The first standing coach in a professional game to utter the phrase was Wales head honcho Warren Gatland. “You have to earn the right to go wide,” he argued in the first years of his tenure. It has since moved into the common currency and become the mantra of collision-based footy.
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Very few care to discuss the hurling because of Gatland’s remarkable run of results in his first spell: a Six Nations title in his first tilt in 2008; then five more, including three Grand Slams during his 12-year tenure. Wales have reached the semi-finals of the World Cup twice, in 2011 and 2019, and were even briefly ranked number one in the world.
This was indeed rich fodder for Welsh supporters who had been hungry for success since the halcyon years of the 1970s. During the 27-year drought that followed, the rugby gods too rarely heeded Neath Valley folk singer Max Boyce’s advice to remove the sliding roof of the magnificent Principality Stadium “when Wales attack – so they can watch us play”. Instead, they took their own advice and looked away.
Gatland brought Craig White with him from Wasps, along with an army of strength and conditioning coaches. The Welsh youth academies he helped set up began pumping out a factory-fitted line of huge gym-built athletes. Gatland has done the unthinkable: he has changed the character of rugby in Wales at the highest level from the Olympic nectar of the Carwyn James-inspired 15-man game to a war of attrition, conflict, straight from Hades.
Suddenly the Welsh supporters found themselves worshiping the shrine of power; taking pride in winning what former Wales and Lions skipper Sam Warburton still fondly calls “the alpha competition”. Wales fielded the biggest set of three-quarters ever seen in planet rugby, including Jamie Roberts, Jonathan Davies, George North and Alex Cuthbert: all four stood somewhere between 6ft 2in 6ft 6in, and none of the quartet weighed a biscuit under 105kg. Roberts, North and the forwards punched holes on the ‘exhaust’ across one side of the field, the other big backs, and Taulupe Faletau or Justin Tipurić finished them off on the ‘stretch’ down the other.
The formula even worked, at least for a while, against the mighty Springboks. Between November 2014 and November 2018, the sun shone, the roof was fully retracted and the men in red won five of the six matches they played against South Africa. There was one caveat. Gatland’s plan never worked against his alma mater New Zealand. Over 12 years at Waikato Men’s Watch, New Zealand won 12 games and Wales won none.
The All black people era Graham Henry/Steve Hansen did not primarily rely on power to win. The emphasis in New Zealand was based on compensating the attacker before contact rather than trying to bring him down; footwork and crossing the line; varying the length of passes from the nine to target defenders near the arm, especially when Aaron Smith took over at half-time; and a finer, more interdependent sense of connection between forwards and backs in the two lines of attack.
The ‘Invincibles’ followed the maxim of Australian World Cup winner Bob Dwyer: all you had to do was earn the right to target the space you wanted to attack, wherever that space was. And you can do it with your feet, hands or even putting the ball in the rack.
For South African fans still scratching their heads over how the All Blacks managed to outscore the Springboks by 17 tries to 14 in a series where they lost almost every physical contest that mattered, here’s your answer. Dave Rennie’s men earned the right to target the areas they wanted to attack.
The WXV Global Series the meeting of two finalists from the last World Cup final, England and Canada, at Sandy Park, Exeter, expertly testified to the truth of Dwyer’s axiom. Canada lost the previous matchup decisively, 33-13, as their unpredictable rack-and-run game crumbled against the Red Roses’ stout bulwarks of physicality.
On that fateful afternoon at the Allianz Stadium, Kévin Rouet’s team collided with supremely conditioned powerhouse athletes competing in by far the best domestic competition in the world, and finished second.
Since that hard lesson in West London, Rouet has sought to infiltrate PWR secretly. He joined Saracens as attack coach and helped the club to its first PWR title since 2022, then convinced Sarries director of rugby Alex Austerberry to cross the Atlantic to coach Canada’s defence. When Austerberry asked, “Do you think I could come for a few weeks?”, Rouet seized the moment, “You can come for a whole year if you want!”
Like Jonah in the belly of the whale, the Canadian supremo was learning the nature of the beast from within, and not everyone at the RFU was happy about it. When he took up his role at Barnet, the union initially withheld England Women’s training data because it could give Canada an on-field advantage at international level. Nathan Smith has joined his staff from Loughborough Lightning. Ahead of Canada’s WXV opener against Scotland, Trailfinders Women’s coach Barney Maddison appeared in the Canadian camp.
Since the World Cup final, the number of Canadian women signed to PWR clubs has increased from 16 to 25, and Rouet himself has not bothered to learn how the best league in the world works.
“For me, the goal is very simple and it’s no secret: girls spend 80% of their time in a PWR environment. I think it’s important that we have this relationship to ensure that both environments benefit from each other. It’s a win-win situation.
“It’s about relationships and helping the girls have a great schedule when they spend 80% of their time (in PWR clubs). That’s my goal.”
As his captain Sophie de Goede pointedly added: “It’s not like we’re coming to try and spy in any way. It’s a very selfish pursuit of trying to get better for the national team.”
“PWR makes the most sense. I think it’s the same for a lot of Canadians, so we go there and learn a lot and hopefully bring something back to the clubs we’re at (back home).”
De Goede may have to upgrade his view of Canada as dark horses (before the World Cup) and underdogs (before the World Cup finals) to front-runners or joint favorites after Saturday’s 26-26 draw.
Canada gave the Red Roses a lesson in how to target the spaces you want to attack, even when you don’t have as much power as your opponents. England decisively won the battle for meters after contact, with 68% of their progress coming from first-contact efforts by forwards, compared to Canada’s 28%.
The visitors won the battles they wanted to win when the attacking play progressed in the wider channels of 15-5m. In triples and with 13, through prominent players such as Flo Symonds and Asia Hogan-Rochester, they ‘earned’ 232 m to England’s 74 m and four clean breaks to England’s two. When the two attacking sides moved the ball from midfield into either of the 15-5 meter channels, England had two positive outcomes (two tries) and seven negatives, turning over on six occasions. Canada had seven positives (including two tries and four line breaks) and one turnover.
One of the problems with collision-winning focus is that it exhausts peripheral awareness widely, and the litmus test for England arrived on the back of a 67th-minute turnaround.th minutes, while the game was reaching its climax.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) September 20, 2026
There’s a five-on-two overlap down the short side with just 20 meters to run, but the women in white can find nothing better than tamely trotting the ball into touch.
In contrast, the Canadians got the first opportunities in the 15-5 meter corridor.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) September 20, 2026
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) September 20, 2026
Canada gained just 11 meters on five midfield carries in those two clips, with DaLeake Menin’s sneaky pick and go up the middle in the first instance. But the real target area is a true 15-5m zone, with the aim of bringing winger Hogan-Rochester one-on-one with any England defender. It’s the same attitude that the All Blacks of the golden age espoused with such talents as Julian Savea, Sitiveni Sivivatu and Joe Rokokoko in their ranks. One on one was more than good enough.
The same pattern was repeated throughout the longer second half of the game.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) September 20, 2026
Of the seven phases, the sequence continues, all three phases of the midcourt collision are neutral or negative, interrupted only by another short gainer near the cancer by Menin. But all three wide entries are positive and take play all the way from the edge of the Canadian’s final third to a position deep inside England’s 22.
The icing on the cake was an outstanding shot of a back-and-forth interaction in the left corridor from 15-5 meters per hour.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) September 20, 2026
There is no gain on the winning line and wide play is not ‘earned’ in the gospel according to Gatland. But give the extraordinary athlete and footballer that is De Goede a sniff one-on-one on the edge and you will pay the ultimate price.
The heat of the recent Greatest Rivalry series may be cooling, but one question still simmers: how did the All Blacks beat the Springboks when they lost so many physical contests? The answer is that you don’t have to believe in Gatland or Rassie Erasmus, or worship exclusively at the shrine of power. Other religions are not only accessible, but full of life that they are trying to achieve. The Canadian women are catching up with the Red Roses despite being second best on the power play and fully deserved their success.