As the MLR descended on Vegas we were all entertained with a light bending, colourful display of rugby, as the Toronto Arrows took on the Houston Sabercats. In a thrilling game, the Arrows showed clear signs of development and why they’ve been such a success. In three passages of play, they showed an ability to engineer quick ball, escaping a poor set up, and exploiting the defence with ruthless strike plays.

First let us begin at the beginning, the very beginning.

Kicking Off to Houston, Toronto punt the ball long and immediately as is standard procedure among most teams drop players back to cover a return kick. This leads to the ball coming back directly to the Arrows. The key here though is not built on the prediction of the Sabercats return policy, but instead their immediate action. Once the ball is received they shift the ball twice and attack from the centre of the field. The effect of this is two fold, firstly the returning arrows can arc their runs inside to a preset location. Then following this they have a midfield platform to set their shape.

Arrows have just kicked off and receive return fire from the Sabercats

The Arrows beginning placing the bricks in the wall, with a pod off the immediate ruck. This might seem to be a relatively quick phase but live, the arrows set the pod slowly making sure they were ready to attack and getting as many players on their feet and in position as possible.

From this first carry the Arrows attack with a simple pod of 3

Having set the midfield platform from the kick initially, now the arrows begin to gather momentum striking at the fringes of the Sabercats defence. Whilst this phase is taking place it allows the arrows previous pod to set with a 1-3-3-1 apparently being set ready to attack from this incredibly wide position.

Arrows working to an edge to stretch Sabercats

As a quick aside, i’m going to explain the 1-3-3-1 structure. Whilst attacking formattions are often commonly seen in American Football, in terms of plays, and Football, in the more applicable 4-4-2, in Rugby an attacking formation is determined by the position of the forwards. The positions of the forwards is key to determining who hits rucks and where the Fly Half can set his backs and bring in screen plays to exploit the opposition edges.

The Arrows, begin to assemble their attacking structure, a simple 1-3-3-1

In this example Toronto are running a 1-3-3-1 system. The first part of this is shown in the ruck at the bottom of the screen. With a forward and a back being used to clear the ruck in the wide channels. Secondly, They have two pods of 3 beginning to form. Having reached an edge, the Arrows use one pod of 3 forwards (circled in red) close to the 9, negating a possible rush from the defence as well as setting up a possible blindside and keeping Houston honest. Meanwhile they use a more fluid pod of 3 wider (Yellow Line), the fluidity coming in a future phase. Whilst both these pods are positioned between 9 and 10 (Red Circle) and off the fly half (Yellow Line), there are two key moving pieces that enable the wide strike across the next 2 phases.

In the green square, the Arrows flanker can shift wider and offer a carrying threat as well as playing an easy ruck clearance role on the next set of attacks. Whilst the centre (blue hexagon) can shift and position himself as a screened option and as such allow yet more width for the arrows.

Playing the clips on, we see a significant role played by each of the 4 parts outlined, starting with clean ball given by the first 1, this time the openside flanker at the ruck closest to the screen.

The first pod of 3 carry pushing the Sabercats back.

The first pod (the one circled in red above) strike just outside the 15m. This pulls the arrows wider, but also means that the Sabercats are left realigning whilst the Arrows have been able to generate quick ball. This effect is exacerbated by how the Sabercats have been defending in contrast to the arrows attack structure. With their backrow tight to the ruck, Houston are left with their Openside making a tackle whilst 6 is left defending guard on the blindside with 8 still finding his space when the Arrows 9 arrives.

The Arrows spread the play using their structure to exploit the Sabercats

The arrows then find space out wide with some brilliant work. Attacking the hinge of the Sabercats defence and exposing a slight mismatch to great effect. This comes from a series of correct connections against an imperfect defensive system set up.

To begin with let’s examine the very basic parts of the structure before these connections start truly firing, as the Scrum Half picks up the ball.

The 2 pods of 3 work to create the opportunity outside, both with screens and ruck play

From the start two things standout. The initial pod of 3 from the 1-3-3-1 structure has broken slightly with the front runner coming as an option of 9 with the back runners, in a holding pattern off the Fly Half offering a slight screen. As well as this from the previous carry, the Arrows have managed to fracture the Sabercats defence. With the first clearer going well beyond the ball, and pushing the Houston Sabercat fold further around. This stops a meaningful fold and allows dummy runs to be more effective, as the Sabercats don’t feel as secure in their drift worried due to a crumple effect along the line. This minute details create the opportunity when we play the attack on.

Once the Arrows reach the hinge of the Sabercats, they still have various options

The crumple effect has now become clearer, as well as this, strong movements from the pod have created a clear disconnect. As the arrows attack out wide they maintain the multiple options approach to isolate further the winger (red circle) who has become separated from the line. The Arrows attack line is curved with a flat and deep option preventing a simple spot tackle from the winger and forcing him to hold his decision till he has more support. The phase then ends as shown in the gif above with a strong carry by the openside flanker.

The Arrows quickly work back into their structure, and begin working in the Sabercats half

As is typical of the Arrows, they then continue to attack reset into their structure. With the inside centre round the back offering options the arrows play flat and win the collision aiming to stretch the Sabercats and begin to force errors. You can already see the structure beginning to take shape after the break which is a good sign for a settled team like the arrows, having played off 9, then the phase above before using the blindside flanker out wide.

Arrows continue working to an edge, and earn a penalty from an overly aggressive Houston defence

Whilst however, the following attacks are largely nullified it is a direct show of the importance of structure in breaking down the all the more professional and effective defences. However this is not to say this burst of structure fails to yield anything. The arrows walk away with a quick and easy 3 points drawn from this initial foray. Highly impressive efficiency from the boys in blue.

Overall, it was an incredibly impressive and exciting game. The Arrows began with intensity and speed that was incredibly remarkable before the Sabercats brought the game right down to the wire. It was the arrows who had just slightly too much and walked away with victory by the skin of their teeth.