Tactics
19 Rugby League 
/ Betfair Education / 08 August 2008 / Leave a comment
Rugby league tactics tend to change with the rules and the game played today is almost unrecognisable from the sport played twenty years ago and even ten years ago. The perfect example of the changing nature of rugby league is seen in scrums, which were once an integral component of the game where teams fought for possession of the ball. Today, scrums are only used to remove the forwards from play, with teams rarely winning the ball against the feed.
Rugby league tactics tend to revolve around possession and field position. Both are interwoven. Teams cannot win a game without the ball as they cannot score points. As such, many tactics revolve around getting and maintaining possession. Defending is also considered far more tiring than attacking so a team that wins the possession battle is usually fresher and more able to penetrate in attack and tackle in defense. It is also important to play the game in the opposition's half. Teams rarely throw the ball around in their own half and are therefore less likely to score tries from there while teams who have the ball in their opponent's half are far more likely to use attacking plays in order to break the defence and score points.
It is common on the fifth tackle of a set for a team to kick the ball. If a team is still located in their own half on the fifth tackle, the kick tends to be a punt downfield looking for distance in order to win field position. If a team is located near their opponent's line, they tend to put in an attacking kick which is usually a bomb or a grubber. A bomb is a high kick designed to create a contest between the two teams where the ball is kicked high in the air. Bombs usually result in many players jumping for the ball. Players such as Israel Folau, Greg Inglis and Joel Monaghan are considered masters at catching bombs. A grubber kick is a low kick that is usually aimed at the in-goal. Grubber (low) kicks are primarily used to win back possession as a defending player who takes a grubber kick in their own in-goal and is tackled before he escapes is forced to drop kick the ball back to the opposition. Teams with good kicking games tend to win more matches than they lose as a significant proportion of all tries come directly from kicks.
The key area of rugby league today is the ruck. The ruck is the area where the tackle is completed and the play-the-ball takes place. Ruck dominance is the key to success in the modern game. Coaches instruct their players to slow down the opposition's play-the-ball through wrestling while ensuring their own play-the-ball is speedy, allowing his team to build up momentum. The Melbourne Storm are the leaders in winning the ruck and as such have been the number one team in the NRL for a number of seasons.
Play tends to be much more open in the Super League than in the National Rugby League with the Super League having a greater focus on attack. This tends to lead to higher scoring matches with greater ball movement and more tries. The National Rugby League, conversely, is more oriented towards defense. The result is lower scoring games with far fewer tries. In the Super League, a good attack will usually win out over a good defence whereas the reverse is true in the NRL, where the best defensive teams tend to sit atop the premiership ladder. Defenses have become so difficult to break down in the NRL that there is an ever-increasing reliance on attacking kicks to score tries.
Betting on Rugby League
Betting on rugby league tends to be divided into two general categories: match markets and futures markets.
Many markets exist for individual matches including match odds, handicap, total points, margin of victory, first scoring play and the half-time/full-time double. Handicap betting, margin betting and total points betting ensure that games already decided remain of great interest to punters right to the very end, when they are cheering for one more try to get the over total points up or are praying to their god of choice for a missed conversion to keep the plus alive. There is nothing more thrilling than that "meaningless" field goal to cover the spread. There is also nothing more heartbreaking than that last-second sideline conversion to ruin your bet!
Futures markets are long-term proposition markets. They tend to be markets betting on how a team will perform throughout an individual season. It is the goal of each team in both the NRL and the Super League to win their respective competition. Punters can wager on who will hold aloft the NRL premiership on that first Sunday in October or who will be crowned champion of the Super League. The one title that no team wishes to "win" is the wooden spoon, the "prize" for finishing last. Punters can trade throughout the season on who they believe will take home the dreaded title of worst team in rugby league. Markets also exist on which team will lead the competition at the conclusion of the regular season, as well as which teams will make the top four and eight in the NRL and the play-offs in the Super League.
There are occasionally a number of "specials" markets that exist. These are usually markets that involve long-term propositions. An example of a specials market is betting on who the first coach will be to depart for the season. It is rare that a season goes by where at least one coach isn't fired or quits. Coaches of teams performing poorly are, unsurprisingly, usually heavily favoured in such a market.
