The Blitz Defence
The blitz defence (sometimes known as the Press defence) is one of the two most common defence strategies used in rugby – the other being the drift defence. It involves a hard and fast defensive line where the goal is to minimise the space and time the attack have with the ball. The defence lines up directly opposite the attacking players and rush up fast as a flat line, as shown below.
If executed correctly, the attack have very little chance making it to the gain line, therefore putting the attack on the back foot, slowing the attack down and giving more chance of a turnover. The blitz defence relies heavily on two aspects, 1-on-1 tackles being made and a flat defencive line. As the blitz is a fast paced defencive pattern, the act of tackling is made harder as the defender has less time to read the attack, adjust their positioning and then make the tackle. It takes a reasonable amount of skill to be able to tackle reliably when trying to press the attack quickly. In other defencive set ups, there may be other defenders close by that can assist in a tackle or make a covering tackle if necessary. The Blitz does not have that luxury, each defender is individually responsible for making their own tackle on the player they are marking. If an attacker makes it through a tackle and breaks the defencive line, it can be quite damaging as the defence themselves will still be running in the opposite direction at a good pace therefore making it harder to turn and chase the line break. An example is shown below.
The other important aspect is a flat defencive line; by not remaining in a flat line, dog legs can appear, providing opportunities to the attack to try and exploit. (See the Dog Leg article for greater detail.) As the defence should be getting up quickly, it is very easy for a player to be lagging behind, producing gaps either side that can be used to create a line break by the attack. The example below shows 10 in defence being slower than the rest of the team, therefore giving the attacking 10 the opportunity to run on the angle and attack the space where the defender should have been.
The opposite is equally dangerous, one player rushing up too fast in an attempt to put a lot of pressure on the attack but instead provides a gap that can be exploited in a number of ways, an example is shown below
The blitz defencive strategy is very effective when the attack have a significant overlap and there is not many passes required to get the ball to the unmarked, wide players. The blitz doesn’t give the attack a chance to get the ball wide as it normally results in a tackle occurring within the first few receivers (i.e. on the 10, 12 or maybe the 13) therefore negating the overlap. This idea also applies even when there is no overlap but there is a danger from going wide. For example a very fast or strong winger that poses a threat or, the defence wants to keep the ball in tight to utilize their strong forward who may not be as mobile as the oppositions.
The time where a form of the blitz defence is almost necessary is when defending on the try line; this is because the defence cannot afford for the attack to break the gain line. By implementing the blitz, the defence is up quickly and closes down the space the attack have therefore making the point of contact away from the gain line (in this case, the try line). The blitz defence may not be fully implemented in the traditional way when defending on the try line as relying on 1-on-1 tackles is quite high risk, so the defence strategy may be to get off the line quickly like a blitz, but then to slow down the press and look to try to create 2-on-1 tackles. As discussed previously, the blitz system breaks down when firstly the defence has poor tacklers who cannot be relied upon to make 1-on-1 tackles and secondly, when the defence doesn’t operate as one and doesn’t keep a flat line.