CONOR O’SHEA’S HARLEQUINS claimed the first-ever win in the Champions Cup by beating Castres 25-9 last night, with out-half Nick Evans’ moment of creative skill central to their success.
While an impressive scrum, dogged breakdown work from Chris Robshaw and Luke Wallace, solid kicking from hand and Evans’ excellence off the tee were crucial to the victory, we’re going to take a brief look at the only try of the game.
With the English side leading 12-6 heading into the final quarter, the impression was that they needed a try to hammer home their growing strangehold on the momentum of the game.
‘Quins had struggled to break down an aggressive, hard-working Castres defensive effort up to that point, but a moment [or two] of class from former New Zealand international Evans allowed them to finally cross the whitewash and all but secure the four points.
On phase four of an attack that originated from a line-out wide on the right, Evans pounces, dropping a gorgeous chip in behind Castres’ defence.
The linespeed of the Top 14 side had stifled Harlequins all evening, as they burst forward and ate up the advantage line with surprising aggression. O’Shea’s men clearly hadn’t expected such linespeed and struggled at times, getting too deep in an attempt to give themselves time on the ball.
On this occasion, however, Evans takes advantage of the space left in behind the Castres defence, as well as the French team’s inability to turn quickly as they look to bring the linespeed again.
It’s the second kick from Evans that is most impressive, as he deftly dinks the ball to his left for try-scorer Danny Care to run on to.
That option was the unexpected one, with a grubber to the right [yellow line] perhaps something that would have occurred to most players in this situation.
Evans’ thought process is remarkably swift, though, as he recognises Rémy Grosso closing in from his right at the same time as fullback Geoffrey Palis attempts to shut down the space in front of the out-half.
What aids Evans in making his decision is the knowledge that scrum-half Care so often runs intelligent tracking lines on the inside.
We see that above, as Care bursts through on the right fringe of the preceding ruck after he has completed his pass to Evans. The England international initially moves across the pitch to follow his pass, but two steps later he reads the play and turns on the acceleration to provide support inside.
It’s an incredibly difficult skill that Evans pulls off, that delicate dink over the top of the defence with just enough weight on it to bounce up. However, it is a clever way of breaking down an aggressive defence and therefore worth investing time in.
Care’s intelligent line on the inside is a strong reminder that looking for second touches off the ball and anticipating teammates’ intentions are vitally important.
Evans’ initial kick is so accurate that is beats the sweeping Rory Kockott, whose job it is to cover in behind the frontline defence, ‘sweeping’ as a cover defender. As highlighted above, Kockott has realised that he is just slightly off the pace and accelerates in the hope of making up ground.
Below, we get an example of Kockott in a better position as he sweeps. The Castres scrum-half is relatively further across the pitch, closer to the ball and obviously in a better position to deal with any chip kick [there was none on the occasion below].
That Kockott was ever so slightly off the pace for Evans’ chip allows the out-half a little more space to create the score for Care.
