Now maybe I've watched England too much, but when watching both Wales today and France yesterday, I found myself calling for the kick. Both teams seemed to spend quite a few phases between the 10s, with forwards crashing up and not going anywhere.
I'm not advocating the kicks in the opponent 22, but I do feel some teams need to kick more (tatically)
There are a plethora of reasons to kick or not kick, clearing your lines almost everyone has to do because the risk reward ratio is crazy, unless you have 8 south africans willing to scrum in their own 22.
Wales didnt kick a lot on the weekend for 2 very good reasons...
1. Who TF will chase and challenge? LRZ is thenonly one, and with Ben Thomas and Edwards kicking ability, even he cant get under it. Tomos wont box kick much for the same reason its almost guarenteed opposition ball. Its probably more a confidence issue. Other teams kick more to Wales for the same reason, in 2 games and 25 attampts i dont thik Murray has made a clean catch under pressure, or even won the ball by accident. So hes targeted at every opportunity rightfully so.
2. Wales kicking is sub par, in most aspects, and they have been behind more often than not, so have had to force the game to score points. We see it all the time, lesser team falls behind, makes risky decisions and over plays, gets punished more! Against Japan you can disorganise them after 6 to 7 phases usually, one of the islanders shoots out the line, or a smaller back gets caught in close, Wales were probably believeing they could create opportunities, over estimating their ability lol.
I find kicking fascinating, IMHO only SA and NZ kick for the right reasons, every other team in the world kick by numbers based on tactical trends. You should kick for a reason, or a positive outcome, not by default.
SA kick solely to give the pack a platform to dominate, whether its for field position, to challenge, or just for momentum, they kick to bring 8 forwards forward onto the ball, and play off that.
NZ scan the backline and try a varied game to test for weaknesses, like the Jurasic park Raptor. Cross field, box, chip, long... they do it all in the first half, if they find a weakness they look to exploit it, if they dont they look for other options. Interstingly, i think NZ are the grubber kings, when making a line break they refuse to die with the ball, once they get in behind its offload or kick, once turned you stay turned until the ball dies accidentally or they score. So a higher % than most teams will be post line break dinks.
