22-05-2025
‘Throwing your head in a washing machine' — how teams teach tryline defence
It is where matches are often won and lost, a primeval battle of brutal collisions, and yielding an inch can be terminal to your team. Normal rules of defence do not apply and only the bravest survive, the odds stacked in favour of the attacking team, the defence straining every sinew to repel them.
Welcome to the muck-or-nettles world of goalline defence, where techniques borrowed from sumo wrestling and American football are employed along with sheer bloody-minded determination.
Examples of physical bravery exist in many areas of a rugby pitch, but perhaps nowhere more than the efforts required to stop a pick-and-go from inside the five-metre line. Defenders are crouched on their own line, ready for the ball-carrier to launch himself, often after a Pinter-esque
