Jeremy Guscott: Backs must stop game being just about size and power

One of my New Year resolutions for 2014 would be for the backs in all teams bar New Zealand and Australia to take back ownership of the game, and to be the dominant figures in their teams. In most sides these days the captain is in the pack, but it is still the backs, and the No. 10 in particular, who is the guy making all the calls.
At Bath in my day those of us in the backline would always back ourselves – we’d constantly be telling the forwards that if they gave the ball to us we’d do something with it. There were a lot of verbal exchanges, and, for instance, I would always have a barny with Ben Clarke over control. He would point where he wanted it to go, and Mike Catt and I would nod – and then do exactly what we wanted to!
You had really commanding forwards around like Dean Richards at that time. Give him the ball and he would back himself to make the right decision – and most of the time he did it successfully. But you always need three-quarters who will stand up and be counted so that the game doesn’t just become about size and power.
You can win games with 40 percent possession, and that suggests that what you do on the pitch should be based more on being smart and making good decisions than anything else – so come on backs, put your hands up and take responsibility. You should want to play with the ball and to have it in your hands as often as possible, and that won’t happen if you simply watch others making all the decisions.
Some defences are tight in the modern game, but there are still huge amounts of attacking opportunities that are wasted. Sometimes all it takes is just making one more pass to carve out a try, and if that means overriding a set move or call because you are in a better position to attack, then don’t be scared to do it.
If I know I can beat my opposite number then I want the ball as often as possible, whether it is from scrum, lineout or breakdown.
The game in the Northern Hemisphere is still played too much by numbers, with players failing to scan the field and see space. There are some talented backs out there, and with the likes of Anthony Watson, Jonathan Joseph, Semesa Rokodoguni, and Nick Abendanon at Bath, you just want to see them run and handle. The message for all English backs is to be more positive and assertive. That doesn’t mean chucking it around on a filthy day when you are far better kicking for the corners, but when the conditions are good then let’s see the ball fizz down the line.
The change in the scrum laws is good news for backs. Once this generation of hookers start hooking quickly and precisely there are few better attacking options than a scrum. All the forwards are committed to the contest and not clogging up the pitch, and if you can’t make a clean break three times out of five from a backline move straight from a scrum then there’s something wrong.
I don’t blame teams with a strong scrum pushing for the penalty when they have the upper hand, but backs should point out to them that there is an even bigger advantage to be gained by attacking from scrums. Even forwards can add and subtract well enough to know that seven points is worth more than three – so back yourselves to score from set-pieces.
Guys like Nick Evans, Danny Cipriani and George Ford should be telling the forwards: “You go for a penalty once, but then it’s our turn.” We are all different players and personalities, but I just couldn’t stand at outside-centre and not want the ball when I was playing behind a dominant pack.
Referees, coaches and front-five forwards are the key to the success of the scrum being seen as a positive force, rather than a negative. Even now there are far more scrum-halves getting away with crooked feeds than there are being pulled up by referees, and the officials have to be much stronger in policing it.
With the help of touch-judges there should be no hiding place for a scrum-half who fails to put the ball in straight at scrum time. They should be told not to waste everybody’s time. It would be sorted out pretty quickly if they operated a system of a free-kick for a first offence, a penalty for a second offence, and a yellow card for a third offence.
The aim of the game, for me, is to score tries. It’s great to see Saracens doing that on their fast new artificial surface, and my advice to them and others is to be aware of the one more pass that beats the defence. That is how it should be played – especially from scrums.