In 2024, World Rugby controversially outlawed the escort tactics teams deployed to protect catchers, a tweak that Springboks coaches believe has only benefitted the game.
The removal of ‘escorts’ or the ‘glove’ protecting players’ catching high-balls has been hotly debated recently, with Gloucester fly-half Ross Byrne hitting out at the change, as he believes that it will lead to locks becoming wingers.
England and Ireland moans
England head coach Steve Borthwick also expressed his distaste for the change in November of 2024, “I don’t think any of us want rugby union to turn into Aussie rules.” He also felt as though it would lead to “more kicking and more scrums”.
More recently, Ireland and Munster forward Tadhg Beirne also hit out at the tweak, as he feels that it is hampering the game and making it harder to attack. His club assistant coach, Mike Prendergast, echoed similar concerns.
“It was probably something that, when the rules were being changed, that they probably felt that it would help the attacking aspect of it. For me, it’s gone the other way around,” he said. “There are so many stoppages through it, and there are knock-ons in the air. That’s a reality.
“What we’re looking at is teams are looking to tap the ball back. Knock-ons can happen there, or it becomes a bit of a s**t fight for that ball, I suppose, putting it in best terms.”
South Africa certainly benefited from the tactic before it was altered by World Rugby, winning the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and 2023 off the back of kick-heavy tactics. However, they have adapted and, according to Eddie Jones, are ‘50% better than any other team’ under the high ball.
One of the major concerns about the change is that it would promote more kicking, a fact that Jones highlighted, but according to the Springboks coaches, it is still a positive, as it has created a fairer contest for the ball.
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The World Rugby charter
Head coach Rassie Erasmus and his assistants dissected the change and its impact on the game in the latest episode of Rassie+, titled the Shape of the Game.
Erasmus hosted the podcast that featured his assistants Mzwandile Stick, Felix Jones and Daan Human, as well as strength and conditioning coach Andy Edwards and SA Rugby’s national laws advisor and former Test referee Jaco Peyper.
The aerial contest skills are Stick’s area of expertise, with the former Blitzbok star being a self-taught coach on the skillset, and Erasmus turned to him to detail why he believes that the change is a positive one for the game.
The 41-year-old said that he had seen far fewer major injuries occurring from the contest in the air because the players who provided the ‘escort’ or ‘glove’ often got in the way of those competing in the air.
Throughout the episode, Stick and the Bok coaches repeatedly referenced the World Rugby playing charter, which reads: “The wide variation of skills and physical requirements needed for the game mean that there is an opportunity for individuals of every shape, size and ability to participate…
“What this charter does is to give the game a checklist against which the mode of play and behaviour can be assessed. The objective is to ensure that rugby maintains its unique character both on and off the field.”
Stick began: “With all the law changes around the high balls, I haven’t seen any dangerous contests in the past two years. I probably watched thousands and thousands of kicks when I analyse games, and usually the people who were bringing the danger into the contest were the third parties.
“The people around the contest area where the ball was landing, that’s where it was dangerous. I have to compliment World Rugby because the law change has cleaned up everything around there. We coach players to always have eyes on the ball, you know, your technique and what you need to do when you get closer to the space: when to shorten your steps, when to attack the ball in the air and so on.”
Player safety and contest
The crux of the argument from the Springboks coaches for the change being a positive isn’t just around the safety of the players, but that it creates a contest once again, as previously, the receiving team would create a scenario where their teammate would be catching the ball uncontested.
That, Erasmus believes, is ‘against the spirit of the game’ as set out in World Rugby’s charter, which added: “The contest for possession of the ball is one of rugby’s key features. These contests occur throughout the game and in a number of different forms, in contact, in open play, when play is re-started at scrums, lineouts, kick-offs and restart kicks.”
Erasmus added: “So the first thing is when that ball is kicked, it’s nobody’s ball. He’s got a fair chance, I’ve got a fair chance. That’s the contest, and no one can interfere anymore [under the new laws].”
“100%. So we go back again to the principles of what World Rugby tries to promote,” Stick replied as the coaches set up an illustration of an aerial contest with Erasmus chasing a kick and Daan Human acting as the receiving team with Stick.
“They want the contest. So now the contest is between the two players; the ball belongs to no one. So you guys are going to contest for it. That’s number one. So in the past, this was just my feeling as a coach who works with the players and the high balls, the problem in the past was the people who were interfering in that space, on Daan’s side.
“Now you [Erasmus] focus on getting to the contest in the air, and all of a sudden, I’m trying to protect Daan and block you. We used to call it escorts, but we don’t use it anymore. Teams would park players in front of the catcher, and in doing so, took away from World Rugby’s principles of a contest. The moment there are blockers, they are unfairly taking away the contest from the other team.
“So as a chaser, you don’t see the movement that is happening on the ground and at the last moment, they block the chase and you are already jumping… that’s where you would see a lot of players landing with their heads and shoulders into the ground but I have to be honest, in the past two years it’s been cleaned up, you haven’t seen any of those incidents.
“We want to promote the contest to you because it’s in line with the principles of World Rugby. It’s the same in the lineouts; you are not allowed as a lifter to double bank because you want the contest.”
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Kicking tennis
Erasmus added that he heard a ‘few guys moan about it now’ but said that “gloving or the escorts is against the spirit of the game set out by the charter”.
The Bok coaches agreed with the statement, with Stick adding that kicking has now become more of an attacking weapon, a comment in stark contrast to those that Beirne and Prendergast made. “The beauty of a kicking game is not the kick but what happens post that contest, now there’s no defensive structures, no reference points,” he said.
Returning to the topic later in the podcast, Jones chimed in agreement with Stick’s previous comments and used a clip from the 2022 Premiership Rugby Final, where the two sides were locked in a kicking tennis battle that went on for over two minutes. During the clip, neither team held onto the ball for longer than two phases before kicking again.
“I agree with everything Stick said. If we remind ourselves of what this looked like with this clip, which is over two and a half minutes long,” Jones said. “Two or three years ago, rugby was literally just a one-phase game. In my mind, when this box kick goes up, everyone in my mind is going ‘Ah, it’s a box kick’, and it’s boring because we know what’s going to happen.
“There is going to be a glove; no one is going to get to the contest. Now Leicester can only really do one thing, which is play one phase (then kick). And that’s why people back then, I believe, were going ‘The box kick is bad’, because they knew exactly what was happening. ”
“That was boring rugby, but it’s not like that anymore,” Erasmus remarked. Felix replied: “No, because there is a contest now, the contest breaks the game. So now this would be a guaranteed contest.”
Game for all shapes and sizes
The coaches conceded that there has been an increase in the number of kicks, but Peyper clarified that there are more contestable kicks and fewer driving punts and kicking tennis. Additionally, he clarified that the removal of the escorts wasn’t a law change but rather ‘a re-application’ as ‘the escorts were offside’.
Stick believes that World Rugby can not backtrack on the re-application of the law because it would not only be a safety risk but also go against the charter’s principle of creating a contest for possession.
“If you are saying that you want to bring this back into the game, I’m going to ask, ‘How many major injuries have we received from the aerial contest since we’ve cleaned this up?’” he explained.
“If you are saying you want to go back to the escort that was bringing danger into the game… it doesn’t make sense. There is no reason to go back.”
Erasmus chipped in, saying, “The mitigation was normally if somebody had a late change in front of you. Now there’s no mitigation; it’s you and the guy in the air if you take his legs out, there’s no safety.”
“They can’t take it back,” Stick shot back. “If you are going to take it back to where you don’t see the aerial contest, then you are going against the World Rugby charter.”
Erasmus added that it would also go against the claim that rugby is for all shapes and sizes. “If they did go back on it, you could just pick smaller wingers and full-backs because you would have the glove to protect them,” he said.
“So it doesn’t just go against the spirit of the game but against the charter in having all shapes and sizes. The tall, lanky full-back has no advantage now because they’re going to block for him. The talk is always about props and locks and open siders and nines who are shorter, but with that, there is no benefit in picking a taller full-back.”
Stick concluded: “We are going in the right direction with how the aerial contest has been cleaned up. It allows the contest, irrespective of your size. The most important thing is the safety of the contest. That’s where whoever made a law change or tweaked it around and cleaned it up did a great job.”