No sitting back in defence says Cross - The Worcester Observer

No sitting back in defence says Cross

Worcester Editorial 18th Dec, 2014 Updated: 19th Oct, 2016   0

ATTACK-minded defence coach Simon Cross has vowed to make Worcester Warriors a more “confrontational” side this season as he bids to strike fear into the opposition.

Work has been underway to change Worcester’s style of defending since Cross was installed ahead of the 2013/14 campaign.

Warriors had previously been using a ‘drift defence’, which Cross said is a traditional way of defending where the team works together to usher the opposition towards the touchline.

But the former Edinburgh captain said this also allows the attacking team to have time and space, which was why he and director of rugby Dean Ryan set about putting in place a new strategy where their players are putting pressure back on their opponents.




“I believe that we should be turning defence into attack,” Cross said. “I like line-speed, aggression and seeing my players turn the ball over and the best chance of doing that is with a straight line defence which we are operating now.

“Rugby is a confrontational game, so the last thing I want to do is ask my lads to sit and soak up pressure as I want my guys to go really hard off the line and invade people’s space.


“It is about testing someone’s skill-set and seeing whether they are good enough to get a pass away under massive pressure.

“Are they strong enough to take one of Mike Williams’ hits when he is going at full speed? That is the sort of thing I want to encourage our boys to do as I want them to be confrontational.”

Cross said many of the top sides in the Aviva Premiership had adopted that style of defending and he believes it should make them more competitive if Warriors return to the top flight.

“You are starting to see a shift in the way sides defend and we need to make sure we are one step ahead,” he said.

“You cannot sit for ten or 15 phases and defend a side like Saracens because at some point somebody is going to come up with an offload or the defensive team is going to make a mistake and then you are back under your own posts.

“London Welsh are operating a drift defence and as they have found out if you give teams time and space at the top of the Premiership guys like (Tom) Varndell and (Christian) Wade are going to cause you problems.”

And Cross believes Warriors’ work on the training ground is beginning to bear fruit on the pitch as they have conceded the least amount of points in the Greene King IPA Championship and the British & Irish Cup.

But he insisted there was still plenty of room for improvement as he looks to make Warriors as strong as possible by the time they reach the business end of the season.

“I would like to have the best defensive record in the league as that would put us in a really good place coming into the play-offs,” he said.

“Week on week it is about not conceding as we want to be a really difficult team to play against.

“Also, what I would like see is how many tries we can score from defence – from an interception or a charge-down – and that is a really positive target for the boys.”

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