MUNSTER SENIOR COACH Mike Prendergast, who is in charge of the Irish province’s attack, has expressed his concerns about the tactical direction rugby is heading in.
In November 2024, World Rugby issued a directive for match officials to clamp down strongly on ‘kick escorting.’
Kick escorting involved players retreating downfield after an opposition kick and impeding chasing opponents, giving their team-mate a better chance of catching the ball cleanly.
Overnight, the sport was changed rather drastically as chasing players were given unimpeded access to the ball’s landing point, meaning they could more easily contest the ball in the air.
International teams like South Africa and England have adapted to the change very well, controlling games with their contestable kicks and excelling at the scrums that often result from aerial contests, but others have struggled.
Some coaches have become frustrated with how the change has led to more kicking in many games, while the scrappy nature of the aerial contests has caused an increase in scrums due to knock-ons in the air or on the ground when the ball breaks.
Ireland assistant coach Johnny Sexton recently expressed his concerns and now Munster’s Prendergast, who revolutionised the province’s attack before their 2023 URC title, has echoed those sentiments.
“The reality is you look at ball-in-play time now and ball-in-play in most games has dropped off,” said Prendergast, who has also head-coached Ireland A and was a senior Ireland assistant coach on last summer’s tour of Georgia and Portugal.
“I think when you strip it back and for anyone that’s watching games, whether it’s international or URC, there hasn’t been standout games.
“The [Munster] game against Leinster was different. We probably felt it was the best because we ended up winning and it was big for us, etc. Don’t get wrong – it was a decent game.
“It’s probably one that we remember because we won, but in a lot of the other games, it’s so stop-start, the international games, our games, and there’s a reason for it – you don’t have your escorts going back.
“I think when trends come into the game, a lot of coaches follow it and a lot of teams end up following it, and it’s kind of what’s happening at the moment.
“Us as attack coaches, we’re trying to figure out how do we get out of it. It’s hard to get out of it, but how can we manoeuvre certain aspects to change it a small bit?
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Munster senior coach Mike Prendergast. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
“You look at it, the game is coming down to aerial wingers, the best guys in the air, the biggest scrums. You put that ball in the air and you catch it; it’s generally hard enough to play against that.
“It’s like the Saracens of old. I always remember, we played with Racing [when Prendergast was coaching there] in 2020, a semi-final against Saracens. They were so difficult to play.
“They were box kicking, but the box kicks were quite short. So, it just meant that they had all their players on their feet and they’d trap you. Richard Wigglesworth was scrum-half and he had a brilliant kicking game and he’d trap you in around five to eight to 10 metres [from the touchline].
“So you’re trying to play out and it’s really hard and I remember talking to Finn [Russell] at half time and we had Virimi Vakatawa and these X-factor players, but it was just impossible to break them down.
“I remember Finn saying, ‘It’s nearly a boring game to play.’ I said, ‘I know, but there will probably be one moment.’ We spoke about one little ball [a chip kick] over the top and to me it kind of feels like the game’s gone that way at the moment.
“It’s obvious to see that it’s becoming a box-kick game. You receive it, you play two or three phases, and you generally kick back.
“Don’t get me wrong, there are times you kick it and you win that ball, and that’s where you can get the excitement from it. You’re playing on top. You’re playing in the ascendancy.
“If that doesn’t happen, you either catch it or there’s a knock-on and we’re talking scrums and then we’re going from set-piece to set-piece.
“There’s beauty in scrums, of course there is, but it’s slowing the game down and having [more] box kicks is naturally going to slow it down.
“We talk about ‘the five seconds’ [to use the ball at the ruck], but five seconds isn’t five seconds anymore.
“When you’re actually sitting down watching games now, there’s less ball-in-play and we’re watching games for far longer. We’re sitting there for two hours watching a game.
“There’s obviously going to be games like that with [weather] conditions and stuff, but I think, to be fair, when they changed the rules they probably didn’t realise it was going to come to this.”
Munster's Craig Casey box kicks. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
He is also concerned that kick-chasers aren’t trying to catch the ball cleanly anymore, instead simply looking to bat it back towards team-mates.
“Teams like Gloucester [who Munster face this weekend] do it really, really well,” said Prendergast.
“They’ll kick short and they go up to tap and that can end up in a knock-on, or it ends up in scraps [on the ground]. I just think when the escort was there, that’s when there was probably less kicking in it because you had less of a chance to get the ball back.”
Prendergast believes World Rugby need to discuss the direction rugby is heading and consider making another change.
Indeed, he suggests that the governing body should consider the return of escorting.
“I think people have to sit around the table and figure it out. Do we bring back the escorting, which it was before?” said Prendergast.
He says that anything that discourages box kicking from scrum-halves would improve the spectacle of the game.
Prendergast points to Bordeaux’s thrilling win over the Bulls in Pretoria last weekend as a good example of how different types of kicks can shape a game to produce more attacking opportunities.
“Teams were probably playing off 10 [their out-half] to exit a small bit more before, and it just changes the game,” said Prendergast.
“You would have heard over the last couple of years that teams strategically will either kick out, kick higher, or they kick ‘long and on.’
“’Long and on’ means the ball is going to stay on the pitch, so there’s going to be high ball-in-play, which means that the ball is moving, people are moving. That’s what we want to see.
“You look at the games this year, and there isn’t too many games that have really jumped off the page. We saw a brilliant game of rugby in South Africa at altitude [between the Bulls and Bordeaux], where they were kicking long. Bordeaux coming back were brilliant to watch, but a lot of the game was long kicking because it was altitude.
“But the shorter kicking game means it just becomes slower because you’re setting rucks, you’re setting set-pieces, the flow isn’t there. Phase attacks are less and less.
“So let’s hope the rules change. And what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to figure out how we can see little chinks in it as well.”
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'Rugby is becoming a box-kick game... It's hard to get out of it'
MUNSTER SENIOR COACH Mike Prendergast, who is in charge of the Irish province’s attack, has expressed his concerns about the tactical direction rugby is heading in.
In November 2024, World Rugby issued a directive for match officials to clamp down strongly on ‘kick escorting.’
Kick escorting involved players retreating downfield after an opposition kick and impeding chasing opponents, giving their team-mate a better chance of catching the ball cleanly.
Overnight, the sport was changed rather drastically as chasing players were given unimpeded access to the ball’s landing point, meaning they could more easily contest the ball in the air.
International teams like South Africa and England have adapted to the change very well, controlling games with their contestable kicks and excelling at the scrums that often result from aerial contests, but others have struggled.
Some coaches have become frustrated with how the change has led to more kicking in many games, while the scrappy nature of the aerial contests has caused an increase in scrums due to knock-ons in the air or on the ground when the ball breaks.
Ireland assistant coach Johnny Sexton recently expressed his concerns and now Munster’s Prendergast, who revolutionised the province’s attack before their 2023 URC title, has echoed those sentiments.
“The reality is you look at ball-in-play time now and ball-in-play in most games has dropped off,” said Prendergast, who has also head-coached Ireland A and was a senior Ireland assistant coach on last summer’s tour of Georgia and Portugal.
“I think when you strip it back and for anyone that’s watching games, whether it’s international or URC, there hasn’t been standout games.
“The [Munster] game against Leinster was different. We probably felt it was the best because we ended up winning and it was big for us, etc. Don’t get wrong – it was a decent game.
“It’s probably one that we remember because we won, but in a lot of the other games, it’s so stop-start, the international games, our games, and there’s a reason for it – you don’t have your escorts going back.
“I think when trends come into the game, a lot of coaches follow it and a lot of teams end up following it, and it’s kind of what’s happening at the moment.
“Us as attack coaches, we’re trying to figure out how do we get out of it. It’s hard to get out of it, but how can we manoeuvre certain aspects to change it a small bit?
“You look at it, the game is coming down to aerial wingers, the best guys in the air, the biggest scrums. You put that ball in the air and you catch it; it’s generally hard enough to play against that.
“It’s like the Saracens of old. I always remember, we played with Racing [when Prendergast was coaching there] in 2020, a semi-final against Saracens. They were so difficult to play.
“They were box kicking, but the box kicks were quite short. So, it just meant that they had all their players on their feet and they’d trap you. Richard Wigglesworth was scrum-half and he had a brilliant kicking game and he’d trap you in around five to eight to 10 metres [from the touchline].
“So you’re trying to play out and it’s really hard and I remember talking to Finn [Russell] at half time and we had Virimi Vakatawa and these X-factor players, but it was just impossible to break them down.
“I remember Finn saying, ‘It’s nearly a boring game to play.’ I said, ‘I know, but there will probably be one moment.’ We spoke about one little ball [a chip kick] over the top and to me it kind of feels like the game’s gone that way at the moment.
“It’s obvious to see that it’s becoming a box-kick game. You receive it, you play two or three phases, and you generally kick back.
“Don’t get me wrong, there are times you kick it and you win that ball, and that’s where you can get the excitement from it. You’re playing on top. You’re playing in the ascendancy.
“If that doesn’t happen, you either catch it or there’s a knock-on and we’re talking scrums and then we’re going from set-piece to set-piece.
“There’s beauty in scrums, of course there is, but it’s slowing the game down and having [more] box kicks is naturally going to slow it down.
“We talk about ‘the five seconds’ [to use the ball at the ruck], but five seconds isn’t five seconds anymore.
“When you’re actually sitting down watching games now, there’s less ball-in-play and we’re watching games for far longer. We’re sitting there for two hours watching a game.
“There’s obviously going to be games like that with [weather] conditions and stuff, but I think, to be fair, when they changed the rules they probably didn’t realise it was going to come to this.”
He is also concerned that kick-chasers aren’t trying to catch the ball cleanly anymore, instead simply looking to bat it back towards team-mates.
“Teams like Gloucester [who Munster face this weekend] do it really, really well,” said Prendergast.
“They’ll kick short and they go up to tap and that can end up in a knock-on, or it ends up in scraps [on the ground]. I just think when the escort was there, that’s when there was probably less kicking in it because you had less of a chance to get the ball back.”
Prendergast believes World Rugby need to discuss the direction rugby is heading and consider making another change.
Indeed, he suggests that the governing body should consider the return of escorting.
“I think people have to sit around the table and figure it out. Do we bring back the escorting, which it was before?” said Prendergast.
He says that anything that discourages box kicking from scrum-halves would improve the spectacle of the game.
Prendergast points to Bordeaux’s thrilling win over the Bulls in Pretoria last weekend as a good example of how different types of kicks can shape a game to produce more attacking opportunities.
“Teams were probably playing off 10 [their out-half] to exit a small bit more before, and it just changes the game,” said Prendergast.
“You would have heard over the last couple of years that teams strategically will either kick out, kick higher, or they kick ‘long and on.’
“’Long and on’ means the ball is going to stay on the pitch, so there’s going to be high ball-in-play, which means that the ball is moving, people are moving. That’s what we want to see.
“You look at the games this year, and there isn’t too many games that have really jumped off the page. We saw a brilliant game of rugby in South Africa at altitude [between the Bulls and Bordeaux], where they were kicking long. Bordeaux coming back were brilliant to watch, but a lot of the game was long kicking because it was altitude.
“But the shorter kicking game means it just becomes slower because you’re setting rucks, you’re setting set-pieces, the flow isn’t there. Phase attacks are less and less.
“So let’s hope the rules change. And what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to figure out how we can see little chinks in it as well.”
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Attack bath Gloucester Mike Prendergast Munster State of the game