Big Game Hunters

The Anatomy of Several Tries from Bath vs Northampton Saints

If you caught the Bath vs Saints Quarter-final you’d have been well forgiven for assuming defence was an optional extra that neither club purchased.

In truth this was the best two attacking sides in the Premiership in terms of tries scored going at it.

Saints sit a top the premiership in both league points and tries scored, with 52 and 65 respectively. Bath follow close, one point behind in both stats, both teams recording 10 Try Bonus Point Wins in 12 games.

Of Course blow out’s occur but with both teams sitting mid-table on tries against it’s fair to say these teams are built on attack first.

Even in Europe Saints and Bath are two of only 4 teams to record try bonus points in all four of their pool games (Glasgow, Bordeaux-Begles, Bath and Saints).

They may have different approaches, Saints more about speed of execution and Bath about efficient transfer of pressure into points. But early on it became clear both teams knew the assignment and had come to play. As a result fans were treated to both sides showing the ball some air and an 11 try, 80+ points ding dong.

Often games with high scores can be one team thrashing the other and for a while it looked that way with Saints scoring over a point a minute until 35 minutes on the clock. Then it turned, into the prize fight everyone had hoped it would be.

Two heavy weights slugging it out, counter punch and blow for blow. One for you, and one for me. Tap penalty moves leading to two tries, line out drives, attacking from half way, a worldy from saints own 22 (just).

Of those 11 tries two jumped out for me. Frasers Dingwall’s at around 5 minutes, and Henry Arundel at 32 minutes.

Both born from the thing attack coaches dreams are made of, single strike scores.

Two Shots, two clean kills. Three British & Irish Lions to the fore.

Although both seem very different both have similar building blocks - set piece strike moves, hidden trail runners, the Fly half looking to engage with the 2nd and 3rd defender in to create a clean break.

Attacking off set piece is always interesting to me. There is a perception this is the easiest part of the game to defend.

Sure, defences have time to set up, and as a result, are most well settled on 1st phase ball. They are well spaced, have visibility of what’s happening in front of them and have clarity on their roles in defence.

The problem they have is that often they will also be at their most thinnest and with even numbers one mistake can be catastrophic. 9 players generally removed from the defensive line due to the set piece, so it’s the rare occasion teams get to go almost one on one on attack.

In contrast Attacks have depth and vision and the ability to advance onto the ball at pace, they get to manipulate the field and this all adds to the sense it’s a real battle of wits between attack and defence coaches.

So let’s break both down in a little more detail using Video.

The Anatomy of a Try/Tries.

First up is Dingwall’s Try.

A tactic Saints used throughout the game was to pull the line out towards the 5m channel, opening up the seam. They did this for both Dingwall and Sleightolme’s try (more on which is below).

What this does is create space, opens up additional running lines and thins the defence (they have to cover more ground and options).

As it all plays out McParland’s pass gets all the credit. Naturally it looks spectacular, and it is, but so much of it is born from the gentleness of the pull back no look pass from Hutchinson.

Smiths ability to step into the line takes the decision away from the defence and Freeman’s late change of angle as he comes onto the ball is excellent. Taking him just out of Arundell’s grasp.

The rest is a 3 vs 1.

Next is Arundell’s try.

Also born from the use of trail runners following around late but whilst so much is made of Russells double Pump on the ball, it’s the late step that completely commits Hutchinson and finally opens that space for Arundell.

Finally I want to quickly look at Sleightholmes try, from a defensive point of view.

Easy to criticise Redpath here for going too high and a poor attempt on Sleightholme, but the nuances show it’s a consequence of other peoples mistakes.

Bath’s tackle protocol close to the line is clearly “man low and man high”, low to slow the attackers momentum, high to rip the ball or wrap it up (we called this “low to slow, high to vie”)

Watch how Saints 13, Hutchinson, also looks to clear Redpath out, taking his legs away from him and putting him off balance. When Redpath drops his weight he’s lost any power and control over that action, making it easier for Sleightholme to stay up and rip away.

A great game with a ton of action. Games like this seldom come down to the wire, but Bath now take on Bordeaux-Begles in the semi-finals.