In an article written by The Athletic’s Michael Walker, Brentford’s Director of Recruitment Lee
Dykes recounted how, during a coaching seminar held at Manchester City’s training ground,
Pep Guardiola had revealed an interest in rugby,
describing how he used the sport as an unlikely reference point with his players.
“‘Rugby is brilliant’, Guardiola reportedly told an attending coach,
who had given himself away by wearing a team shirt. ‘I teach my players rugby’.
“You get the ball, you run towards the man, you draw him in and you pass’.”
The anecdote was brief, but Guardiola’s interest has been corroborated.
For instance, after Japan beat South Africa in one of the biggest World Cup shocks in history,
their then-coach, Eddie Jones, revealed that he had visited Guardiola during the
Catalan’s time at Bayern Munich, taking the opportunity to watch the first-team train.
"Rugby and soccer are very similar in that you always want to move the ball into space
and Bayern Munich and his previous team Barcelona played the most fantastic
passing game you have ever seen. The principles are exactly the same.”
Exactly the same? The sports are historically entwined, but
they have some very fundamental differences – and rugby union is football’s sworn social enemy,
so stories of them cheerfully borrowing from each other are very rare.
Nevertheless, the crossover between elite sports often greater than assumed.
One area of interest is recovery. Guardiola was asked about Jones’ visit to Bayern back in 2019,
during England’s run to that year’s World Cup final. He recalled it fondly,
but also revealed that he planned to invite the coach to Manchester City’s Etihad Complex
after the tournament and was particularly curious as to how rugby teams were able
to play so many high-intensity in such a short space of time.
"I will ask him how they can regenerate the players like they do after the games.
How can they survive?" Guardiola said.
Highly pertinent given football’s issues with burnout and its increasingly congested calendar.
More interesting, though, is the tactical influence. Guardiola cheerfully admits to not
really understanding the game’s rules and, given how granular they can be, who really blames him.
But rugby’s use of space is a concept which is easy to understand,
so too how its players use the timing and depth of pass, and also their teammates to maximise it.
Eddie Jones’ Japan were an especially good example. On a player-by-player basis,
they were clearly inferior to the South African side. They also gave up a significant size and
weight advantage too, meaning that – like so many Guardiola teams – their main currencies
were technical ability and ball movement. And there’s no better example than that side’s most
famous moment: the try that won them that famous game in Brighton.
In rugby, the ball can only be passed sideways and backwards,
with the ultimate aim of crossing the goalline and with the last play
of the game against South Africa, this is the attacking situation Japan faced.
South Africa had a player in the sin-bin at the time, so it was 15 players against
14. Japan were able to further manipulate that advantage, though,
by running towards the outside shoulders of their markers, engaging them before releasing a pass,
and thus preventing the defence from simply shifting from one side to the other.
It’s the “get the ball, run towards the man, you draw him in and pass” philosophy
that Guardiola referenced at that Manchester City seminar.
And it rewarded Japan: South Africa were left with too much space to defend,
and the try was scored in the opposite corner from where the move began.
The message is obvious: space has to be found and opportunities have to be constructed. In rugby, as
in football, when the ball is passed matters, as well as to where and to whom. That’s true when a
team is trying to break down a deep defence, when it’s attempting to cut through midfield lines,
or when it’s faced with a high-press. Watch the way Ilkay Gundogan draws his man before playing
a pass, for instance, and notice how often that opponent is taken completely out of the game.
That isn’t to say that such traits are direct result of Guardiola’s admiration for rugby or have
even been influenced by it. Ascribing it too much influence over his coaching would be ludicrous.
As it would be to pretend that rugby invented the notion of dragging in defenders or utilising
space. But that’s not the point: rugby shows the value of these concepts in a very obvious
and relatable way, making it very believable that Guardiola would occasionally use the sport as a
teaching tool – even briefly, just as a change of tone for players who have grown weary of hearing
the same concepts described in the same way. Like watching a video at end of school lesson, perhaps.
And that’s particularly true given the way Guardiola wants his teams to play
and the defensive tactics those sides often come up against.
His teams are often comprised of smaller players, who are dependent on space, positioning and ball
rotation, and who often face similar challenges week-to-week. For Manchester City, as it was for
Barcelona and Bayern Munich, it’s normal to see a defence in a low block. If defenders in that
system aren’t properly engaged or passes aren’t timed or positioned well enough, attacking play
can quickly become lateral and ineffective. Given how often Guardiola presumably has to
make this point to his players, it’s important that he has a few different ways of doing so.
But does any of this mean that he’s preparing for games by watching Six
Nations matches and constructing his gameplan around rugby concepts?
Of course not. But Guardiola has long been borrowing from other sports.
At Barcelona, he would regularly swap notes with the heads of other departments within
the club – basketball, for instance, and water polo. Johan Cruyff, Guardiola’s great mentor,
used to regularly have coffee in the Barcelona ice rink with the club’s handball coach.
So, rugby is just another influence and, from the players’ perspective,
perhaps occasionally offers a different angle and a new perspective on overly
familiar ideas that success in their sport, as well many others depends upon.