Lions Set Piece Move Competition

Ok here's the scenario. A friend of a friend of a friend of Kevin Bacon knows Warren Gatland. Said friend was having a chin wag with Gats the other day and the concept of a set piece move and the dying art in the modern game came up.

Gats lamented how rarely you see them nowadays and was crowing about how the last time he saw a really good was his own team's 13 man line out maul against NZ. Said friend said surely we could have some other ideas like that to which Gats replied I'm all ears if you hear of any good ones.

So the rules are simple. As squads are unknown you will have to name the players or the positions involved. Name the situation in which to use this set move and be specific about who is involved. You never know: your set move could be responsible for clinching a series victory. Good luck.

Good idea..!

There were some great penalty moves in the old days especially in the 74 tour. Clever running, dummies and the odd scissors could scatter a defence and a Lion through on the charge.

Might be nice to see some of that again.

The Aussies also used to be very good at this.

For example GC, the Lions have an attacking scrum in the Oz 22 centre field. A good shove forward. Phillips runs off to the left side of the field and Faletau breaks off to the left. He passes to Warburton who changes direction and fires off a wide pass to Tipuric ranging off to the right. Roberts then receives the ball running in in the left on an angle who passes it instantly to POC running the other way to the right. Tipuric receives the ball wider who pops up a pass to Halfpenny entering the line. With the fullback to beat he fires out a wide pass to Bowe ranging out wide on the right and he moves under the posts to dot down.

Entry number one for Gatland to consider. See if you an do better with your own set piece move to give him food for thought.

'Up the jumper lads' would be mine. A number of years ago we were playing a game of touch rugby in a park against younger fitter opposition and were leaking more tries than Japan in the 95 WC! We devised 'set piece' move where we turned our backs to them. One of us had the ball up their top. As soon as we got near them we all turned ran in different directions towards the try line and my mate scored. Sadly it was the only try we did score that day!

An "inside-outside" move often works very well, against a drift defence the 12 runs straight at his man, fixing him, before passing a long pass to the 13 who's drifting with the defence then throws a no look pass which the full back runs onto at the opposite angle to the way the defence is drifting. I think this would work perfectly with Tuilagi/ Roberts at 12 and O'Driscoll at 13 any of the full-backs are good enough to run the right line.
Against a blitz defence it would be even simpler as a fast blitz leaves very little time to change direction in defence so if they're marking "man-to-man" in defence then even the smallest gap can be exploited by a player running a different line.

OK, lineout to the lions in the Aus 22. A 3 man Linout is called. Hibbard throws in to POC who rules the sky and passes down to Phillips waiting at SH. The rest of the backs are all stood shoulder to shoulder in a line in midfield with their backs to the try line. Some forwards are behind them, shielded. Phillips uncharacteristically fizzes out a quick pass and the nearest man in the line turns slightly to catch it before returning to have his back to the try line with the rest of his backs. The player with the ball then pops a pass backwards and the line of backs parts like the Red Sea for an already rampaging Adam Jones running at top speed to receive the pop pass and hit the gap, charging for the line in a new PB of 10.2 metres per second. The nearest Oz defender is Quade Cooper who has to tackle the 20 stone crazy haired prop moving at 10.2 m/s, but his attempts are in vain and he is literally flattened into the turf, leaving a Quade shaped dent on the pitch. Jones gallops over for a try under the sticks.

The end.

Theres no way I'm giving away my trick plays...

The forward throw at the lineout, the arrowhead cross kick, the tap and maul and the bridge to nowhere are my trick plays, oh and I have one called r***.

Thats as much as you'll get from me!

I did have one that I liked to use called the 'wall' but it kept getting pinged unfairly for obstruction so stopped using it...

At an attacking lineout (the closer to the tryline the better) the dummy back ball is formed and the ball hits the jumper at 1st's, hit the deck quickly and form a secure 4 man ruck, the rest of the pack (backrow and lock and hooker bust out wide to the 13 channell) on the call every forward links arms and as the ball goes to the 10 they sprint into a vertical line and drift toward the posts as the ball is passed behind them to create a simple 3 on 2 to the attack out wide. Technically if the ball is in flight there is no offside line so blocking isn't an issue (as there is always 1 player normally running this line) and as all the players arms are linked they can't get done for obstruction if they are facing away from the onrushing defenders) all hell breaks loose as defenders try to barge through, run inside and run outside the wall.

Sadly not many ref's listen to reason and it's not worth the hassle, so Ive given up on 'the wall'

I can remember two specific ones.

Line out 5-10 meters out.

Best throws the ball into the line out and aims for O'Connell at 4, however, Healy, Cole and Gray moves forward (towards the touchline) creating the illusion that the line out might maul from these three, thus creating a hole in the middle of the line out, because there are now effectively two "pods" the Aussie line out splits two ways to halt whichever may be the maul, O'Connel passes to North who is coming at pace onto the ball and manages to score untouched.

Then there is the one everyone should have seen numerous times.

Scrum 5-10 meters out, move on the blindside, Faletau breaks away from the scrum, Phillips goes wide to go around his man, he manages to draw Ioane and flips the ball where Bowe is comng off his shoulder on an angled run and goes through to score.

i liked the last lions tour set move . give it to shane Williams and he skips past all the springboks and scores a try twice

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:For example GC, the Lions have an attacking scrum in the Oz 22 centre field. A good shove forward. Phillips runs off to the left side of the field and Faletau breaks off to the left. He passes to Warburton who changes direction and fires off a wide pass to Tipuric ranging off to the right. Roberts then receives the ball running in in the left on an angle who passes it instantly to POC running the other way to the right. Tipuric receives the ball wider who pops up a pass to Halfpenny entering the line. With the fullback to beat he fires out a wide pass to Bowe ranging out wide on the right and he moves under the posts to dot down.

Entry number one for Gatland to consider. See if you an do better with your own set piece move to give him food for thought.

Oh, I see now. Good job I didn't post my idea then. It involved a shipping flare, a whoopee cushion and a picture of Anne Widdicombe.

Actually GC expand on that more and you could be in the lead!

PS little known fact. Anne Widdicombe was the stunt double for the actor who played the Emperor in the original Star Wars saga.

I like the one up the jumper. But is it strictly legal to do that at test level?