Anatomy of A Try: Jonny May vs Australia October 2019
As Australia found out knock out Rugby is a cruel mistress. You can have all the ball, try to play all the rugby. But if you aren’t accurate, don’t put the points on the board when they are on offer. Well, then you simply aren’t giving yourself much of a chance, are you? Knock out Rugby changes peoples mentality. The temptation is to play 100mph for 80 minutes with the intention of blowing your opponents out of the water. But the...
The Anatomy of a Try: Marika Koroibete – Australia vs Fiji
This years World Cup has got off to a scintillating start. Argentina and France battered each other for 80 minutes, scoring a bunch of brilliant tries along the way. Russia were certainly no push over for a strong Japanese side in the opening game and Fiji nearly caused the upset of the tournament by running Australia closer than the score suggests (yes, I know there’d only been one game at the time but even so). Fitness was...
England XV vs The Barbarians: June 2nd 2019
For all intents and purposes the game should’ve been an absolute mess. A star studded, underprepared, over imbibed Barbarians side played and slightly less well known, equally underprepared and less inebriated England Saxons side (England XV just doesn’t sound right). I learnt long ago not to get excited about these fixtures, either the international side is way too strong for the Barbarians, or so weak they get walloped....
Dubai Sevens 2017: How the Blitz Bokke won the final – Part Two
In part one of our look at the 2017 Dubai Sevens final we looked at the opening three tries from South Africa’s win vs New Zealand. Today we’ll look at what South Africa did when New Zealand have the ball. Speak to anyone in sevens and ask them to describe the Blitz Bokkes and I assure you defence will feature prominently. It would be too simplistic to say their game is built entirely on defence but they conceded only 8...
Dubai Sevens 2017: How the Blitz Bokke won the final – Part One
The opening round of the HSBC World Series, the Emirates Dubai Sevens is one of the Jewels in the World Series Crown. There are very few occasions you'll see social Rugby played alongside the Elite level of the game. It has a unique flavour that no other tournament around the world manages to emulate. In last years main event South Africa's Blitz Bokkes took the Dubai Sevens Cup home after a bruising 24-12 win...
Anatomy of a Try – Nathan Earle vs Gloucester September 2018
Transition! It's a word often used in Rugby. You’ll often hear coaches talking about transitioning, nomrally that's from defence to attack, or attack to defence. It’s essentially how a team move from getting the ball into their attack patterns or from losing the ball into a good solid defensive system. Of course the proverbial masters at it are New Zealand but this try from Harlequins Nathan Earle is a...