and 6-2 for me is nonsense. Coaches who refuse to innovate want to keep the game the same and make it uniform and sameness is bad for fans. The bench composition adds jeopardy and is a huge debate point for fans who love it. Bench innovations have not made the game worse, they have made it better and more watchable. They challenge coaches and teams and that’s what fans want. What we need now is more coaches to innovate. There is still space for the 5-3 or even a 4-4 if a coach is willing to take it on and play expansive high tempo possession-based rugby with forwards who are lean and mean and backs who are good over the ball. The laws favour that style more than ever before. Ireland are too old to do it now. Every team needs to innovate to best suit their style and players so I hope coaches and pundits stop moaning about forwards and benches and start to find different ways to win.
I tend to agree that the use of the bench is becoming more creative, and 7-1 with big tight forwards is not the only way to do it!
There are risks too. Would SA get through another tournament successfully with Deon Fourie at #2? I doubt it. If they get a couple of injuries early on in the backs Cobus Reinach cannot plug all the leaks!
The biggest advance which enables England is their scrum, which is now the best in the 6N, period. England outscrummed France at the start and off the bench, and I think they will test the Boks too.
With those six front rowers and Opoku to come, they can play as many loosies as they like!
Maybe teams need to start heading the ball more? Genge at first receiver playing it through for Freeman? It's worked a few times by accident, just imagine what they could achieve with practice! Jamie Roberts could have been the Welsh Ronaldo!
Excellent tactic Tom. Don’t forget Daly also used the noggin for the breakaway try!
Very interesting article, Nick. Thanks for writing. I have not even read a full report on the game yet, let alone watched it. So it is all news to me. Fascinating move, so many backrowers and 7’s on the field at the one time.
I must say though, that I do ponder on how well England would have done against the Boks, AB’s, or France playing as they have done at the end of the 6 N. I think any of those teams would have almost certainly exposed Earl playing at centre, and they would have been in a different world to Wales as opponents.
My view is that England have had a lot of good fortune in this 6 N. On another day, France would not have dropped so much ball, and would have defended those last two tries way better. Scotland would have beaten England had Russell got any one of three kicks between the posts. I do think that England still don’t fully use the back resources they have, and could be badly exposed by any one of the top three teams in the world, which I would see as the three I named above. Though Ireland still sit third, that is, imo, very tenuous.
And it has been a funny old 6 N this year, with Ireland also having had a fair measure of good fortune. They also could have lost the games against Italy, and Wales too. They have dropped away badly.
Good post Miz. Do you reckon that the three retirees were given a quiet word and more will join them?
Remember Earl would prob be opposing Jegou in the late game there Miz!😉
I think England have earned their slices of good fortune. Goodness knows they have suffered enough from lack of same over the last 12 months! They had some luck v France and Scotland and rode it in the last two games and you cannot ask for more than that.
They were the biggest improvers in the tournament and as I suggested at the start were good enough to split France and Ireland at the top of the table.
Firstly England were terrific for 82 minutes and deserve the plaudits.
Borthwick, though, must be the luckiest coach around .
Had a broken arm not occured Marcus would still be no 10 , had Russell put the kick over and France not dropped the ball , had Lawrence not been injured the scenario would be very different .
England beat the worst team in the northern hemisphere , let’s not get carried away .
The forwards scored 6 of the 10 tries and Mitchell’s was somewhat flukish .
The speed and power of play was the difference and the forwards were unrecognisable from previous games.
Had Marcus had such a ride in his games he too would have been praised for his play .
Ford came on against a poor and beaten team with the score 40 up . Easy peasy. Short memories fail to remember against Nz and Aus , top teams, he lost both games.
The changes were forced on Borthwick , not by natural selection and they have been all for the better.
Let's trust this is the start of bigger things and the excellent squad Borthwick has kick on . No pun intended.
Before the tournament started all the stories were about Borthwick’s bad luck in losing all the tight games! The point is he rode his luck and built on it when he finally had some.
Nobody else did that to Wales in the 6N - not France, not Ireland or Scotland. So some credit is due.
I wonder if Kevin Sinfield has had a hand in the selection of so many sevens with his League background?
you’re the stupidist man in the northern hemisphere
Through the lens of ‘scenarios’ as you put it, the AIs could also have been very different. Yes, Wales are currently the worst team in the NH, but even so, neither Ireland or France dominated them so emphatically and - in the case of Ireland, after Wales had shown some improvement on previous form.
England were always going to find some groove at some point, so I don’t buy the line that Borthwick is simply ‘lucky’ anymore than I didn’t buy the line that England were unlucky on tour against the ABs and through the AIs.
With a largely development squad being sent on tour against the Pumas this summer, we’ll have to wait until the AIs in November to see whether the performance against Wales was just an outlier or reflective of a team that are starting to click.
Find Online Jobs (8000$-15000$ Weekly) safe and secure! Easy Acces To Information. Simple in use. All the Answers. Multiple sources combined. Fast and trusted. Discover us now! Easy & Fast, 99% Match.
open this site ↠↠☛ HighProfit1.Com
There’s a big focus from SH refs to speed the game and reduce stoppage time. It’s no coincidence fast smaller forwards are going to do well when Berry or even more so Gardener are referring games.
English refs were already applying similar principles tbf MJ. It’s nice they are being reinforced down under as it allows a different model of the matchday 23 top evolve!
Possibly, but the Prem is high scoring, played fast and with high ball in play times, so I’m not sure it’s simply down to SH refs officiating.
I almost dropped my phone when I read that Wales had closed their national academy ten years ago. What an incredible piece of self sabotage. The results speak for themselves.
In this article from last year I noted that Italy started a national academy and created a golden generation… but a new president shut it down a couple of years ago. Sheer folly.
https://www.theroar.com.au/2024/03/29/how-italy-revolutionised-their-youth-system-to-produce-a-golden-generation-and-what-australia-can-learn-from-it/
Conor O’Shea and Steve Aboud set up the Italian academy back then. Thus some of the current ascendancy of Italian rugby. Steve Aboud would seem to be an expert in this and happily the Italians have seen sense and rehired Aboud this year after closing the academy four years ago.
Wales had regional academies and the National Academy was a case of giveing 20-25 regional academy players across the country extra expert coaching. Clubs were stronger then and the clubs were encouraged by the WRU to have all national academy players given extra exposure to learning and to some of the many foreign starts in Wales then.
The initial tranche of money was mainly from the EU, so funding may have been an issue back then. Those 20-25 players were the Golden generation of household names we know from the 2010s etc.
Don’t drop that phone JD! It’s life in a box😁
The problem at the WRU is that they talk too well for their own good, and in true ‘tidy’ Welsh fashion that takes the place of action rather than predicting it.
There no signs at all the Union understands how to resolve the regional problem.
I was very critical of Borthwick's selection before the match because it didn't fit how they've played for the rest of the tournament. Credit to Borthers though, he delivered on his pre-match talk (for once). The squadron of loosies worked phenomenally. Hope he sticks to it with it. England have an incredible selection of backrows to choose from, let's keep getting them involved and play with some quick ball! Of course we'll need to kick more against stronger opposition but this could be a very innovative blueprint to build on. I'm not convinced Dingwall is the man, he is a decent facilitator but I'd rather have Slade.
Yes the army of Sevens did indeed work well, and it point the way to a more League-like model fot the bench, and the game as a whole. Men wiht more speed and skills than outright power. Dynamism.
Lawrence-Freeman could be an intriguing midfield moving forward. Yes you lose a ball-player but if they stick with Marcus at the back and Daly at LW, they already have plenty of those.
From a kiwi point of view it would be great if a fleet of 7s could consistently give a big 7/1 bomb squad the run around. That will be helped if World Rugby continue to learn from Super Rugby and the Premiership.
Although I wouldn't take too much from a win over anyone not employing a seven forward bench, especially Wales. SA and France are winning the big trophies for a reason.
Fascinating NB that you identified that speed can be used in a forward heavy bench. I would to see a direct comparsion in a match against SA.
As an aside I mentioned Caleb Tangitau as a good pickup for the Highlanders earlier this year. I can see him grabbing a starting ABs spot by the end of the year. He has the top end speed to go with his power and heads up play. I will try to see what his defensive game is going to be tested at.
It’s good that there can be a comparison at all, and that we are not all railroaded towards 7-1 OM!
How are the Landers going since I wrote that piece about them?