Justin Marshall's Chalkboard: Chiefs must halt wings' charge

Waisake Naholo on the attack against the Crusaders. Photo / Getty

The Chiefs' challenge against the Highlanders tomorrow night will be to negate the various ways the Highlanders employ their excellent wings.

It seems now that wings in the modern game are so versatile and such good ball-players that they're encouraged to get around the field and make themselves available as much as possible.

That's been progressive but what's becoming equally prominent is the ability from a set piece to bring in the winger as a first receiver - an area in which the Highlanders excel through both Waisake Naholo and Patrick Osborne.

The Highlanders are adept at getting both men on the ball from scrums as a first receiver, allowing them to either carry or distribute and be a ball-player like a first five.

The benefits of that sees a team using all seven attacking players in the line, rather than a winger having to make their way across the field or start deep and make their way in.

And I can see why the Highlanders would want these players in the game as much as possible - they're quick, they've got good footwork and they sure aren't small. If you look at Naholo or Osborne, they're over 100kg. They're big, they're fast, they're powerful and they've got good footwork.

So the Chiefs' challenge will be to negate the pair's impact. Since using their wingers in that capacity is not something the Chiefs do as often, they need to think about the defensive design required to counter such an approach.

And they way to do that, as illustrated in the diagram, is to make sure their halfback doesn't get drawn into the scrum too much.

Most of the times the Highlanders use this formation is off the scrum, so it's the responsibility of the halfback and the flanker to get out and look after that winger.

It's going to be up to Brad Weber, Sam Cane and, to a degree, Liam Messam to make sure they meet that extra player and look after that area of the field, so the Highlanders aren't able to exploit that hole inside.

If the halfback gets too close to the scrum, he can't get to that winger. Which then means the first five has to turn in and try to make a tackle with his inside shoulder, and he can easily be stepped because he's not expecting to have to make that tackle. It just creates a lot of problems.

The defensive team can't afford to bring their other winger across, because it leaves them vulnerable on the blindside, so it's the responsibility of the halfback to make sure he doesn't get too close to the scrum.

Because of the laws of the game, he can't be more than a metre or so away, but he certainly can't be preoccupied chasing the No8 and trying to be disruptive at the back of the scrum when the Highlanders have that formation. He has to be aware of the winger instead.