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Boring? It’s boom time in the tryless world of Mike Ford and Shaun Edwards

From The Times
December 10, 2009
John Westerby

While much of the rugby world gnashes its teeth at the shortage of tries that is blighting the game, there is one group of people who may be forgiven a wry smile.

For the game’s defence coaches, the Scrooges whose job it is to stop tries, this could be seen as boom time, with attacking teams consistently struggling to pick a way through carefully constructed defensive systems.

Much of the blame for this season’s sterile rugby has been laid with the new breakdown law, which has denied attacking teams the quick ball they need to prosper. But another common complaint from players is that modern defences have become too strong, that it is harder than ever to find a path to the try-line. So have defence coaches become too good at their jobs?

Leading the case for the defence is Mike Ford, whom Martin Johnson, the England team manager, entrusts with preventing the opposition scoring. Although England scored only one try in three disappointing autumn internationals last month, they conceded only three: two against Australia and one against New Zealand.

“I think the amount of time spent on defence in rugby union is now greater than it has ever been,” Ford said. “When I came into union [from rugby league] with Ireland in 2002, we’d have a team meeting and it was all about attack, nobody would mention defence. In rugby league, defence is the first thing you learn and in training, it’s 50 per cent defence.

“Union has come a long way since then and now, with England, I probably get about a third of training time. A third on attack, a third on defence and a third on the set-piece is about the right split.” Continue reading →