How to know which side of the field to select players on

Discussion in 'The CPL Rugby that never was.' started by Cribbage, Oct 12, 2009.

  1. Cribbage RG Cribb

    Noticed some confusion about this in a few other threads so I thought I'd give you the lowdown. For starters, I should let you know that it doesn't actually matter which side you put certain players (ie. they don't have preferred sides) but it's advantageous to have certain combinations together.

    Naming Teams

    1 - Fullback
    2 - Right Wing
    3 - Right Centre
    4 - Left Centre
    5 - Left Wing
    6 - Right Half
    7 - Left Half
    8 - Right Prop
    9 - Hooker
    10 - Left Prop
    11 - Right Second Row
    12 - Left Second Row
    13 - Lock

    So basically, the team lines up like this from left to right in attack:

    5 4 12 7 10 9 8 6 11 3 2

    With 13 and 1 slipping in on either side depending on where the play is and who's playing the ball.

    Attacking Perspective

    Essentially you should have a organisation/yardage side and a creative/potent side.

    On the same side as your primary organiser should be the prop, second rower, centre and winger who are most adept at making ground. The attributes in focus here will be organisation (for your half), tight running (for your prop and your second rower), fringe running (for your second rower), wide running (for your centre and your winger) and dummy half running OR tight running (for your winger). The best exponents of these, from an attacking perspective, should be on one side. This is the side that you'll pepper early in sets to gain momentum. A classic example for this side would be something like Kimmorley-Price-Laffranchi-Delaney-Sailor.

    On the other side, you should look to have a half with a high creativity rating, a prop who supplies second phase play, and second rowers and centres with good hole-running abilities. Wingers should be adept at taking cross-field kicks. This is the side that will feature the majority of your creative backline movements and second rowers looking for holes. A classic example for this side would be something like Marshall-Tronc-Creagh-JMorris-Folau.

    Defensive Perspective

    Defensively your team will line up like this:

    5 4 7 12 10 9 . 13 8 11 6 3 2

    The only real key to setting players up in the right sides in defence is making sure you don't have two poor defenders next to each other - that being either poor positionally (for backs and second rowers) or poor in actual tackling (for everyone). A hole will develop between two players if they are both poor positionally, and a lot of tackles are attempted in twos so you can cover a poor tackler to an extent if he has a superb one either side of him.

    Obviously, balancing the attacking and defensive perspectives of trying to set players on the right sides of the field is going to be the challenge.
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2009
  2. Cribbage RG Cribb

    By the way, that whole attacking thing changes if you choose to designate your hooker as primary organiser. If you do that you can basically play players anywhere you want (as far as sides of the field go) in attack as it'll split it 50/50 anyway.
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2009
  3. Lukic L Popovic

    FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU @ Telling them the creative/organizing bit.
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2009
  4. Ged GEC King

    This has the potential to be very tricky.
     
  5. Boobidy BJ Gemmell

    Yeah, our team is pretty much gold.
     
  6. Cribbage RG Cribb

    Indeed. :p

    Adds a real tactical dimension to it though.
     
  7. Julian BJ Taylor

    I like this. I think trades will start happening more frequently when people think more about it.
     
  8. Cribbage RG Cribb

    Haha, wasn't really fair that only you knew all this. :p
     
  9. GYR DW Lewis

    I swear it just said that Rince EWS posted. Hard delete?
     
  10. Cribbage RG Cribb

    Yeah, lol. Didn't care about the original thread (although it seems Bedsey did :lol:) but I don't want him to carry on and on with it, so I killed it.
     
  11. Benny BS Read

    Having Monaghan running Civo and Laffranchi around as the organisation/yard side will be gold.
     
  12. Jabba HJ Bots

    So what attributes am I looking at with second rowers seeing as Smith will be my organizer? Hard and straight no nonsense runners? Less offloading so I can get faster play the ball?
     
  13. Lukic L Popovic

    If anything, offloading will help as it puts them on the back foot and creates a quicker ruck.
     
  14. Hunter AD Hunt

    Kimmorley, Morley and Waterhouse > Monaghan, Civo and Laffranchi
     
  15. GYR DW Lewis

    Who is your other half? Unless they are creative or a shit organiser, I would have Monaghan on the creative side.
     
  16. Lukic L Popovic

    Sherwin, Shillington and Burgess < Those two.
     
  17. Jabba HJ Bots

    Yeah but if it's anything like the Warriors offloading it's offload and crab your way across field for the loss of 3m from where the offload was made.
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2009
  18. Fungus K Fung

    Burrow = organiser.
    Anasta = Would you call Anasta creative?
     
  19. Cribbage RG Cribb

    Well, your second rowers will be running off creative halves either side of the ruck, so I suppose you should be looking at those with good hole-running. However, they'll also run one off the ruck more than the second rowers of other teams, so good tight-running could be handy also. Whatever you like really - running the team from dummy half basically means that it doesn't matter which side of the field you put anyone on or what type of players your second rowers are (as long as they are good).
     
  20. Benny BS Read

    BTW Menzies playing in the creative side is so advantageous now. I reckon my 2nd Row fits the bill big time.
     

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