: Tue Jul 28, 2009 1:22 pm
Andy Gilder wrote:
I was waiting for the "it's all Diskins fault" brigade to turn up. Apparently not having Buderus on the field affects everyone elses performance to such a degree that the whole team falls apart. Players on completely the opposite side of the pitch lose the ability to tackle or catch just because there's someone different at dummy half.
I don't put it down to being Diskins fault. But buderus is better, and guides the team around a lot better, and is able to send the ball at speed and accuracy to a player in a good position to make ground.
The hooker is one of the most important positions in the game, and the distribution from dummy half is vital to teams getting a good basis to attack from. If forwards, or runners in general aren't certain that they will get good ball, that is easy to take, they will run slower, and further behind the gain line, to allow time to adjust to a poor pass.
As such, when diskin is on, we don't seem to get a roll on quite so easily, which is a perpetuating situation. Players run slower and further from the gain line, and don't hit the line with as much momentum, and so get more dominated in the tackle, meaning a slower play of the ball, and less momentum.
Its only small margins on a tackle by tackle basis, but 10m can make a lot of difference when kicking on the last, as can the speed at which the ball is given to the kicker, suddenly you have a kick that is down the fullback's throat and tackle 1 in on the 30 or 40m line, and you're soon under pressure as a team.
Basically, a game of rugby isn't a series of one off events, but a series of events which occur on the back of the previous one. A poor set clearing your lines, often leads to your defence being put uinder more pressure, and more likely to miss a tackle or give a penalty away.
Its not an excuse for the whole team to fall apart however, and all palyers need to take responsibility for their own game, but problems and percieved weaknesses can be traced a lot further back than who missed the tackle or dropped the ball