Choosing your tactics?

This is my fourth season of BR and I don't really feel any further on interms of best selecting tactics and defense types against my opponents. I have mainly stuck to the same ones each week. I have been resting players/WNWIM teams I can't beat to maintain high energy for my better players in must win games. This has worked ok to a point, I have consistantly placed a spot or so above where my rankings at the begining of the season (average CSR?) would place me and have certainly beat teams with a better average CSR. I do however think its time I improved this area.

Any more experienced managers want to talk about how they choose their tactics?

scout opponents however deeply you can starting with csr as an indicator and then Height , wieght and discipline.

target weak areas in terms of csr and if you have time go into players stats to give you a better indication , if you have the heavier pack by a good margin i would tend to play forwards based but if you also look likely to have the upper hand in the rucks play expansively. this will mean your players will be able to keep up with the rucks from width to width and gaps should generally open.

manage your discipline well if its worse than the opposition try to stick to playing by the book but if its better push normal or even agressive.

dont kick above 15-20% as a guideline i say, decide how strong your lneout is against each opposition and change kicking accordingly,
note that up and unders force knockons too if you want to let your pack scrummage allot.

if your lineout is going to be coming of second best play less expansive rugby becouse this will avoid going into touch, and the opposite applies if you have a stronger lineout you can confidently play wide rugby and not worry about going into touch too much.

play the weather well it makes a big differance personally ask me or another experienced manager about the weather becouse it could ake some explaining and tactics will always vary depending on your opposition.

you already seem to manage energy well so continue doing that

in games where you are the favourite you can play high risk high reward rugby but dont get too cocky, i tend to prefer conservative rugby in these game and you can bully your way to victory by paying the percentages.

as the underdog test your luck and force the opposition to win the game by playing a more high risk game which will generally involve more expansive and creative.

hope this is a little taster, i am always available via pm if you want me to clarify anything. and do remember opinions vary so gather a few different ones and then go with your own instincts.

What he said.

Wing summed it up perfectly, pm me if you need any extra advice.

Thanks for that, much appreciated.

One question that imediately springs to mind as you said to target weak areas of CSR, how exactly would you go about that?

Well to put it in basic terms, say your pack has on average 10k advantage on theirs, and your backs are more or less even, then you would play to your strength/their weakness - your forwards, by playing a high PnG and Driving game.

More specifically, if you notice that one winger is much weaker than the other, you could play your best winger facing him, so to increase the chance of missed tackles/linebreaks. Stuff like that.

If you look at your opponents previous fixtures you can see the lineup he used, from there you can check each player and there CSR height/weight etc. So if you see his Wingers have significantly lower CSR you might wanna up your expansive plays or maybe you notice he has a weak Center probably wanna up your creative plays a little bit.

Is there any difference between using PnG or driving depending on areas of relative weakness in the pack?

I wouldn't say so.. altho PnG will probably involve your backrow and scrum-half more and driving maybe more pack as a whole but I couldn't say for certain

Just wanted a say a quick thanks for the advice in this thread. Over the last couple of weeks I've beaten a Div III and a Div IV team with a much higher CSR squad in the cup

That's awesome dude keep up the good work!

nice one blandy