{"id":822902,"date":"2026-07-25T12:14:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T12:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/822902\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T12:14:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T12:14:18","slug":"sam-warburton-explains-how-other-teams-are-catching-up-to-new-zealands-superstrength","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/822902\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Warburton explains how other teams are \u2018catching up to New Zealand\u2019s superstrength\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

British and Irish Lions<\/a> legend Sam Warburton has given his seal of approval to the improved level of attacking rugby produced in the new Nations Championship.<\/p>\n

The former Wales skipper said that he found the array of matches fascinating across the three successive July Saturdays and concluded that other teams had now caught up with what he described as traditionally having been the All Blacks\u2019 superstrength \u2013 the ability to create clean breaks.<\/p>\n

He also revealed the brutal way that ex-Welsh boss Warren Gatland put an end to Liam Williams\u2019 glut of on-pitch cards, suggesting that England head coach Steve Borthwick must adopt similar measures and show tough love to his players if there are to draw a line under a run of 14 yellow cards and one red in their eight matches so far in 2026.<\/p>\n

Providing his review of the Southern Series, which ended with France leading the Northern Hemisphere table on 12 points, one point ahead of Scotland, and the 15-point South Africa topping the Southern Hemisphere table on points difference ahead of New Zealand, Warburton gave a glowing verdict on the three rounds of matches. His only criticism was the level of travelling for some of the European teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cNonsensical\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the travelling involved was draining and at times nonsensical, and it is obviously a competition that is weighted in favour of the southern hemisphere teams in that regard, because when they come up north in the autumn they will not face anywhere near the same amount of travel,\u201d he wrote in his latest column in The Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That criticism aside, though, Warburton was thrilled by the style of rugby produced, vindicating his belief a few years ago that the game would overcome the ugly, kick-heavy emphasis that existed at Rugby World Cup 2019 and during the 2021 British and Irish Lions series in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Of the 18 recent matches played in New Zealand<\/a>, Australia, Japan, South Africa, Argentina and the UK, Warburton focused on the 10 most competitive encounters and concluded that rugby had transformed for the better, delighting in how much free-flowing play was generated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn those 10 matches, the winning side always made more metres and more clean breaks. It sounds obvious, but that may not have been the case in 2019, when kick metres were more important. Winning teams are now making an average of 15 clean breaks per game.<\/p>\n

Test power rankings: Springboks top the charts \u2018in every department\u2019 after \u2018sublime\u2019 Nations Championship while France \u2018set alarm bells ringing\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was playing, if the opposition team had done that to Wales<\/a> and opened us up as much as that, our defence coach, Shaun Edwards<\/a>, would have been going mad. Sides making more than 20 clean breaks is now quite normal. It is a massive change, and a great thing in terms of entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doling out the congratulations for this altered emphasis, Warburton congratulated World Rugby for what he described as beneficial subtle tweaks, like the goal-line drop-out instead of a scrum when the ball is held up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was no surprise to find that every winning team was more effective in the opposition 22, and also that when those clean breaks were being made, teams were scoring nearly 40 per cent of the time. That was always New Zealand\u2019s superstrength \u2013 their ability to convert clean breaks into tries \u2013 but the rest are now catching up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Wales, we used to aim for 90 per cent tackle completion when I was playing. Losing teams these days are often coming in at below 70 per cent, and even the winning teams are somewhere between 81 and 83 per cent. Games are so much more open and broken up now, and even the great defence coaches such as Shaun and Andy Farrell have their hands full.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ex-Irish ref boss blasts \u2018shocking\u2019 Luke Jacobson call as All Blacks flanker escapes citing<\/a><\/p>\n

Warburton went on to reference how winning teams had a speed of ruck ball under three seconds for 50 per cent of their rucks, had better lineout launches and high kick metres from fewer kicks before he dwelt at length on the penalty count, highlighting that winning teams averaged about 10 penalties conceded per game and losers an average of 12.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the penalties conceded were for offside, which makes sense because teams falter in that area when they cannot cope with the speed of ball. Good attacking play and speed of ball put defences under so much pressure,\u201d he reckoned.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as\u00a0a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, players just make silly mistakes. Much has been made of England\u2019s poor discipline, but some of their yellow cards \u2013 I am thinking here of Tommy Freeman and Guy Pepper against South Africa<\/a> \u2013 were so unnecessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe Steve Borthwick needs to show some tough love to his England players. I remember before Wales played Scotland once when our head coach, Warren Gatland<\/a>, suddenly produced a montage of Liam Williams\u2019s yellow and red cards.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bit awkward, but Gatland finished by saying that Liam would never play for Wales again if he carried on doing that. It was a strong message for sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe winning teams this summer averaged 0.4 yellow cards per game, the losers 1.2. Cards are hurting England massively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray Mexted highlights key factor which All Blacks have improved in and must master to beat Springboks<\/a><\/p>\n

Warburton concluded by stating there was no single answer over why teams are better able to attack these days, but he highlighted huge improvements in the handling skills of forwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cForwards are so comfortable playing the ball out the back, whereas I know in my time so many players in that position just had to truck the ball up because they weren\u2019t confident enough of making that play.<\/p>\n

\u201cNowadays any player who has the ball has probably four options in attack \u2014 carry, a tip pass inside or out, and a pass out the back. Getting the ball into space is so much easier when the skill sets from No1 to 23 are so much greater.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe result is that we are seeing much better spectacles. The Nations Championship<\/a> has undoubtedly added to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Nigel Owens calls for action after \u2018totally unacceptable\u2019 referee \u2018abuse\u2019 following Argentina\u2019s disallowed try decision against England<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British and Irish Lions legend Sam Warburton has given his seal of approval to the improved level of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,1208,818,1182,229246,1736,44,760,210939,85],"class_list":["post-822902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-england","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-nations-championship","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sam-warburton","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}