AKA: "The Hard Men"

Key Factors
1. Physical Challenge You will be judged on your attacking and defensive abilities. You will have a physical confrontation with your opposition both in defence or attack and it is important that you come out on top. You should be in constant communication with the fly half, other centre and your wide players who will feed off you and defend with you during the game. You play a supporting role to the fly half and the other centre. If you control the midfield physically and dominate your opposition in both attack and defence, the game will be half won. A “soft centre” in a team will neutralise all good work done by a good pack, and any potential for attacking play out wide.

2. Passing The people you usually pass to include the other centre, wingers/fullback, back row forwards but could be anyone. As a passer you should be highly skilled, particularly in drawing the defence and then releasing wider players into space. The timing and accuracy of your passes and the angles of running will serve to draw defenders and make space outside. Your passes will allow the players around you to do their jobs with confidence in space and with pace. Similar to the fly half, you should be able to vary your passing from long accurate spin passes to players (centres/full backs/wings) hitting gaps wide at pace, to short popped passes to players running close (centres/back row blind side wingers) and anything in between. If you simply pass the ball and the defender to the next player, the defence will outnumber the attackers and the move will be closed down. It is important to run straight as you give the ball to hold the defence. Increase your pace before you receive the ball, it is hard to do anything if you are stationary when you get the ball. Passing can always be improved.

3. Running the ball. The angles the centres run in attack can open the defence and create doubt or even fear in the opposition. Be prepared to run the ball if a gap opens up. If you are quick and you see an opportunity where you can make some yards accelerate through the gap. Look for support before you get isolated, look to link with other backs as the defence starts to close in. Practice running and handling skills, passing, change of direction, change of pace, sidesteps, swerves dummies and hand-offs. Very often this will be down to instinct and can be developed with time. A good player shaping up for a pass will instinctively throw a dummy when they see the opposition move out of position, or cut outside when a player is short of pace. Attack spaces or weaknesses and let others near know your intentions. If you are quick, there are plenty of opportunities to pass and support the wingers on the inside or the outside wherever the space is. Let them know you are there. If your running is a strong asset, use it, if it isn’t, look to draw defenders and distribute to strike players wide out. A good centre will not simply run or pass! A good centre will run and pass when the time is right, this may be instantaneously or after a twenty yard dash. He will also aim to get back in the play again further out or further up the pitch. Follow play and put yourself in a useful position.

4. Defence is vital; Line up on the inside shoulder of your opposition and push up as a line with the other centre and fly half. The current trend is for the outside centre to be up 1/2 yard quicker to put pressure on the opposing outside centre and cut off any moves going wide. It is possible to trap the opposing back line and hit players as they catch the ball.  You should be lining up to tackle your opponents and stop them dead. A player who gets even halfway through a gap is often able to offload to a player at pace and the defensive line is broken. If you are tackling heavier stronger players use your speed and tackle early and low and avoid the bulk and upper body strength. Hit hard, grab and slide down the legs to get them to the ground as early as possible If you are strong you may wish to go higher and knock them backwards (Tana Umaga). Timing is vital, time your approach and if you see an opportunity to take a man as he catches the ball, hit the accelerator as hard as you can. You can dominate players by physically imposing yourself early on. Stopping ball carriers on the tackle line is the priority, and then regaining feet and getting back in position asap. If your man passes, (never take a dummy) move quickly out to the next mans inside shoulder. If he cuts inside or straightens up you will be there ready to tackle. This will often end up as a two-man tackle. This is regularly seen in professional rugby; players in the centre straightening up to be met by 2 or 3 tacklers. In this circumstance he will have nowhere to go and you can afford to hit very hard as he will not be expecting it. A player who knows he is about to get flattened rarely makes a good pass, and will often spill the ball in contact.

5. Defending in open play is different, too much pace in your approach will allow a good player to wrong foot you, so make sure you are covering the space before committing too heavily. Once you have the player in your sights, accelerate and hit hard as you can. Organise and communicate with the players around you in open play.

6. Read the game and take control of the midfield. You connect the half backs to the strike players out wide and should take pleasure in providing ball to the flying machines in promising positions. Be alert when a penalty is given, the fly half should instinctively know where you are. He may be looking to get the ball from the scrum half and you are his first option. If the opposition are dozy and we are alert, we can run in tries and have some fun.

7. Running into contact. Do it on your terms! If you run straight from 20 yards it will be obvious and easy to stop you. Place doubt in the tacklers mind so he doesn’t know what you will do. A quick change of pace and direction and you will hit him when he is not ready or expecting it. This will give you the best chance of breaking the tackle, or distributing the ball, or of presenting the ball on the ground. Look for your partner centre and the back row when you are in this position. Try to guarantee the ball is kept for our team when you have run into contact or taken a tackle. Sometimes it can be great fun just running in and knocking the opposing centre over and passing the ball to the next available player (back row or centre). This and a solid tackle early on will set up great afternoon where you will dominate the opposing centre in all phases. Don’t neglect your hand off, or your dummy, these can be most useful when making space, breaking tackles and keeping players away from the ball. Enjoy!!

8. Support You are likely to be one of the nearest players should your centre partner get tackled. Be ready to get in there like a back row forward and either take the ball, set up a maul or drive a player out in a ruck situation. If you can get the ball do so. You share attributes with the back row so read their job description.

9. Moves Moves are a waste of time unless the handling and running skills are already well developed. Simplicity and execution are the key factors. No move is good unless it is done accurately with everyone fully aware of the aims of that particular play. Any move involving multiple blind passes and players’ coming from all directions has high risk and is often a disaster when the defence is organised. Miss moves, switches and variation of running angles and length of pass are simple and easy to execute. Full backs and blind side wingers coming into the line can make a huge impression if the pace and timing is right.

10. Awareness Be conscious of the opposition centres, wingers and full back. You can exploit any weakness if you spot an Achilles heel. Communicate this to your fly half/centre/wingers and apply some pressure (run, kick or pass). You may decide to call a move to exploit a weakness.