Ireland’s Forwards and Pre-binding on Carriers

If this was a boxing bout the referee would have stopped the fight at half time.  Ireland were utterly dominant in virtually every phase of play, and yet Wales were only trailing by two points went the whistle blew at the end of the half.

 

One aspect of Ireland’s game that helped them capitalise on their all their possession and territory was the use of forward binding on to a ball carrier, prior to engagement with the opposition defence.

Ireland are by no means the only team to adopt this tactic – Saracens use it all the time with a central carrier and two other players pre-bound to the main carrier before they make contact with the defence. The question is – given its effectiveness, why don’t all teams use it?

Ireland’s forward were dominant in the close exchanges against Wales and one way they made ground over the gain line is through the pre-bind tactic.

There are so many advantages to the move:

• It provides extra weight in to the contact area
• Two players joined together add more stability to allow the carrier to stay on his feet longer
• The supporting player often acts as a block to make tackling the carrier harder
• Once the carrier is tackled, the supporting player is at the breakdown and can help secure the ball for the next phase

Here are a couple of examples from the Wales game that led to Irish tries:

The first example (above) shows two Irish carriers hitting in to a solitary Welsh defender and making 2 crucial metres beyond the gain line.

Ireland win the ball back and this time it’s Leavy and Best who are used as a pair to carry in the next phase (see below) and are awarded a try.

The final example is again on the Welsh line, with Healy carrying and O’Mahony supporting. Note how Ireland are happy for the ruck ball to be slow, as long as this gives them time to set a primary carrier with a supporting player in position.

This isn’t a new tactic from Ireland. Here they are back in Autumn 2017 against South Africa, again using a player bound to the ball carrier to take more momentum in to the tackle near the try line.

 

Is it legal?

Yes. The current approach is to allow supporting players to pre-bind on to the ball carrier, as long as the tackler is not blocked or impeded from being able to make the tackle.

People often ask is this type of approach a flying wedge, but the law book has a very specific (but badly drafted) definition of what constitutes a flying wedge:

There are probably a few elements of this definition that are missing in the Irish examples we looked at earlier, namely the move isn’t played off a penalty or free-kick, the carrier doesn’t have the benefit of a large run up and the shape isn’t really a wedge formation.

For those readers that haven’t seen a flying wedge in action, here is an example from the 1995 Rugby World Cup between Argentina and England:

We also know from various law clarifications that mention players pre-binding to carriers that this is something World Rugby permits. An example is shown here that looks at a flanker binding to a number 8 after a scrum before contact with the defence. There is no mention that this is an illegal act.

It’s simple rugby but very effective.

 

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