Zonal Tactics

Overview

First off, an explanation of what zonal tactics actually means. For purposes of tactics, the rugby pitch is divided up into four zones: within your team’s own 22, from your 22 to the half-way line, into the opposition half up to his 22, and finally the opposition’s 22. For each of these zones you get to set the tactics you will use when the ball is in that zone, hence the name zonal tactics.

There are plenty of tactical options that can be tweaked to your desire, so the easiest thing is to go through them one by one and give a brief description of what each one does.

Attack Patterns

This is probably the key tactical option you will set for your team as it determines how your team will attack when it has the ball. An attack pattern is made up of a set of attack plays. You can create as many attack patterns as you like, but you can only use a single attack pattern within each zone. When you start off in the game you will have some attack patterns already created for you, but you are free to design your own and use them instead if you wish.

An attack pattern is made up of a varying number of attack plays. There are four general types of attack play:

Pick & Go — Primarily the forwards attacking near to the ruck with minimal or no passing at all, especially involving the front five, though can include the scrum-half sniping or the back row as well.

Drive — Again primarily the forwards attacking, but can be a back, especially if the drive attacks further out from the ruck towards the midfield. Usually no more than one or two passes involved before running it up to the line.

Expansive — Primarily an attack passing the ball through the hands of the backs, but can involve forwards as well if they are out in the line.

Creative — This covers a wide range of different attacks, from complicated moves involving decoy runners and miss passes, to wingers coming off their wing and appearing as an extra man on the other side, to clever little grubber kicks and chips over the defence. These types of attacks are harder to get right, but can be very effective when everything goes to plan.

As well as there being four main types of attack, there are also four areas where these attacks can target:

Around the Corner — These attacks target the fringes of the ruck, an area normally defended by the opposition’s front five forwards.

Close — These attacks target an area from the fringes of a ruck to roughly where the opposition fly-half stands. This area is normally defended by the forwards spreading out from the fringes of the ruck.

Midfield — These attacks target an area from the fly-half to the inside shoulder of the outside center. Normally will be defended by the backs that inhabit those positions, but forwards can turn up here as well.

Wide — These attacks target an area from the outside center to the sideline, and are normally defended by the backs – the outside center and wing. Like a midfield attack, an occasional forward might be out there who has yet to get back into position, or occasionally a back row forward might be defending wide out.

Putting this all together we get the following seven types of attack play:

Pick & Go: Around the Corner
Pick & Go: Close
Drive: Close
Drive: Midfield
Expansive: Midfield
Expansive: Wide
Creative

As can be seen from the above, Creative attack plays don’t target specific areas. Instead they seek to target areas where the defence seems weak. When a creative attack occurs the targeted area will normally be determined by one of the half-backs, with their composure and awareness playing a role in their ability to spot a weakness. When a creative attack pays off it can often lead to an improved chance to line-break, but a creative attack that goes wrong can often lead to the attacking side itself coming under pressure.

When creating an attack pattern the manager adds these individual attack types into the pattern, and then sets what % of the time each will be used (which is called a weighted attack pattern). Alternatively the user can set the attack pattern to be an ordered attack pattern, where each attack play is done in a specific order set by the manager.

Getting Results

So how does all this help the manager to beat his opposition? The key here is to figure out where your team is stronger than the opposition. If you think your front five is better than theirs then attacking around the fringes of the ruck or slightly further out may be a good tactic (i.e. Around the Corner and Close attacks). If you think your pack as a whole is stronger, then think about adding a higher % of Driving plays that attack further out into their midfield, as these primarily utilise your forwards as ball carriers. If you think you have an edge out wide in the backs, then play more Expansive and attack those wide channels and down the sideline. If you think their midfield defence is weak, then play more expansive midfield attacks and driving midfield attacks. If you have a great pair of half-backs who are composed under pressure and have a good awareness, then perhaps upping the % of Creative attacks might be a good idea.

There is no right or wrong attack pattern. It is just a matter of finding ones that you think work best for your team. The game will have some default patterns to help you along — at the moment these consist of an attack pattern that primarily uses attack plays built around the forwards, one based upon having a balanced attack pattern between the backs and the forwards, and a third which primarily attacks through the backs. You can use those, tweak them around, or just go out and build your own ones.

Other Zonal Options

Kicking

You will set up for each zone how often your team is likely to kick when they have possession in that zone. This is done by setting a percentage for kicking. When the team has the ball the match engine will determine whether the team is going to kick the ball or run an attack play, and it does this by looking at the Kick %. If the game determines the team will not kick then it looks at the attack pattern and chooses an attack play from there. There are other factors that affect the kick % the manager has set, such as the pressure the attacking team is under (the more pressure the attacking side is under, the more likely it is that they will kick to relieve that pressure), as well as if they are going all out to get a bonus point through scoring tries (if they are still seeking tries, then this will impact the chance of kicking, especially when they get into the opposition half).

You must also set which type of kick to use. There are three options here — Kick for Territory, Kick for Touch and Up & Under kick. You assigns a percentage chance for each kick type per zone. When the game determines that the attacking team will kick the ball it then looks at the percentages you have set for the type of kick and from that works out what kick type is chosen.

Ruck Commitment

For each zone you choose a ruck commitment level for two situations – when they are defending their own ball in the ruck (i.e. when they are the attacking side with the ball); and when they are attacking the opposition ruck (i.e. when they are the defending side). Each can be set at one of three levels — Low, Medium or High.

A low ruck commitment means the team is trying to commit as few players as necessary to the ruck. This will allow more forwards to stay out of the ruck, thus making them available to attack if their team wins the ball, or having more of them out in the defensive line if they lose the ball. The downside is that the team won’t be so effective at winning their own ball or putting pressure on the opposition and potentially stealing the ball. A low commitment is useful when you believe your team’s forwards are going to be much stronger in the ruck, and so committing fewer players to the ruck won’t materially damage your ability to retain or win ball, but will give you more forwards to attack or defend with when the ball is out.

A high ruck commitment is useful when you think your forwards may be outclassed in the ruck, so adding bodies there will increase the chances of winning or slowing down opposition ball or even stealing it. It has the added bonus of increasing the chance of you winning quick ball, which is valuable in attack as it gives the defence less time to re-organise. The downside is obviously that you have less forwards available to attack or defend with once the ruck is over. Another situation where high ruck commitment may be valuable is when you are in the opposition 22 and want to attack any rucks they may have in order to try and steal the ball – stolen ball here can be very dangerous. The other side of that coin is that sometimes a manager may want to have high ruck commitment when in their own 22 , to try and stop the opposition from stealing the ball.

Medium Ruck commitment does what it says on the tin. It takes the middle ground between low and high, and can be useful if you don’t want to take the plunge of going low and high. Medium ruck commitment is the standard ruck commitment setting.

Like all the tactical options, there is no right or wrong ruck commitment level. Which you choose needs to be determined by the strengths and weaknesses of your team and that of your opposition.

Defence

For each zone you pick one of the three defence types: Man on Man, Drift, or Rush. Each defence type has its strengths and weaknesses and, like most tactical aspects, there is not going to be a right or wrong defence. Which is best will depend on the two teams playing and their strengths and weaknesses.

Drift Defence — The defensive line shifts as the ball moves out towards the other team’s wing, pushing the opposition towards the side of the field, allowing the sideline to work as an extra defender. For attacks that target the midfield and wider, includiing Creative attacks, Drift has the defenders follow each attacker at an inside-out angle, with the wider defenders starting deeper than the defensive line near the breakdown. They all mostly wait for the attack to come to them instead of advancing to meet it, so when the ball gets wide there's more metres to make running forward, but no chance of a cutout pass to a mini break from the attack.

Rush — The defensive line presses up quickly trying to limit the amount of time the opposition has with the ball before contact is made, and so limit the ability of the opposition to get the ball past midfield. When it works, the rush defence can really put the opposition under pressure, but it does have its dangers if the defence line does not work in unison properly. For Close attacks (P&G and Drive), the defence reacction time is faster than both Man on Man And Drfit, and is the best at stopping ground being made in the tackle. For attacks that target the midfield and wider, including Creative attacks, Rush has the first two or three defenders rush up fast on the attacker they're marking, from a slight outside-in angle. The wider part of the defensive line holds where they started, so that fast passing or a good miss pass can cut out the rushing defenders, then the wider attack can make good ground forward before meeting the outside defensive line.

Man on Man — Each player in the defensive line is responsible for guarding player opposite them. This defence is a middle ground between Drift and Rush defences, and can be good when your team has a defensive edge, especially in the backs. For Close attacks (P&G and Drive), the defence reacction time is slower than Rush, but faster than Drift. For attacks that target the midfield and wider, includiing Creative attacks, Man on Man defence sits between Drift and Rush, with the defence lying flatter and higher than Drift, but doesn;t come forward as much as the Rush defence does.

Penalties

For each zone you must determine what the team does if it wins a penalty in that zone. The penalty options you have are: Kick for goal, take a tap penalty, kick for touch, or take a scrum. You will assign a % for each, and the ME will use this to determine what the team do with the penalty. Sometimes though the match engine will override these setting, like not allowing kicks at goal when success is very unlikely even though kick at goal is set to 100%, or taking a kick at goal despite it being set to 0% when the kick is both considered easy and would change the lead, while also considering time left in the match.

As to what the best settings are, again it will depend. Kicking for goal keeps the scoreboard ticking over while kicking for touch is often useful when you get a penalty in your own half. When in the opposition 22, if you have a powerful scrum then perhaps taking a scrum may be more useful, or even a tap, as it might lead to you scoring a try, rather than just getting the three points from a penalty. The match engine will also look at other factors that may change the percentages you have set, such as the pressure the attacking team is exerting (if you have the defence reeling then a tap and go can be more effective), the weather and so on.

Lineout

You set a percentage in each zone for the types of lineout throw your team will employ. You set a percentage for each type and the match engine will use these to determine which type of throw is made. There are five types of throw possible:

Drop — This is a quick throw to the very front of the line where a prop is normally standing to catch it. It is more of a trick, or surprise type throw, and if successful can leave the defence scrambling to deal with it. However, it is risky (need a prop with good catching and coordination) and can often lead to the ball being lost, knocked forward and so on.

Short — A throw near the front of the lineout to the number 4 lock. This is an easier throw from the hooker and so is often a safe type of throw to take. However, the attacking options off a short throw are not as good as a longer throw, so it is more safety first. It can be useful when you are in the opposition 22 and want to make sure you win the ball and set up a catch and maul, or when in your own 22 and don’t want to reduce the risk of your lineout ball being stolen, or you think your lineout capabilities suffer in comparison to your opposition.

Medium Throw — A throw to the middle of the line to your number 5 lock. Second only to the short throw for ease for the hooker and gives good all round attacking options, from getting the ball out fast to forming a catch and maul. This and the short throw are the most common types of lineout throws in general.

Long Throw — A throw to the back of the lineout. This is a harder throw for the hooker to make than a short or medium throw, and the target is one of the back-row forwards. A long throw creates very good attacking ball when won and so if it can be done successfully is a great option. You need a hooker with good throwing and coordination and back-row players who can jump and catch.

Overthrow — Another trick type throw.

Another trick type throw. The ball is thrown beyond the end of the lineout. If it works it can be great, if it doesn’t you have given the ball to the opposition and your defence may well be in trouble.