Unglamorous
Unsexy
undercovered
DESPERATE BODIES thrown with targeted ardour. There are few roles in rugby quite like defending your own goal-line.
And you can understand the need for it in the modern game. By 2 January, there had been 414 pick-and-goes in this season’s Premiership from five metres out or closer. The close-range try is as fashionable as it ever was.
The thing about defending under siege, though, is that it is, well, different. So often we talk of ‘defence’ as if it is one catch-all term, as if every defensive set is performed slap-bang in the middle of the park. But get closer to your line and your rearguard acts differently; thinks differently. And it ain’t pretty.
“Firstly, there has to be a team mindset around your goal-line defence,” begins Munster academy boss Ian Costello, once the Wasps defence coach. “You need a trench warfare-type mentality
