NEWTON’S LAWS OF UNIFORM MOTION IN A RUGBY CONTEXT

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Man-to-Man Overlap Defence

This system of defence identifies the ball carrier. When the attacking team brings in an extra attacking player into the backline it forces the defenders on the outside to adjust (i.e., move in one), allowing the overlap to be created on the wing. In this case the cover would be directed to the touchline and the job of taking the last runner would fall to the fullback. This is not such a difficult task if the extra man comes in outside the outside centre. It does however create problems if the overlap occurs through a run around, because to take the player with the ball, the outside defender then has to turn rather drastically. If they don’t make that turn well enough and a linebreak occurs, it makes it difficult for the fullback who is basically set on reaching the touchline to be able to correct himself so to be able to make the tackle on the player coming through in the midfield (Greenwood, 2003). It is therefore important that in this situation the fullback as well as the blindside wing who is moving across has to be conscious of trying to stay inside the ball and then shift across as needed (Pool, 1992; Williams et al., 1994; Robilliard, 1997; Pool, 1997; Marks, 1998; Walker, 2000).

The Defensive Shape

A team’s defensive shape is an important key in building a defensive wall that can absorb and nullify various attacking threats. What is important for a defensive line to concentrate on is a commitment to keeping this “shape”. The key rule is that a defender must under no circumstances advance ahead of the man inside of him. Each defender should preferably position himself half a meter laterally behind his fellow defender inside of him (Muggleton, 2001; Kiss, 2002, McFarland, 2005a; McFarland, 2005b; Gold, 2005). Once the ball passes the defenders “zone” he should continue to push forward into the space inside the ball. By maintaining this “shape” at least two “zones” inside the ball it is possible to guard against any attempted inside passes or switches which the attacking team may use to strike our defensive wall. The defenders must defend the spaces inside the ball. The defenders closest to the facet play an important role in leading and developing the “shape”. Once they have addressed the immediate threat in front of them their next duty is to lead the defensive line forward in order to develop good “shape” early and to assist the midfield in edging the outside defenders University of Pretoria etd – Evert, A (2006) 41 into their specific role in defence (Anderson, 2000; McFarland, 2005a; Gold, 2005). Attacking systems are continually being developed to create situations that will lure defenders out of their line in order to disrupt and break their defensive “shape” and thus create the holes they then wish to exploit with their strike and support runners. This “lure” is aimed at the ball carrier and also inside and outside the ball carrier through decoys, deceptive plays and exploitive running lines. In order to prevent line breaks taking place in this fashion, the defensive line must be maintained and there has to be a commitment to keeping the “shape”.

The Execution Line

This refers to the “critical” point or line of pass of the attacking play. When discussing the “execution line” the most important component is awareness and judgement in the defence’s line application. The art is to avoid being pulled out of “shape” while pressing forward and therefore being made redundant in the defensive line especially at the “critical” point where a defensive decision has to be made, e.g., a run-around or looping play. Awareness and judgement is required here to ensure that the key point of the defensive line does not overextend to the “critical” line. The defence line speed and tempo is determined at this stage, usually by the flyhalf and inside centre as well as the defender inside the flyhalf. It must be noted that the lines speed of advancement is also affected by the “shape” rule, i.e., no player should advance ahead of the defending player on his inside. In these “critical” points and situations a forward motion, “holding” pattern is to be applied with the intention of letting the play evolve without interference to the defensive structure and “shape” (Barnes & Swain, 2002; Kiss, 2002; Hedger, 2002; Gold, 2005; McFarland, 2005a).

Drift Defense as a Concept

“Drift defence” is not a pattern, but a concept and isn’t specific to phases of defence. Drift defence does not identify a definite target for the tackler but works on shepherding the attacking backline across the field. One must note however that the words “drift” or “slide” indicate that something will occur later (Larder, 1992; Johnson, 1993; Williams et al., 1994; Marks, 1998). Defence occurs now – not later, and this links up with the first rule regarding defence. The first basic rule regarding defence is to deny the opposition time and space, which subsequently reduces attacking options. This can only be achieved if the team not in possession advances forward quickly and pressurises the ball carrier (Robilliard, 1997). The second basic idea of “drift” or “slide” defence is a concept of “wait and see” which is commonly used in rugby league. The idea is to organise the defensive lines to try and “herd” the attacking team towards the side of the field in order to force them to have to try and beat the defence around the outside.

Third and Subsequent Phase Defense

When 3rd phase is set up, the next important aspect of defence becomes apparent. If a team continually attacks in the same direction, a situation will arise where there will be a “pooling” of players on the side from which the attack originally came, and therefore too few defenders on the side where the next wave of attack is to be launched. In order to guard against such a situation, the term “far side” is brought into the defensive communication. The term refers to a situation where when a ruck or maul is created; two defenders automatically move over to the far side of the facet and fulfil the role of “marker” and “one”. What this does is that it prevents the defenders on the outside from having to commit to the area next to the facet. This allows them to be able to optimally protect the outside space, which would invariably be exposed if they had to move inwards towards the facet area. Another important reason for the “far side” is that if the players on the outside were forced to maintain there defensive width, and did not move in towards the ruck or maul, a short pass to a forward striking in the channel next to the facet would lead to a linebreak which would be a difficult situation to salvage (Anderson, 2000; Kiss, 2002, Greenwood, 2004, McFarland, 2005a).

Focus on the ball

The key to this defence is occupying space and cutting down options. This can be done only if the defence focuses on the ball and not the man. It is important to concentrate on the ball carrier as the key focus area (Gold, 2005, McFarland, 2005a). Players, who are really adept at this, go in and take an option away from the ball carrier. The opposition looks to make a pass, say 13 to the wing, and often the players with a good “feel” for this type of defensive system will already occupied the space next to the wing to prevent that. Gold (2005) stresses here that the point is not to go for the intercept, but to occupy the space and deny the opponent the option (Gold, 2005, McFarland, 2005a).

TABLE OF CONTENTS :

• TITLE PAGE
• DEDICATION
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• SYNOPSIS
• SAMEVATTING
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• LIST OF FIGURES
• LIST OF TABLES
• LIST OF APPENDICES
• CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
  • 1.1 INTRODUCTION
  • 1.2 MOTIVATION AND BACKGROUND
  • 1.3 FORMULATING THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
  • 1.3.1 The unit of analysis
  • 1.4 THE RESEARCH GOAL
  • 1.4.1 The research strategy
  • 1.5 METHODS OF RESEARCH
  • 1.5.1 Data collection
  • 1.5.2 Data organisation
  • 1.5.3 Analysis and interpretation of data
• CHAPTER 2: THE DEVELOPMENT OF RUGBY FOOTBALL
  • 2.1 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RUGBY FOOTBALL
  • 2.2 BACKGROUND TO THE SOUTH AFRICAN RUGBY FOOTBALL UNION (SARFU) AND SA RUGBY (PTY) LIMITED
• CHAPTER
  • 3.1 THE NECESSITY OF FEEDBACK FROM NOTATIONAL ANALYSIS
  • 3.2 TYPES OF FEEDBACK
  • 3.3 THE ROLE OF THE COACH USING FEEDBACK
  • 3.4 THE NEED FOR OBJECTIVE INFORMATION
  • 3.5 NOTATIONAL ANALYSIS – A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
  • 3.6 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPORT – SPECIFIC NOTATION SYSTEMS (HAND NOTATION)
  • 3.7 A HISTORICAL REVIEW OF HAND NOTATION SYSTEMS FOR RUGBY UNION
  • 3.8 THE USE OF COMPUTERISED NOTATION
  • 3.9 THE USE OF COMPUTERISED NOTATION IN RUGBY UNION
  • 3.10 THE FUTURE OF NOTATIONAL ANALYSIS IN SPORT
• CHAPTER
  • 4.1 DEFENSIVE SYSTEMS
  • 4.2 THE PILLARS OF DEFENCE
  • 4.2.1 DEFENSIVE ORGANISATION
  • 4.2.1.1 Man-to-man overlap defence
  • 4.2.1.2 Man-to-man isolation defence
  • 4.2.1.3 One-out defence
  • 4.2.2 THE DEFENSIVE SHAPE
  • 4.2.3 THE DEFENSIVE ZONES
  • 4.2.4 DEFENSIVE SPACING
  • 4.2.5 THE EXECUTION LINE
  • 4.2.6 ATTITUDE
  • 4.2.7 DRIFT DEFENCE AS A CONCEPT
  • 4.2.8 SECOND PHASE DEFENCE
  • 4.2.9 THIRD AND SUBSEQUENT PHASE DEFENCE
  • 4.2.10. RUSH DEFENCE AS A CONCEPT
  • 4.2.10.1 Speed off the line
  • 4.2.10.2 The alignment of each defender
  • 4.2.10.3 Focus on the ball
  • 4.2.10.4 Maintenance of effective width
• CHAPTER
  • 5.1 ATTACKING BACKLINE PLAY
  • 5.1.1 Attacking teams running lines
  • 5.1.2 The aim of backline play
  • 5.1.3 The key factors associated with backline play
  • 5.1.4 Attacking backline play philosophy
  • 5.2 THE ATTACKING BACKLINE’S CREATORS
  • 5.3 THE ALIGNMENT OF THE ATTACKING BACKLINE FROM THE FACET
  • 5.4 THE ATTACKING BACKLINE’S ATTACKING WIDTH
  • 5.5 THE ATTACKING BACKLINE’S CHANGE IN INITIAL STARTING POSITION
  • 5.6 THE ATTACKING BACKLINE’S ANGLES OF RUNNING
  • 5.7 THE ATTACKING BACKLINE’S DECOY RUNNERS
  • 5.8 THE ATTACKING BACKLINE’S MANIPULATION OF THE OPPOSITION THROUGH NUMBERS
  • 5.9 THE ATTACKING BACKLINE’S MANIPULATION OF THE OPPOSITION THROUGH ADDITION
  • 5.10 THE ATTACKING BACKLINE’S MANIPULATION OF THE OPPOSITION THROUGH SUBTRACTION
  • 5.11 THE ATTACKING BACKLINE’S STRIKER
  • 5.12 THE ATTACKING BACKLINE’S TIMING OF THE MOVEMENT OF THE ATTACK
  • 5.12.1 The initial starting position of the first receiver
  • 5.12.2 The alignment of the attacking unit from the facet
  • 5.12.3 The timing of the movement of attack
  • 5.13 THE ATTACKING BACKLINE’S STRIKE ON THE DEFENSIVE LINE
  • 5.14 THE STRIKER’S SPEED VERSUS QUICKNESS
  • 5.15 SPEED CONCEPTS SPECIFIC TO RUGBY
  • 5.16 THE STRIKER’S RUNNING SPEED
  • 5.17 THE ATTACKING BACKLINE’S PASSING SPEED
  • 5.18 THE ATTACKING BACKLINE’S THOUGHT SPEED
  • 5.19 THE ATTACKING BACKLINE’S STRIKE AREA
  • 5.20 THE ATTACKING BACKLINE’S TRAILING SUPPORT RUNNERS
  • 5.21 THE ATTACKING BACKLINE’S FIRST WAVE OF SUPPORT RUNNERS
  • 5.22 THE ATTACKING BACKLINE’S SECOND WAVE OF SUPPORT RUNNERS
  • 5.23 THE STRIKER’S ANGLE OF RUN AFTER A SUCCESFUL STRIKE HAS BEEN MADE
  • 5.24 THE ATTACKING TEAM’S CLEANING UNITS
  • 5.25 THE ATTACKING TEAM’S COMMUNICATION
  • 5.26 THE ATTACKING TEAM’S DECISION-MAKING
  • 5.27.1 PICK AND DRIVE FORWARD BALL CARRIES NEAR THE FRINGES OF THE RUCK
  • 5.27.2 “ONE OFF RUNNERS” ONE PASS OFF THE RUCK
  • 5.27.3 FORWARDS RUNNING OFF SHORTENED LINEOUTS OR ANY OPEN PHASE PLAY SITUATIONS
  • 5.28 CONCLUSION
• CHAPTER
  • 6.1 INTRODUCTION TO BIOMECHANICAL ASPECTS
  • 6.2 KINEMATICS
  • 6.3 SCALARS AND VECTORS
  • 6.4 DISTANCE AND DISPLACEMENT
  • 6.5 NEWTON’S LAWS OF UNIFORM MOTION IN A RUGBY CONTEXT
  • 6.5.1 NEWTON’S FIRST LAW
  • 6.5.2 NEWTON’S SECOND LAW
  • 6.5.2.1 Acceleration, Speed, and Position: Kinematics
  • 6.5.2.2 Figuring out the force of a “Big Hit”
  • 6.5.2.3 A Force to be reckoned with!
  • 6.5.3 NEWTON’S THIRD LAW
  • 6.5.3.1 Momentum and Impulse
  • 6.6 BASIC TERMS ASSOCIATED WITH BIOMECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF RUGBY SITUATIONS
  • 6.6.1 Principle 1 – STABILITY
  • 6.6.2 Principle 2 – GROUND REACTION FORCES
  • 6.6.3 Principle 3 – DIRECTION OF THE GROUND REACTION FORCES
  • 6.6.4 Principle 4 – EFFICIENT USE OF GROUND REACTION FORCES
  • 6.7 THE ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF THE OBSERVED COLLISIONS
  • 6.7.1 The science of ball carrying collisions
  • 6.7.2 Principle 5 – COLLISION STABILITY
  • 6.7.3 The effective body positioning required for entering the collision site
  • 6.7.4 Principle 6 – EFFECTIVE MOMENTUM GENERATION
  • 6.7.5 Principle 7 – EFFECTIVE BODY TECHNIQUE USAGE
• CHAPTER 7: METHODS, THE EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN AND THE RELEVANT PROCEDURES
  • 7.1 METHOD
  • 7.2 PRE-CONTACT SITUATIONS BEFORE THE COLLISION TOOK PLACE – BALL CARRIER/S
  • 7.3 PRE-CONTACT SITUATIONS BEFORE THE COLLISION TOOK PLACE – THE DEFENDER/S
  • 7.4 KEY FACTORS PRESENT AT THE IN-CONTACT SITUATIONS AS THE COLLISION TAKES PLACE
  • 7.5 THE VELOCITY CHANGE COMPARISON BETWEEN THE BALL CARRIER/S AND THE DEFENDER/S, AND THE RELEVENT COLLISION ANGLES
  • 7.6 THE POST-CONTACT EVALUATION OF THE TRY SCORED
• CHAPTER 8: ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
  • 8.1 ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
  • 8.1.1 Average total number of collisions for a try to be scored
  • 8.1.2 Average total number of forced missed tackles for a try to be scored
  • 8.1.3 Ratio of dominant collisions versus passes executed when a try is scored
  • 8.1.4 Average positive velocity change of dominant collisions resulting in a try being scored
  • 8.2 THE STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DATA
  • 8.3 THE STATISTICAL TESTING PROCEDURE
  • 8.4 THE TEST OF SIGNIFICANCE
  • 8.5 THE SELECTION OF A STATISTICAL TEST
  • 8.6 k – SAMPLE RELATED CASE FOR INTERVAL / RATIO DATA
  • 8.7 MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS
  • 8.8 CROSS TABULATION OF THE DATA
• CHAPTER
  • 9.1 INTERPRETATION OF THE DATA
  • 9.2 PHYSICS VS ABILITY: WHAT IS THE LINK?
  • 9.3 WHERE COACHING COMES IN: THE EFFECTIVE USE
  • OF CENTER OF MASS AND TORQUE
  • 9.4 SPEED, AGILITY, QUICKNESS AND THE ABILITY TO BEAT THE DEFENDER WITH FOOTWORK
  • 9.5 THE ABILITY TO RUN OVER THE DEFENDER
  • 9.5.1 A FULL-ON DEFENDER BEATING COLLISION
  • 9.5.1.1 Attacking from quick or slow ball
  • 9.5.1.2 The ball carriers ability to hit the collision line at maximum speed when running onto the ball
  • 9.5.1.3 The level of effective footwork ahead of the collision so that the ball carrier dominates the collision site
  • 9.5.1.4 Manipulation of the defender so that he is flat footed
  • 9.5.1.5 The defender is forced to tackle making use of his weaker shoulder
  • 9.5.1.6 The defender has been manipulated into over tracking by the probe used by the attacking backline and the ball carrier hits the line using the effective running line
  • 9.5.1.7 The ball carrier enters the collision site with his full mass moving through the line of application of the defender
  • 9.5.1.8 The ball carrier is physically bigger and more powerful than the defender
  • 9.5.1.9 The ball carrier has a player/s leached to him thus doubling the mass of the ball carrier into the collision
  • 9.5.2 THE REPEATED EXECUTION OF COLLISIONS THAT IN EFFECT SOFTEN UP THE OPPOSITION BEFORE THE FINAL KNOCK-OUT BLOW IS ISSUED
  • 9.5.2.1 Dominating ball carrying collisions that lead to a ruck being formed
  • 9.5.2.2 Dominating ball carrying collisions that lead to the defender being bumped off
  • 9.5.2.3 Dominating ball carrying collisions where the ball carrier is able to give an effective off-load to a support player
  • 9.6 CONCLUSION

GET THE COMPLETE PROJECT
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DOMINANT BALL CARRYING COLLISIONS AS AN INDICATOR OF SUCCESS IN RUGBY UNION AND THE BIOMECHANICAL ANALYSIS THEREOF