She is a professional rugby player from Arles. The kind of subject that comes up on the table several times per season, without any specialist finding a clear and definitive answer. But no, why don't teams use the drop more regularly when entering the scoring zone? But why, when they could save their forwards a lot of energy, but above all avoid losing the ball or being clumsy, do the openers not decide more often to place themselves in the axis of the poles to take a shot? kick that pays off as much as a penalty gleaned from strong shoulder blows? As proof, this season, only five drops were registered during the first eleven days (77 matches, therefore) of Top 14.
Starving? “Dropping is an option, of course. But it's true that when you're in this area of the pitch, you tend to want to play again to try to score a try.” detailed Saturday evening Maxime Petitjean, the Toulon head of strategy. And to mention more precisely the case of the RCT: “Maybe we are too greedy, because our philosophy is to score tries…” Result, in the opposing 30 meters, the Toulonnais never have the reflex to fix the defense one last time to shift their opener, always favoring one, two or three new periods of play to try to go to queen. At the risk of losing the ball and leaving with zero points. More risks for more points?
“Better to come away with three points than to lose a ball”
However in Perpignan, Enzo Hervé surprised the Catalan defense by opting for this missing option. From the 6e minute, while his forwards were no longer able to disrupt the usapiste pack, number 10 asked for the ball, and slammed a drop from 15 meters.
The first of the RCT since December 2023 (Jaminet) and a defeat against Northampton. But above all the first in Top 14 since April 2019, and a drop from Anthony Belleau against Grenoble. “I felt that the forwards were playing time after time but were not really moving forward, observed the RCT scorer after the match. I was in front of the posts, I told myself it was the easiest option to take points.”
Enough to allow his teammates to gain an advantage in the score, which they will never relinquish afterwards. “We came up against a defense that was making us difficult, we were struggling to get back into position and have dynamic balls, so when it's like that, it's better to leave with three points than with a penalty against us or a lost ball , welcomed Maxime Petijean. Dropping, we sometimes talk about it, but it's not a sector that we particularly work on. But I recognize that today [samedi Ndlr]it did us good.”
From there to imagine that in the long term, and particularly during away matches, the drop could once again enter into Toulon's strategy? “Maybe scoring three points against Perpignan could push the players to do it again in the future, concluded Petitjean. If anything, it reminds them that it’s an option.”
Especially since in addition to allowing them to score points that consume less energy than a try or a penalty, the fact that the drop enters the Toulon palette again would force defenses to monitor the 9-10 connection more… this which would in fact free up the outsiders, since instead of sliding automatically, the defenders would have to keep an eye on the axis of the Toulon field. Or how to put pragmatism at the service of movement.
