During the recent Internationals versus SA, I believe our scrum half had kicks charged down on at least 3 occasions, I don't think we interfered with SA on any occasions, we (Ospreys) also had many kicks charged down, basically using the same system as Wales. For a start it takes longer to set up the train, when the scrum takes an age to get the train into position, whereas just putting one tall or large player takes very little time, as long as the said player doesn't do what Peter Steph du Toit did and interfere with the man trying to do the charging down, it gives the opposition team much less time to get set up.
The other thing I would like to see is the speed of our players in thought and deed in getting into position in two's and three's to again receive the ball from rucks and mauls, next season with quick players like Morris, Griffiths, Morgan and Tipuric available for a lot of the season and decent carriers like Lake, Parry, Thomas and again Morris, there is no need for the ball to be given to one up runners, all it needs is a couple of weeks of top level coaching, the top teams in our League don't send in one up runners, only in emergencies, we also need to eradicate these plays out of our system.
Please discuss and what else would you like to see added to our plays to make ourselves more competitive next season.
So, brought this topic of mine back from a season and a half ago, this could have cost us our game again yesterday, it takes an age to set these trains up, whereas putting a large man about a metre to the side of the ruck for the scrum half to kick with total protection, not charged down as Lousi did yesterday. If that ball had bounced up into Lousi's hands that was a certain 5 points and could have been 7.
Do our Coaches actually watch other Teams to pick some plays that we could use, RMW is slow in getting to rucks and mauls and his kick after lifting the ball is also slow, you only have to look at the way Tomos Williams gets the ball away, as illustrated by his performance yesterday, it was a joy to see.
I think we, and Team Wales, need to realise that up and unders or cross kicks into the in-goal is high reward with our tall backs and relatively low cost as teams don't run it back and concede the goal line drop out.
Waiting for the scrumhalf to arrive at a ruck is my pet hate. The number of times we have lost momentum while waiting or counter rucking by the opposition causing chaos. Once the ball is secure we don't need more forwards piling in, quick ball from the ruck from whoever is there first. Surely its not that difficult for professional players to pass the ball its waiting for set plays and players getting into position thats slowing the game down.
A really interesting point about how important the ability to quickly transition from defence into attack is and vice versa. I believe at the end of last season Booth brought in Richard Kelly to specifically work on the transition phases and there is no doubt in the final run in our ability to score tries was transformed from the rest of the season. This could of course have been due to many factors. Anscombe recovering some form, key injured players returning and no longer have to rely on so many sub standard players in key positions and weaker opponents with games against the three welsh regions. I don't know if Kelly now has a permanent role. The website is sadly not kept up to date on these matters.
@ogwrwayne added to your point about one up runners, I would love to see our players come onto the ball at pace just like Collins did in the Dragons match IIRC.
I would like to see us kick off to compete occasionally just to mix things up now and again.
I would like us to compete occasionally on their lineouts so we stop giving them easy ball.