(A lesson from this past weekends IRB Rugby Sevens tournament in England)
Guest Post By Kim Kanari - Profit Prowess (Business E-Zine)
The scene is Twickenham, London, home of rugby. One hundred thousand spectators watching the penultimate leg of the 2011 IRB Sevens Series. The series has 8 legs and London is the seventh.
On the pitch a stark lesson in strategy.
New Zealand sit top of the table having dominated the season. They've won four of the last six legs and reached the semi-finals of the other two.
In Twickenham they again succeed in getting to the semi-finals but get a thorough walloping at the hands of Fiji, their worst defeat ever, losing 42-19. For New Zealand to succumb to so many tries at the hands of another team is unheard of.
Fiji Invincible?
After that game, it seems inevitable the Fiji will easily take the top prize in London.
Between them and the prize stands only the South African team who they've already beaten once in this tournament in the Pool game they played the day before. It was a close game, but they won 12-7.
And after steam rolling over New Zealand, Fiji seem to have stepped up a gear into a zone where no one can stop them.
The Final
The big game starts as expected with Fiji quickly running in two tries within 4 minutes of the kick-off to go 14-0.
The much smaller South Africans however manage to claw their way back to 10-14 by half time to stay competitive.
Changing The Game
At the break, Paul Treu, the SA coach, draws up an ambitious plan to beat the giant Fijians that's a great lesson in business strategy when facing a stronger competitor. Change the game! Don't fight on their terms. Switch turfs and give them something unknown.
South Africa comes into the second half with a completely new tactic of keeping the ball tight with most of their players going into break-down situations to keep possession of the ball.
Fiji's strength is at the break downs where their superior physical strength has seen them beat all who've come before them. They're masters at tackling hard and turning over possesion by committing only two or three of their players in the ruck. They then use their other superior skill (passing) to hurl the ball a great distance, accurately to their wide speedsters.
This puts their wide players into a one-on-one situation with the opposing defenders where they use their fantastic running, direction-angle-changes and off-load passes to often easily run around or through to the try line to score.
But using their "keep it close" strategy, this option is not available to Fiji (the game has changed) and SA is able to sneak in a try one minute into the second half. They go ahead 17-14.
Now SA have what they wanted, the lead, and they put their strategy into high gear. They do something that's never been seen in sevens rugby in the IRB series.
Rugby Madness
They take to kicking out all their penalties so that they win a line-out throw-in. And here's the real smarts of it all, where most teams only put 3 players in the line-out to receive the throw, SA commits all 5 of their out-field players to the line out. What? Is this madness?
Quizzical, confused looks can be seen on all the Fiji players faces as they wonder what new animal this is they're playing.
SA throws the ball into the line-out and they catch it easily because of their superior numbers. Then they adopt a 15's style mauling sequence with all their players in the maul pushing forward.
This forces Fiji to commit more players to the maul, but more importantly, cuts out completely the expansive running game the Fijians are so good at, both on attack and defense.
The South Africans keep this tactic going and it eats up the clock, frustrating the Fijians who are seeing their chance of winning this title (that was practically already theirs) tick away with every passing second.
Being a much less attractive spectacle, you hear some boo's from the crowd who want to see running, dummy-passes and side-steps. But SA knows it's all about winning, how it looks is secondary.
Clearly this is something they've practiced at home as they're very good at it and keep possession of the ball without making a mistake. Valuable game-time slips away from the Fijians.
So frustrated and confused are they that their defense breaks down with too many of them sucked into the maul and SA is able to sneak in another try in the corner in the final minute of the match. And the mercurial SA play-maker and goal kicker, Cecil Afrika, is able to guide in the conversion from a very difficult angle along the touch-line, putting SA up 24-14.
The Fijians are so frazzled by SA’s strange tactics that one of them has a moment of madness tackling the SA try scorer way after the try-awarding whistle. The ref has no mercy and awards SA a penalty at the restart of play.
With only a minute left and Fiji needing to score twice, the penalty against them is salt in their wound, they won’t even get ball possession.
SA manages to retain possession, killing the last few seconds of the game and winning it. The tournament title is theirs, ripped from the grasp if the much-favoured, now-frustrated, big Fijian team.
And that, my friends, is how to beat a giant. Change the game completely so they have no clue what to do to in the strange environment you have created. The "how's" of changing the game are a story for another day.
Congratulations to South Africa in Twickenham! It's a victory of brains over brawn.
[Ps. All photos from ESPN Scrum]
Guest Post By Kim Kanari - Profit Prowess (Business E-Zine)
The scene is Twickenham, London, home of rugby. One hundred thousand spectators watching the penultimate leg of the 2011 IRB Sevens Series. The series has 8 legs and London is the seventh.
On the pitch a stark lesson in strategy.
New Zealand sit top of the table having dominated the season. They've won four of the last six legs and reached the semi-finals of the other two.
In Twickenham they again succeed in getting to the semi-finals but get a thorough walloping at the hands of Fiji, their worst defeat ever, losing 42-19. For New Zealand to succumb to so many tries at the hands of another team is unheard of.
Fiji Invincible?
Between them and the prize stands only the South African team who they've already beaten once in this tournament in the Pool game they played the day before. It was a close game, but they won 12-7.
And after steam rolling over New Zealand, Fiji seem to have stepped up a gear into a zone where no one can stop them.
The Final
The big game starts as expected with Fiji quickly running in two tries within 4 minutes of the kick-off to go 14-0.
The much smaller South Africans however manage to claw their way back to 10-14 by half time to stay competitive.
Changing The Game
At the break, Paul Treu, the SA coach, draws up an ambitious plan to beat the giant Fijians that's a great lesson in business strategy when facing a stronger competitor. Change the game! Don't fight on their terms. Switch turfs and give them something unknown.
South Africa comes into the second half with a completely new tactic of keeping the ball tight with most of their players going into break-down situations to keep possession of the ball.
Fiji's strength is at the break downs where their superior physical strength has seen them beat all who've come before them. They're masters at tackling hard and turning over possesion by committing only two or three of their players in the ruck. They then use their other superior skill (passing) to hurl the ball a great distance, accurately to their wide speedsters.
But using their "keep it close" strategy, this option is not available to Fiji (the game has changed) and SA is able to sneak in a try one minute into the second half. They go ahead 17-14.
Now SA have what they wanted, the lead, and they put their strategy into high gear. They do something that's never been seen in sevens rugby in the IRB series.
Rugby Madness
They take to kicking out all their penalties so that they win a line-out throw-in. And here's the real smarts of it all, where most teams only put 3 players in the line-out to receive the throw, SA commits all 5 of their out-field players to the line out. What? Is this madness?
Quizzical, confused looks can be seen on all the Fiji players faces as they wonder what new animal this is they're playing.
SA throws the ball into the line-out and they catch it easily because of their superior numbers. Then they adopt a 15's style mauling sequence with all their players in the maul pushing forward.
This forces Fiji to commit more players to the maul, but more importantly, cuts out completely the expansive running game the Fijians are so good at, both on attack and defense.
The South Africans keep this tactic going and it eats up the clock, frustrating the Fijians who are seeing their chance of winning this title (that was practically already theirs) tick away with every passing second.
Being a much less attractive spectacle, you hear some boo's from the crowd who want to see running, dummy-passes and side-steps. But SA knows it's all about winning, how it looks is secondary.
Clearly this is something they've practiced at home as they're very good at it and keep possession of the ball without making a mistake. Valuable game-time slips away from the Fijians.
So frustrated and confused are they that their defense breaks down with too many of them sucked into the maul and SA is able to sneak in another try in the corner in the final minute of the match. And the mercurial SA play-maker and goal kicker, Cecil Afrika, is able to guide in the conversion from a very difficult angle along the touch-line, putting SA up 24-14.
The Fijians are so frazzled by SA’s strange tactics that one of them has a moment of madness tackling the SA try scorer way after the try-awarding whistle. The ref has no mercy and awards SA a penalty at the restart of play.
With only a minute left and Fiji needing to score twice, the penalty against them is salt in their wound, they won’t even get ball possession.
And that, my friends, is how to beat a giant. Change the game completely so they have no clue what to do to in the strange environment you have created. The "how's" of changing the game are a story for another day.
Congratulations to South Africa in Twickenham! It's a victory of brains over brawn.
[Ps. All photos from ESPN Scrum]
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