Wing vs flanker, who should win?

[Don't Skip Leg Day]

Was at rugby training last night and they did a drill with 2 cones facing each other and in short terms 1 vs 1 tackling.

While I used to pride myself on being a top tackler I have aged a bit at 39 but I struggled with the backs and their footwork, especially the younger backs.

This got me thinking, if you had a small grid and pick any top tackling international back row and a top international wing, who should win in this situation? Would a tom curry be able to tackle a Kolbe in a small grid or would be expect the footwork to beat the man 9/10?

Interested to get some thoughts on who should come out on top.

 

[McTallshort]

Who ever was the attacker has the advantage because they know were they are going and the defender doesn't. I would back nearly every international back row to take a winger down in a small grid apart from smaller winger like Kolbe.

 

[Ddanno]

I'd back the winger, it's what they're there for, they probably have more gas in the legs than a back row, and one on one should be confident of beating anyone to the line

 

[Saintjay]

One ve one in a tight space a decent flanker will close the gap and angles before letting the winger get up speed. Aiming to get them before or as they accelerate not after.

A foot race the winger wins unless it's against someone with gas like Pollock.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Generally when a defender’s made to look silly it’s because they hesitate due to uncertainty about what the attacker’s going to do - go left, go right, offload in contact, pass, dummy, chip etc all while having half an eye on what their team mates and attacking support are doing. Net result might be the attacker strolling on by making the defender look stupid when in reality the cards were stacked.

In a one v one in a small grid all those variables fall away so I’d be backing the flanker to win 9/10.

DSLD - Sorry to say it but it’s probably more of an age thing than a skills thing that’s prompted your question. 6 or 7 years ago you’d have been chopping down those flashy little herberts without even thinking about it. Comes to us all.

 

[Which Tyler]

The winger needs to be where the tackler isn't - so in a confined space, pace won't really help. Equally, up against a strong backrower, bulk won't really help either - so it's all about agility - from both players; the winger's ability to be where the tackler isn't, and the tackler's ability to adapt, and complete the tackle, even if it's not dominant.

For a Kolbe, or a Jason Robinson, then you'd expect the winger to win.
For most wingers, you'd expect the backrower.

If you want this to be a 50:50 chance each way, then you'd need to manipulate the confined space to alter who has the advantage - the more room the winger has to manoeuvre, the more s/he is favoured. Also - as a training exercise, you need to remove the kicking option for the winger (that or allow the backrower to nail the cheeky bastard anyway)

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

I guess the real question is how small is the grid?

And would Steward do better than the flanker?

 

[Saintjay]

Hit them so hard the next time they see you coming. They throw the ball into touch.

 

[Don't Skip Leg Day]

The grid we used was around 10m long and about 10m wide but the starting cones were on one side (not in the middle), so the ball carrier went for the corner with some cutting back in and others stepping both ways.

It’s actually similar to that video England posted (the chart above prompted my memory), where steward was being stepped by our backs nearly every time.

 

[General Melchett]

There are so many variables. Is the winger allowed to fend? Pollock might do ok against your average winger but he could get brushed aside by the likes of Duhan. He did miss a few tackles on the Lions tour. The confined space definitely favours a hot stepper like Kolbe or Graham.

It really depends on the parameters and who is in the head to head.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

And at night you have the other question to consider: fling or w4nker?

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

if you had a small grid

This is the critical part. Without knowing more i'd back the flanker. These sort of 1v1's tend to kill the attacker for several reasons:
- They can't fake a pass
- Kicking and chasing is generally frowned upon
- They generally don't get enough space to achieve full speed

Attackers rely on the element of surprise and these sort of exercise limits that, substantially.

The defender knows what's coming, where it is coming from and what kind of weapons lie in the attacker's bag of tricks.

This is not exclusive to rugby.