In rugby’s evolution in the professional era, it’s hard to remember a time when there was so much value placed on creative players as there is now, those who can transcend systems and play with a predator’s instincts.
The game today relies heavily on structure in both attack and defence, making those moments of individual flair that can have such a profound impact on the outcome glisten like jewels.
At the start of my career, there was so much space on a pitch, mainly due to the free-for-all at rucks, with the respective teams massively over-resourcing the breakdown. Defences were less structured and organised and, as a result, so were the attacks.
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It was left to an individual in possession to spot a mismatch and have a go. Team-mates would react or not but in the great teams it was very much a case of the former, players alive and sharp to possibility; line-breakers and gamebreakers.
As rugby became increasingly professional a more defined shape was placed on defence and attack depending on the overriding focus of a head coach and his assistants. There is more certainty in defence now with less moving parts, players and coaches are smarter in withdrawing numbers from the breakdown to frustrate the attack.
The attack is harder to perfect, where playing to a shape can fall on the wrong side of the style-and-substance conundrum. The most dangerous attacking teams can win the gain-line from a set piece launch play and enable their key decision makers to manipulate defences and expose weaknesses.
A functioning set piece – combined with the ability to see and deliver a pass or offload, evade a tackler or kick a ball into space at the right time – is more valuable now than ever. Some of the talent on show last weekend offered a timely reminder of the importance of the creative gene.
Toulon scrumhalf Baptiste Serin offered a brilliant example, regathering his own grubber kick to unlock the Racing 92 defence, throwing a flicked offload behind his back and then, in the same phase of play, producing a pinpoint cross-field kick that led to a try. There is no playbook for that sort of instinctive brilliance.
A trio of outhalves – Fin Smith (Northampton Saints), Marcus Smith (Harlequins) and Finn Russell (Bath) – also stole the spotlight for their respective teams. A couple of Irish ones, Munster’s Jack Crowley and Leinster’s Sam Prendergast, will be hoping to do the same this weekend in the Champions Cup.
Getting that balance between structure and creativity unlocks success. The provinces have three matches – two in Europe and a URC game – before Ireland open their Six Nations Championship against England at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, February 1st. It’s shop window time, a final chance to challenge Simon Easterby’s thinking when it comes to a pecking order.
Munster missed Crowley in the recent defeat to Leinster. He must have a pivotal role in the back-to-back games against Saracens and Northampton if Munster are to be successful. His challenge is to rediscover his best form; there’s been a minor dip recently in a couple of aspects of his game. That is unfortunate timing, with the emergence of Prendergast as a realistic alternative at outhalf for Ireland.
A significant injury profile in Munster has made for a challenging environment, denying the chance for consistency in selection and the benefits that come with a more settled team. I wrote previously about the type of game that brings out the best in Crowley, where he sits above the noise and makes the right decision at the right time.
A calm, assured performance from Crowley will go a long way in a Munster context, everything else is out of his control including the form of other outhalves featuring in the national debate.
It was a little more than a year ago when Leinster travelled down to La Rochelle. Ciarán Frawley was given the reins at 10 and helped to grind out a result in the early throes of a defensive overhaul under Jacques Nienaber.
Ronan O’Gara fuelled the notion last weekend that La Rochelle are out of sorts, with his comments in the wake of a home win over a substantially weakened Toulouse. However, sitting sixth in the French Top 14 and within touching distance of the top four with two wins in Europe doesn’t suggest a crisis point.
There’s no doubt there are performance issues that he’d like to see improve but good teams lament a poor display while still managing to win. Leinster will travel as a different team to the one that ground out that victory at the Stade Marcel Deflandre last season.
Signing Jordie Barret and RG Snyman and Prendergast’s emergence are the main points of difference. The young outhalf has enjoyed a steady rise over the last year or so. What I suggested about Crowley is also true with Prendergast: he is able to give consistency to the Leinster attack in the way he plays and his robustness, despite a frame that hasn’t filled out fully.
Jamie Heaslip was a fantastic player and one of the things that set him apart was his ability to play week in week out with no injuries. The same applied to Donnacha O’Callaghan; regular availability is a valuable asset in a player to his team.
The impact of Snyman and Barrett cannot be overstated. RG, as an individual, offloads more than most teams, while Jordie brings the qualities you’d expect from a Test All Black. Serendipity has played a part in giving Prendergast the opportunity to start in a sell-out match in Stade Marcel-Deflandre. How he copes will have ramifications for him in the blue and green jerseys.
There is still plenty to learn about the young playmaker. He has grown in confidence with the ball-in-hand and started to find a bit more space and freedom to run.
As I suggested earlier, defences love certainty and I’m pretty confident that La Rochelle will have a plan to try to unsettle Prendergast and Leinster. That will probably mean going down a tried-and-tested route, some “late-ish” hits and extra line-speed designed to bring him into the fight in an effort to distract him from thinking his way through the match.
There is a certain level of predictability in the way Leinster play, and the next challenge for Prendergast is to see how he can layer his own creative spark over what the team are doing well, one that can propel his team to the win they crave.
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