Block Right, Score Left

Starting position

Champions Cup, Leinster against Northampton, and the first of two moves from the same playbook. A five-metre penalty: no kick, we tap and play it by hand. The pack binds and drives hard right, three or four metres of shift, as if it were going to punch straight through the curtain at that exact spot. The defence buys it and slides with them — that was the trap. The ball comes back behind, on the blind side, to the 9 who stayed left: 10, then 12 who fixes the last defender and releases under pressure, and the winger only has to touch down in the corner, in space the forwards have just emptied at the other end of the field. A block sold on the right, a try scored on the left. Later in the match the same picture will be used to do exactly the opposite: see [Same Look, Score Right].