Attacking Against a Blitz Defence
To get a good understanding of how to attack the blitz defence, there should be a good understanding of what the blitz defence is, why it is used and when it should be called. All of this are covered in the Blitz Defence article.
The first thing to consider when trying to attack against a blitz is why the defence are blitzing. This may be obvious, like the attack having a significant overlap or the defence are on their own try line; it could also be that they don’t want the ball to go wide or it could just be their preferred defensive strategy. If the blitz defence is the “go-to” strategy for the defence, it is quite demanding on the attacking side as any mistakes will be punish quickly and progress passed the gain line will always be a challenge. However it is also very demanding on the defence, both physically and mentally; it requires the fitness to be off the line quickly to make 1-on-1 tackles and then retreat and reset for the next phase as well as requiring constant monitoring that everyone is in line and moving as one.
For the attacking side this presents opportunities to be exploited. If the defencive line is not coming up as one flat line, dog-legs will appear which gives good chances for the attack to exploit, this can be from a communication break down in the line but more typically it occurs because of a couple of tired players not able to keep up. Looking for dog-legs in the defence should occur throughout the game but may occur more at the end of the game.
The opposite can be true when substitutions are made and one player is fresh and very quick off the line, producing a dog-leg behind them.
To challenge a blitzing defence an attacking side can test the individual defenders by running hard, flat lines to see if the defenders are capable of making difficult 1-on-1 tackles. There is no significant negative to this strategy for the attacking side as if the ball carrier is tackled, they will still be near the gain line as well their support. This means that this strategy can be used throughout the game and used in any position; it may identify a weak player on the defence that can be targeted if they are not consistant at making the tackle.
Below is an example of this, say the attacking 12 is a strong ball carrier and able to break tackles whilst the defencive 12 is not a strong defender. The attacking 12 should receive the ball flat off the 10 to not give away any meters to the defence and give less time for the defencive 10 to drift across and aid in the tackle on the attacking 12. The attacking 12 should also be running fast and not directly at the defender, this makes the tackle difficult and gives a better chance of breaking the tackle. The attacking 13 in this case should be ready to provide support as if the 12 is tackled, they will be the first there to secure the ball, or if a break is made or an offload is available, the 13 will be able to receive the ball and capitalize on the line break.
If it is the case that the attack have a strong numerical advantage, the obvious attacking strategy is to draw in the defenders and pass it out before a tackle can be made. Depending on the line speed of the defence and the ball handling abilities of the attack, it may just be as easy as passing the ball quickly along the line, potentially throwing a miss pass to speed up how fast the ball makes it to the outer channel. Care must be taken to ensure that an interception is not possible by the defenders as they will be up quickly and potentially in the middle of the attacking line.
If this is not possible, a simple alternative opportunity is available: as the defence will be up fast and trying to shut down the opportunity out wide, the attack must counteract this by buying themselves more time with the ball. This can be done by having a deeper attacking line which trades off meters gained up the field for more time on the ball. This extra time can be used to get the ball wide so the unmarked players can easily make it over the gain line. Being deeper does mean that if the defence does make a tackle in the midfield, there will be a larger loss of ground than normal. It can be seen below that the ball may not go forward over the gainline, the focus is not to get the ball to go forward but about getting the ball out, wide into the space to exploit the overlap.
Another, sometimes overlooked option for countering the blitz is to exploit the space directly behind the rushing up defence by putting in a short kick. If the defence are coming up at a fast pace and as a flat line, there is no one covering the space behind them and it will be hard for the players to turn and run back to compete for the kick. This works particularly well if the kick is a grubber kick which primarily travels across the pitch, as shown below. The 10 allows the defence to come up as far as possible so there is a good gap in-behind and then places a kick between the defencive 10 and 12 so that depending on the run and bounce of the ball, the attacking 12, 13 or 11 can collect the ball easily and continue the attack. This is obviously a high risk strategy as if it doesn’t work as planned, it can hand over possession to the opposition so should only be used if the risk is worth the reward.
As for how to attack when the defenders are blitzing from their own try line, that will be covered in much more depth in a future article but in principle it is the same concepts as discussed above just the defence will be working especially hard to distrupt the attack, slow the ball down and keep the point of contact as far from the try line as possible.