England isolated in dummy debate

The great debate over the employment of dummy runners, ignited by the retrospective of Clive Woodward on England's close call against New Zealand, is itself a red herring, designed to disguise a weakness in defence and influence referees. That is the conclusion of Alun Carter, Wales' video analyst who has studied the All Blacks' performance, which brought them four tries to three against England at Twickenham last week.

Woodward did not exactly celebrate the 31-28 victory. Instead, after dwelling on it for 48 hours, he questioned three of New Zealand's tries, citing "crossing'' adding: "I'm raising this now because I don't want to find myself moaning about the problem when I fly home from the World Cup in 12 months' time. If referees are going to permit passing behind the backs of dummy runners, it is vital that we're all allowed to do it. Deliberate off-the-ball interference with defenders should be penalised. If it is not, we need to get practising.''

Martin Johnson complained to the excellent Jonathan Caplan during the match, but the South African referee ignored him. "It is crazy to have different rules for the same game,'' the England captain said. "We don't play this way in the northern hemisphere, but they do down south. What the New Zealanders did would have been penalised every time in an English Premiership match.''

Under Caplan's interpretation, a marvellous match ensued. "If England's criticism was made on behalf of the game as a whole, it would carry more weight,'' Carter said. "But it was purely for selfish motives. I think they're worried that their defence has been found out and they want to get the referees sorted before the World Cup. If decoy runners make contact with a defender, then that is obstruction and the result is a penalty, but what the All Blacks did was smart, not illegal, and England's defence wasn't up to it. They're trying to put pressure on the International Board to change the laws but that would be bad for the game.

"Since professionalism, tries scored among the top nations in the world have dwindled and defences have been winning. South Africa had the best defensive record when they won the World Cup, Australia conceded only one try throughout the 1999 World Cup. There was a danger of rugby becoming dour. It's more of a contest if defences can be broken down and decoy moves allow that to happen.''

Phil Larder, England's defensive coach, worked with Carter under Graham Henry on the Lions' tour to Australia. "Phil hates decoy runners because he's not sure how to combat them,'' Carter added. "He tried to get Graham to have such ploys outlawed in Australia rather than attempt to organise a suitable defence. When you attack England, the last line of their defence is in line with the posts, giving the illusion of space, but it's a honey trap. If you try to take them on the outside, it rarely works because they push so quickly and are so well organised. The All Blacks opened them up.''

A few years ago, the authorities decided that if there was no obstruction, miss-moves, dummy scissors, etc, were permissible. Then they decided that, regardless whether obstruction was caused, decoys were against the letter of the law, but the southern hemisphere disagreed. The All Blacks argue that what they dois in the spirit of the law. In any case, it is far less contentious than the rolling maul, which uses a number of players in front of the ball carrier in what is a blatant, yet legal, case of obstruction.

For Jonah Lomu's first try, Tana Umaga cut back in from the left of a dummy run and Ben Blair did likewise, the ball going over their right shoulders, from Carlos Spencer to Keith Lowen to Lomu on the left wing. Umaga was again a decoy when Lomu scored his second try. If several defenders fell for it then the trick worked, but there was another big factor at play – Lomu. Given space by deception or not, he still had five defenders to beat or beat down.

"He's hungry again for tries,'' Steve Hansen, the Kiwi who coaches Wales, said. "He's a player who can do things many others can't. The way to stop him is not to give him any time and space.''

If John Mitchell, the New Zealand coach, knew a thing or two about England, Hansen is well briefed on the All Blacks, whom Wales meet at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday. The series started in 1905 when Wales won 3-0 in Cardiff (their last victory was in 1953) and the All Black Bob Deans had a try disallowed. Robbie Deans, the New Zealand coaching co-ordinator, is a great nephew of Bob. The All Blacks have never played Wales at the Millennium Stadium although a New Zealand A side won there two years ago. They were coached by Deans and Hansen. "It will be an exciting day,'' Hansen said. "The next best thing to coaching your own country must be coaching a team against your country. For Wales, it can be a benchmark.''

Hansen, appointed by Henry as assistant coach, was promoted with indecent haste at the beginning of the year when the Great Redeemer returned to New Zealand following a lost weekend in Dublin. Henry, now with Auckland, popped in for a chat during Wales' training session in Cardiff on Thursday.

Hansen took a lot out of a summer visit to South Africa, losing both Tests but by a narrow margin. His elevation of Colin Charvis from malcontent to captain may be inspired. They like the balance of the back row of Charvis, Dafydd Jones and Martyn Williams, which means they can see some signs of life after Scott Quinnell's retirement yesterday.

With skill and fitness levels rising, Hanson is beginning to sound like a crusader: "We are certainly growing as a team. It takes time but we're getting there by little steps. The squad and management want to give plenty of themselves and you can't ask for more than that.''