#fly half

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When?

Normally the cross-field kick is instinctive. You have to react to what you’re seeing. It can happen fast and you might be rushed, so you’ve got to look for cues. The main thing to look out for is space behind the opposition back line.

This often comes after your team has made a line break and are firmly on the front foot. Look for opposition players out of position. Maybe the fullback has had to make a tackle or the wingers have been sucked into a ruck.

Communication

As a fly half, it’s quite difficult to communicate with a guy on the wing, so often you have to do it non verbally: a winger putting his hand up or making eye contact. If the winger is signalling for the ball, you’ve got to trust he can get there.

Technique

There are options. You can hang the ball up high or try a kick pass where the ball travels low, fast and doesn’t stay in the air that long. The kick pass is good because it gives the defence less time to react and get into position.

To do a cross-field kick pass, drop the ball, point your foot to the ground and make contact with the ball quite low on your boot. You want to kick through the ball and land on your kicking foot, using your momentum to step forward. Kick the ball pretty hard. Pointing your toe will negate the distance you’d normally get from kicking it hard. If you use your weight and momentum, the ball generally goes straight.

Practice

Gauging the distance comes with practice. If you’ve got a mate you can kick to him but that will wear thin quickly. At Quins our wingers hate having to practise cross-kicking again and again.

Use a stick or something, anything that will give you a target to lift the ball over. Vary your starting position. Sometimes you might need to just dink it, sometimes the kick will cover 75% of the pitch. Just focus on your accuracy.

You want the winger to be able to run onto the ball without having to break stride. If you’re doing that and getting it on the money, the winger is going to score time and time again.

Match Play

It gives defences something extra to think about and even if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t mean that it’s the wrong decision.