AMONG THE MANY battles to come on Friday evening at Croke Park, the aerial contests will be a pivotal area in the URC final between Leinster and the Bulls.

The battle in the air has become an even bigger part of top-level rugby since the autumn Tests in 2024, when World Rugby directed referees to completely clamp down on ‘kick escorting.’

The act of ‘escorting’ involved players retreating downfield after the opposition kicked, impeding chasing players, and allowing their team-mate to have a better chance of catching the ball cleanly without a genuine contest.

With escorting gone, we have seen a return of one-on-one contests under high balls, but also more batting back of the ball by chasing players.

Teams across the world have been pondering how they can create more favourable circumstances for winning high balls, and we have seen a growing number of sides using a relatively new tactic in recent months.

URC finalists Leinster and the Bulls are two of the teams that have been using this tactic.

Traditionally, we have always been used to players coming forward from the backfield to contest high balls.

So in this instance, you would have had a Leinster backfield player coming forward to claim the Lions’ box kick in their URC game.

As indicated by the empty red circle above, that’s not the case under this relatively new set-up that Leinster are employing.

Indeed, Leinster’s two backfield players are even deeper than before. 

So instead of fullback Ciarán Frawley coming forward to contest the ball, Leinster left wing Jimmy O’Brien [blue below] starts around 10 metres behind the frontline defence and retreats downfield to contest the high ball.

As O’Brien goes downfield to claim the ball, we can see that Frawley [red below] stands off the dropping point of the kick.

If Frawley was going to claim the ball, O’Brien [blue] would be in danger of being penalised for escorting Lions wing Angelo Davids [yellow].

Instead, O’Brien is essentially escorting for himself, creating separation between the ball and Davids.

That allows O’Brien to win the ball in rather straightforward fashion.

With Davids tackling O’Brien as he comes down from fielding the ball, Frawley is part of the clearout effort at the breakdown.

Leinster have the ball on halfway and can launch from there.

In an earlier example in this game, we see O’Brien in the same role.

Davids chases the Lions box kick again.

This time, Davids gets up off the ground and into the contest.

O’Brien can’t claim the ball cleanly but he bats it back to Frawley, who is sitting in that same position behind the contest.

Frawley shows good reflexes to gather the ball, then fires a pass for Sam Prendergast to launch Leinster immediately into an exciting counter-attacking situation.

When this tactic of retreating players contesting high balls started happening in games involving Leinster and other teams, it initially looked odd.

We had become so accustomed to players coming onto the high ball that the very first instinct was to think that someone had shirked their responsibilities in coming forward from the backfield.

It has long been accepted that it’s difficult for players to retreat and field kicks that have gone over their heads, the process of turning and adjusting often causing an element of disorientation.

Indeed, it still seems a bit awkward and some people remain unconvinced. Connacht head coach Stuart Lancaster told The 42 Rugby Weekly Extra podcast that he hasn’t been won over yet.

The reality is that we have seen players struggling to nail this tactic, with plenty of unsuccessful attempts across various teams.

In this example from Leinster’s Champions Cup semi-final win over Toulon, right wing Tommy O’Brien is in the retreat fielding role, with fullback Hugo Keenan staying put in the backfield rather than coming for the ball.

The difficulty for O’Brien is clear as he retreats downfield but has to crane his neck all the way back to try and keep sight of the ball, which is still behind him.

Toulon’s Charles Ollivon is coming forward onto the ball all the time, and he wins the contest.

Ollivon can lead in with his knee, helping him to win the collision in the air, and he is reaching up towards the ball.

In contrast, O’Brien is reaching back up over his right shoulder in a bid to grasp the ball.

The Leinster wing might have got a little too far downfield before the ball dropped, but this example underlines the difficulty of this approach to fielding.

We should point out here that traditional front-on fielding in the modern game is far from a guarantee since the removal of escorting.

As in the instance below, chasing players now regularly just aim to bat at the ball rather than attempting to field it.

In this instance, Stormers wing Leolin Zas disrupts Keenan’s attempt to field the ball during the recent URC semi-final.

Keenan can’t gather and the Stormers win the ‘scraps’ with their well-organised secondary chase. It presents them with an immediate attacking chance against a scrambling Leinster defence.

Leinster don’t use their new tactic in the instance above, of course, with Keenan coming forward to contest the ball.

However, the difference is that scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park [pink below] is on the right edge of the Leinster frontline. It appears that he is not asked to drop off and attempt to field the ball in retreat mode in such instances.

Whatever about the lack of guarantee with front-on fielding from players coming forward from the backfield, it is clear that the new approach is not a failsafe. 

Bordeaux were superbly prepared for the Champions Cup final against Leinster. It perhaps hasn’t been highlighted enough just how well they had planned for the specifics of playing against Leinster.

One element of their strategy revolved around Leinster’s new approach to fielding contestable box kicks. Bordeaux managed to exploit it twice in the first half.

In the first instance, Bordeaux scrum-half Maxime Lucu hangs up a box kick for wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey [red below] to chase, with Tommy O’Brien [blue] in the retreat fielding role for Leinster.

Bielle-Biarrey knows that O’Brien will be dropping back to contest the ball.

Watch below how Bielle-Biarrey accelerates and seems to rather happily collide with O’Brien, falling to ground after contact.

Bielle-Biarrey is a ferocious and physical player who regularly wins collisions.

In this instance, he easily loses his feet after accelerating into O’Brien, making contact with the chasing Yoram Moefana, meaning Moefana goes to ground too. It seems clear that Bielle-Biarrey and Bordeaux discussed the possibility of O’Brien being in exactly this position and whether there is an element of escorting or blocking at play here.

We can see Bordeaux second row Boris Palu appealing to referee Lee Dickson that there has been foul play.

As it is, there is no sense from the match officials that Bielle-Biarrey has been taken out by O’Brien and play continues with the Leinster wing making a clean catch of the high ball.

But Bordeaux are ready for the next phase of this situation, with prop Jefferson Poirot [green below] ideally positioned to smash O’Brien upon landing.

Harry Byrne [pink above] has come up from his deep position on the right-hand side of the Leinster backfield towards the contest.

But even before O’Brien’s feet are back on the ground, Byrne is already moving away to the left to set up for the next phase of play, presuming it will be in attack.

Byrne is best positioned to resource the breakdown, being so close to O’Brien, but he is moving away. And when O’Brien is smashed by Poirot, Leinster lock Joe McCarthy [red below] suddenly has to retreat further downfield to hit the breakdown.

This all means that Bordeaux have a great chance to ‘barge’ over the tackle and force a counter-rucking turnover.

All of a sudden, Bordeaux are on the attack against a Leinster defence that has to quickly find its shape.

The sense of Bordeaux having done their homework was only strengthened by them retaining a contestable box kick later in the first half.

It’s in an extremely similar position.

This time, Bielle-Biarrey has no interest in making contact with O’Brien.

He simply accelerates in front of the retreating Leinster wing, getting ahead of him in the battle for the ball.

Bielle-Biarrey is best positioned and comes down with possession.

And there’s another bit of thunderous contact on O’Brien as Poirot combines with flanker Pierre Bochaton for a dominant clearout.

Again, Bordeaux are suddenly onto the attack and they sweep forward, with the ensuing pressure eventually leading to Bielle-Biarrey’s first try and a 21-7 Bordeaux lead.

Leinster struggled hugely in the initial aerial exchanges with Bordeaux in this final and only had their first win in the 33rd minute.

Funnily enough, it came when Bordeaux attempted to use this retreat fielding tactic.

As Matthieu Jalibert holds his position in the backfield, Bordeaux wing Pablo Uberti retreats to contest Gibson-Park’s box kick and gets a firm nudge in the back from the chasing Rieko Ioane.

That unsettles Uberti, while the sun is hanging high in the Bilbao sky. The combined effect is that Uberti can’t claim the high ball and knocks on, presenting Leinster with an unstructured chance.

Byrne launches a kick deep into Bordeaux’s empty backfield, and Leinster finally win the field position they have so badly needed.

The Stormers retained a couple of other box kicks in their URC semi-final against Leinster when the Irish province utilised this tactic.

Imad Khan’s box kick is particularly shallow in the example above, meaning Keenan could never have come and claimed it anyway.

But Jamie Osborne knocks on as he approaches the contest side-on. He appears to be frustrated that Stormers wing Wandisile Simelane makes contact with his arm in the air, but it’s ruled as a Leinster knock-on.

In the instance below, Keenan struggles to position himself in the ideal spot to claim the ball, which is batted back by Stormers fullback Damian Willemse.

Leinster are relieved to see the ball rolling into touch for their lineout.

As we saw in the initial examples against the Lions, there have been successes for Leinster with the use of this new fielding tactic. It’s worth underlining again that it has worked well on several occasions. 

And Leinster are far from the only team that have had teething issues since making the change.

Indeed, the Bulls are among the other sides whose efforts underline that this isn’t a guaranteed approach to winning contestable box kicks.

In the instance below, Glasgow box kick during their semi-final loss to the Bulls.

Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs [blue below] is positioned in that role about 10 metres off from the frontline, retreating to contest the high ball.

Handré Pollard [red] is in the backfield, but he leaves the job to Jacobs.

Jacobs gets up to claim the ball uncontested, but he is hammered upon landing, with Glasgow back row Matt Fagerson launching a perfectly-timed tackle.

Jacobs loses control of the ball and spills it forward, meaning a scrum for Glasgow.

They score from that platform with a brilliant surge of attack against the 14-man Bulls, who have a player in the sin bin.

This new approach to fielding contestable box kicks is one element of the URC final that is worth keeping a close eye on.