One of the most talked about Law changes/trials in recent memory is the adjustment to Law 10 offside in open play, specifically Law 10.4C, after a kick.
Affectionately known as the Dupont Law, it removes the ability for an opposition player to be put on side by the ball carrier after a kick.
In rough terms it means you have to make an effort to retreat towards your goalline, removing the ability for teams to creep up the pitch by kicking and waiting 10m from the receiver before being put onside by their actions.
With teams still adapting we saw Bath exploit this in some style with Ted Hills stormer 30 minutes into the Bath vs Saints game.
Lets look at the details:
The kick return comes from Furbank kicking long.
But there are some problems with this.
- There is no kick chase team to pressure Russell when he catches.
- Furbank is the last man, so everyone in front of him is offside (the Dupont Law).
It doesn’t make much sense as to why you would pass back and then kick a high bomb straight down the pitch like this as opposed to across to the opposite edge or long and deep. If they had wanted to chase down this channel it would have made more sense to kick from 9.
When the kick comes you can see only 3 players are on side and only one of them is close enough to help pressure the landing zone.
Furbank chases hard, but you can see his teammates are not sure if they have been put on side yet, or need to retreat.
It slows everything down and the result it is a disjointed kick chase that meets Russell.
We can see how far ahead of any support Furbank has become, and even though he is able to put some pressure on Russell it’s only enough for him to stop Russell from getting away leaving him free to pass away to de Glanville who is under Zero pressure.
With the disjointed slow chase, de Glanville is free to track across the field to link with the wider backs and pick off Iyogun in the defensive line.
We can see that panic forces Dingwall to sit down and then bite in, removing two players from the defence and setting free Will Butt.
Bath is away and in behind the defence.
Even though it is unquestionably a great run by Butt the fact is it’s made so much easier by running against a turning defence.
He can weave his way through cutting back against weak shoulders and links with Spencer who has been tracking since the catch.
If we roll back, we can see here Spencer just arriving.
As the shot pans out the line the support line he’s taken is perfect. Likewise you can see Hill drop back and then track the ball all the way through to take the final pass.
With Furbank, normally the last line of defence, still chasing back, as is Finn Smith. Ramm and James track across but essentially this is backs running against a disorganised corner flagging, weak shouldered defence – even if you get a shot in it’s probably not going to impact the attack that much.
Butt links with Spencer and he in turn can draw and send Hill in under the posts.
The interesting thing in this game is how clinical Bath were with their possession.
47% of possession
11 entries into the opposition 22,
3.18 points per entry (so effectively each 22 entry gave them the equivalence of a pantly kick or drop goal)
It’s pretty impressive stuff.
Author: The Dead Ball Area
