How to Watch Rugby

How to make the game more enjoyable and boost your knowledge

I suppose I have been a football fan since I was a kid. I certainly watched it and vaguely followed Liverpool at first. But, until recently, I never really knew how to watch it or understand what was going on. In the last year or so though I have watched a lot more football and actively made an effort to understand it and it’s become much more enjoyable because of that. A quality game is still great, but a less important one becomes an evolving puzzle once you know what you are looking for.

The same is true in rugby and this long read will hopefully breakdown the kind of things I look out for when I’m watching a game.

It’s not always serious…

The first thing to note is that I am not suggesting you watch every game with a notepad and serious expression on your face. It’s entertainment and it’s meant to be fun. Most games I watch are surface entertainment. However, I am a nause and so I enjoy picking apart what I am watching. I suspect you might be as well, so join me on this trip.

On TV

Most rugby we watch will be on TV. That makes it easier to watch in some ways; replays, different angles, and zoomed in footage but harder to see the bigger tactical picture. Here are three tips for watching on TV.

1. Look for the Unusual

This is how I started getting interested in analysis. Watch the game as usual but pay attention to anything that looks odd. This is deliberately vague. This might be something at the scrum or lineout - maybe a back being involved or a forward being pushed out into the midfield. But it might also be something more subtle, perhaps a team are playing particularly tight to the previous ruck or they’re playing exceptionally wide. Just watch and something unusual will leap out at you.

I watched Welsh second division team Bedwas, live but the point applies, and saw them attacking in an unusually expansive manner. I didn’t know exactly what I was seeing but it struck me as unusual. I spoke with their coach who explained they were playing a 2-4-2 and were trying to play each phase in a different horizontal segment of the pitch (they split the pitch into three).

So what you may be asking. Well, as a fan it improved my watching experience because I was seeing something new. If you enjoy films, you can get a lot out of a well made but unoriginal film but a well made original film gets the blood pumping. As a coach it made me rethink how I see the game. That’s a lot of benefit from a game I paid £10 to watch.

I would encourage you to be childlike when you watch games. Adults don’t ask enough questions because we don’t want people to think we’re thick. But have that internal monologue with yourself where you ask why something is happening. From the kick-off, why has that team kicked the ball to that location? Are they targeting a specific player? Why? Are they targeting a specific part of the pitch? Why? That can be your mindset on the first kick-off, then the second kick-off can refine that. “Okay I see they’ve targeted that same player even though he’s now in a different part of the pitch” - who is the player? Is he a good carrier or a bad carrier? If he’s a good carrier, why would they be targeting him with a kick? Maybe it’s so he can’t be used on a later phase when play is less organised? If you’ve got that far in your reasoning then you’re opening up a whole swathe of different questions which go well beyond kick-offs alone and will mean you watch open play in a completely different way.

2. First Three Phases

Generally, attacks will plan the first three phases off both lineout and scrum. Knowing that this is planned helps you to see what an attack is trying to do For example, do they hit tight and then try and go around the corner or do they try and play with width on the first phase? If they play with width off first phase, what do they try and do on the second phase? Seeing what a team is trying to do is a great way of understanding the game because it highlights the ambition a team has, understand that and suddenly the entire game becomes more interesting to watch. Why don’t all teams take the same approach? Now you’re thinking like an analyst.

Make sure you take a look at the defence as well. The defence don’t know what the attack will do which puts them on the back foot but they aren’t under the fatigue pressure which comes as the phases ramp up. What do they do with that preparation? Do they blast off the line or soak up the pressure? Do they allow the attack to go wide or do they cut them off? If you can see this then you can start finding the weaknesses in the defence which the attack are trying to exploit.

3. Scoring Tries

There’s more to rugby than tries. In fact, tries are fairly uncommon so if you’re only looking at tries you’re missing a lot of the other detail that happens in the game. As you learn to watch the game better you will discover the other parts of the sport that matter, but for now let’s focus on the tries as we always get replays of those.

Very rarely does a try come simply from an exceptional individual effort or defensive error. Instead, it’s a building of pressure or a succession of good decisions. Look initially at what happens off the ball. Does anyone make a run which opens up space? Did anyone deliver a perfect pass? The try scorer might have made a nice step but what happened before then to allow them the space to make the step? If you can see what leads to tries then you can see what leads to clean breaks.

In the Stadium

In the stadium, the things that become easier to see are width and depth and individual player actions. Let’s explain those two.

1. Width and Depth

Understanding width and depth is hard to do until you see it in-person. Width refers to how wide a team is trying to play. We would usually expect to see one player stuck on each winger but it won’t always be the winger. Look to see if they literally have their toes on the paint or if they’re pulling infield a bit. Look as well to see who is sent out wide, is it a back or a forward? If it’s a forward, have a look for where the winger is.

Once you understand the basics, have a look at whether the amount of width and who provides it changes depending on where they are on the pitch. Some teams will play with less width in the opposition 22 as they look to overpower their opponents in the middle.

When we’re talking about depth we are looking at how far behind the ball the attackers stand. We might have been used to seeing a constant sloping line away from the ball as kids but that’s not the case anymore. Some teams will play very flat (i.e. close to where the ball is) whereas others will stand deep. Some have the first receiver deep then everyone else flat. Look at what each of these approaches gives the attack and what it prevents.

2. Watching Players

There was a film released in 2006 which just followed Zinedine Zidane as he played a La Liga match against Villarreal. I’m not suggesting you do that but it is helpful to just watch a single player perhaps for an attacking possession or a few minutes. If you want to understand what a back row does, the best way is to just watch them. Where do they go? What rucks do they hit and what don’t they? How do they involve themselves in the game via carries? It’s not possible to do that on TV but it’s easy in-person.

By following these steps not only will you become more knowledgeable about the game, you will just enjoy it more. Like with everything, understanding the moving parts gives you so much insight into what is really going on. Enjoy the process!