LIKE FASHION, RUGBY works in cycles.

Things that you thought were well out of style can suddenly become popular again overnight.

It happens with plays like the disguised inside pass that Ireland have helped to make cool again, but also with teams’ overall attacking frameworks.

Back in 2016, Connacht roared their way to a stunning Pro12 success playing some sensational attacking rugby in a 2-4-2 system.

As a quick reminder, the 2-4-2 numbers explain how a team’s eight forwards are grouped across the pitch during phase-play attack.

The backs then filter in around this framework, combining with the pods of forwards.

The 2-4-2 framework was popular in New Zealand, having been pioneered by the Crusaders and Canterbury, and many European teams subsequently tried to mimic what Connacht had done under Pat Lam.

But soon the game shifted to a huge focus on the 1-3-3-1 system, which became a standard attacking shape in phase play across the world.

From that framework, variations popped up.

The brilliant Japan team at the 2019 World Cup, whose attack was coached by Tony Brown, popularised the 1-3-2-2 system that was adopted by many other sides including Andy Farrell’s Ireland.

With 1-3-3-1 and 1-3-2-2 becoming so widespread, it seemed as if the 4-player pod – which we will refer to as the ’4-pod’ from here on – had disappeared altogether at the top of the game.

We had become hugely accustomed to seeing 3-player pods in nearly every team’s attacking play to the extent that things had become somewhat predictable.

But the past year has seen the 4-pod enjoy a resurgence. With teams like Leinster and Ireland sprinkling 4-pods into their play and with the Springboks – whose attack is coached by the aforementioned Tony Brown – getting success with their 1-4-2-1 system, a shift is underway. There have been spectacular results in a few instances.

Take the beautiful try that Ciarán Frawley finished for Leinster last weekend against Benetton.

Having just scored, Leinster receive the restart from Benetton and set up with a 4-pod to the left of the ruck.

Benetton’s defenders are accustomed to facing a 3-pod off the ruck in this situation, so even the sight of a 4-pod is unusual.

In a 3-pod, it would be Josh van der Flier who receives the pass from scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park nearly every time.

Van der Flier would then have options to carry the ball himself, tip-on a short pass to RG Snyman outside him, tip-in a short pass to Joe McCarthy inside him, or play a sweep pass out the back of Snyman to out-half Frawley who is set up ‘in the boot’.

But Leinster are keen to test Benetton’s defence a little wider out, targeting the seam between their widest forward and the first of their backline defenders, as highlighted below.

The 4-pod allows them to do that because Gibson-Park can rip a pass straight across the face of van der Flier to Snyman, instantly giving them additional width.

We can see how van der Flier attempts to sell the idea of himself as the receiver by raising his hands as if to catch the ball, even as it spins past him.

As he receives the pass instead, Snyman has the option of carrying the ball himself, tipping-on to Tadhg Furlong outside, or sweeping out the back to Frawley.

The Benetton defenders are already in reactive mode, trying to figure out exactly what Leinster are going to do and their lives are made more difficult by the fact that Leinster have another layer to their attack.

As we can see below, Garry Ringrose is beginning to run a direct line from deeper, while Jamie Osborne is moving to bounce out the back of Ringrose, both of them giving Frawley passing options if he receives the ball from Snyman.

And Snyman does play the sweep pass out the back of Furlong to Frawley, adding stress for Benetton as they attempt to adjust.

Benetton centre Malakai Fekitoa is the first of their backs outside the bunched forwards and he probably hasn’t expected to be so immediately required to make a big defensive decision after his team restarts.

Usually, the opposition carry once or twice close to the ruck using their 3-pods and then kick the ball out of their 22. Instead, Fekitoa is having to react to a totally different picture.

Fekitoa recognises that Ringrose is going to run a short line off Frawley and initially appears to have committed to dealing with Ringrose.

But Leinster out-half Frawley’s subtle skills on the ball confuse matters for Fekitoa.

Watch below how Frawley receives the ball from Snyman, dummies a pass out the back to Osborne, and straightens his run at the same time, ‘turning the corner’ to fix Benetton flanker Sebastien Negri.

Fekitoa buys that dummy out the back to Osborne and advances up beyond Ringrose, who is therefore free to scorch through as Frawley squares up, sits down Negri, and passes short to Ringrose. 

It’s a brilliant piece of playmaking from Frawley as he ‘double-pumps.’ Ringrose sprints upfield before firing an excellent pass to scrum-half Gibson-Park, who has worked up in support on the inside.

Gibson-Park shows his speed and then throws a delightful pass to Frawley, who has worked hard up the middle of the pitch after his first involvement.

It’s an outrageous pass from Gibson-Park given that he’s sprinting away from Frawley but still gets such power onto the ball and keeps it so low.

Frawley finishes in emphatic fashion as he catches, immediately gets the ball into his right hand to free his left for a powerful fend into the face of Benetton centre Tommaso Menoncello, and dives over.

Clearly, the skills of the players are essential here, from Gibson-Park’s initial pass to Snyman, the big lock’s sweep, Frawley’s playmaking, Ringrose’s timing, and those lovely passes in behind, as well as the fend.

But the 4-pod is also important because it gives Benetton an unfamiliar picture to deal with when they’re almost certainly just expecting Leinster to build to a kick after the restart.

This multi-option set-up means Leinster can get outside six defenders on the openside of the ruck in three passes and Benetton are unable to quell the attacking intent.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Leinster using a 4-pod in this ‘exit’ area of the pitch.

Back in January, athletic flanker Ryan Baird made a big linebreak in the Champions Cup pool clash with Stade Français when Leinster used a 4-pod in exactly the same position just after receiving a restart.

In this instance, Andrew Porter is the immediately obvious receiver of Gibson-Park’s pass, particularly given that he has promoted himself by shifting up ahead of McCarthy and hooker Dan Sheehan on either side of him.

That’s what Stade Français are expecting but instead, Gibson-Park skips the ball past Porter to Sheehan.

Sheehan has Baird running short, while out-half Sam Prendergast is bouncing out the back of Baird.

There’s no doubt about the best option for Sheehan here, given the huge hole in the Stade Français defence between their fourth and fifth defender.

Sheehan duly delivers the tip-on pass to put Baird away.

Baird ends up sprinting all the way into the Stade Français 22 after Leinster’s clever use of the 4-pod.

The following month, we saw Ireland using similar set-ups during the Six Nations.

And funnily enough, it was Baird who made a strikingly similar linebreak in Ireland’s win over Italy.

We’ve highlighted the 4-pod below.

While it’s the same position, the difference here is that Ireland use one of their backs to split the pod.

As highlighted below, wing James Lowe steps up as first receiver.

Out-half Jack Crowley is in the boot out the back of the pod, so there are now lots of different options.

Lowe can pass back inside to lock McCarthy, while he has three forwards outside him and Crowley out the back.

Italian lock Federico Ruzza looks to be aggressive by racing forward out of the line.

Ruzza appears to be blitzing up on Baird, anticipating a pass from Lowe to Baird.

But Ruzza leaves lots of space on his inside shoulder as Lowe drops a shorter pass to Caelan Doris, who is able to fix Italian prop Danilo Fischetti and then put Baird away with a second short pass.

This time, Baird makes it into the Italian half before he is tackled.

It’s worth stressing again that the decision-making and passing from Lowe and Doris, as well as Baird’s athleticism, are vital here but the 4-pod Ireland use clearly causes confusion for the Italian defence.

A week later against Wales, same position, another Baird linebreak.

Ireland use a back as first receiver again, Crowley this time, but the entire 4-pod sets up outside him rather than splitting.

As before, the obvious receiver of a pass from Crowley is James Ryan – who would be in the centre of the pod if this was a 3-pod.

That’s how Wales prop Dillon Lewis reads the situation, getting up out of the defensive line at speed to close up on Ryan.

But as Crowley fizzes the pass beyond Ryan to hooker Rónan Kelleher, Lewis’ linespeed has now left a chink of space on his outside.

Kelleher takes that space cleverly by surging forward, using his left arm to fend while he keeps the ball in his right free for an offload – knowing that Baird is outside him as part of the 4-pod.

And it means another linebreak for Baird as he accelerates past prop Gareth Thomas and up into the Wales half.

All the examples above come in the same situation – straight after restart receipt on the right-hand side and in the ‘exit’ area of the pitch from where teams usually kick.

But we’re seeing more and more 4-pods further upfield during phase play in recent times.

The Springboks have been particularly heavy users with their 1-4-2-1 attacking shape  under new attack coach Tony Brown this year.

The numbers 1-4-2-1 explain how the eight Boks forwards are split up across the width of the pitch during phase play.

In the illustration above, the Boks have the ball on their left-hand side and we see how the forwards are grouped. Obviously the backs – not included in this illustration – fit in around this framework.

When playing from right to left, the framework adjusts and looks like the below.

While the two Boks flankers nearly always take up the wide ’1′ roles out in the 15-metre channels, it’s worth highlighting that the positioning of the six forwards involved in the 4-pod and 2-pod appears to be fluidly interchangeable.

So let’s see it in action.

Ireland got first-hand experience of the Boks’ new shape just minutes into the first Test in July when the South Africans created a sweeping try finished brilliantly by Kurt-Lee Arendse.

The Boks receive a kick from Ireland and back row Siya Kolisi – the ’1′ out on the left -  is part of the breakdown.

As the Boks then play infield, we see their 4-pod off scrum-half Faf de Klerk.

De Klerk passes to tighthead Frans Malherbe who carries into the Irish forwards.

Perhaps the biggest issue for Ireland here is that they seem to expect the Boks to kick – as they might have done in the past – but instead, the South Africans play to width on the next phase.

De Klerk passes behind the 2-pod [yellow below] to out-half Handré Pollard.

Even as Pollard receives the ball, the kick appears to be on but the out-half passes to his right instead.

And now we get to see how flanker Pieter-Steph Du Toit fills the right-hand side ’1′ role out in the 15-metre channel.

Du Toit is well suited to this wide role thanks to his speed, mobility, power, and handling skills.

He shows as much in this instance as centre Damian de Allende passes to him before du Toit offloads back inside.

De Allende is tackled and there’s suddenly a threat of Ireland turning over the ball, so the Boks adjust slightly out of their 1-4-2-1 shape.

Watch below how number eight Kwagga Smith arrives from the top left of the shot to add another body to the breakdown.

Smith is initially setting up as part of the 4-pod infield but feels he needs to leave that role to secure the ruck.

As a result, another of the Boks forwards shifts into that 4-pod, which is highlighted below as the South Africans move the ball left.

This time, the Boks use a sweep pass from hooker Bongi Mbonambi out the back to out-half Pollard as they immediately look to get the ball wide left.

Because Smith has had to go into the ruck wide on the right, the Boks now don’t have an exact 2-pod outside Pollard, with Malherbe [yellow below] on his own in that position.

Pollard plays out the back of Malherbe to fullback Willie le Roux, who in turn sends Jesse Kriel into space.

And now we get a chance to see Kolisi on the ball in his wide role as the left-hand-side ’1′ in the Boks’ shape.

Like du Toit, he is skillful and athletic enough to excel in space out wide, as he shows here with a slick catch-pass to Arendse.

Ireland’s defence is reeling and Arendse seals the deal with a superb finish as he scorches past Calvin Nash and steps back inside fullback Osborne.

For the Boks to score such a sweeping try so early in their first big game under new attack coach Brown, with his new shape, would have created major belief among the players that they were on the right path.

As Rassie Erasmus’ men then swept to their Rugby Championship success, losing just once, they continued to do damage with their 1-4-2-1 attack system all the way through to their superb title-sealing win over Argentina two weekends ago.

There were many examples of their 1-4-2-1 in that win but Cheslin Kolbe’s thrilling try in the first half stands out.

After fielding a 22-metre drop-out, the Boks move the ball to their right and Kolisi helps to clear out the breakdown, part of his job as the wide forward.

Now the Boks go back infield to their 4-pod, with out-half Manie Libbok in the boot offering the option for a sweep pass.

As we see below, scrum-half Jaden Hendrikse passes to the third man in the pod, lock Ruan Nortjé, who has the option of a tip-on pass to loosehead Ox Nché.

Nché is a threat with his run from a deeper position, ensuring the Pumas are on alert.

As Nortjé opts to carry, watch what hooker Bongi Mbonambi does as he works across from his position as the first forward in the 4-pod.

Mbonambi recognises that he’s not needed to clear out the ruck and instead swings behind it to offer a fresh option for Hendrikse on the next phase.

Mbonambi runs a short line outside Hendrikse as the scrum-half scoots away from the ruck, ensuring the Pumas have another threat to be concerned about. This line Mbonambi takes is becoming an increasingly common feature of the Boks’ attack.

They have improved hugely in this sense with their use of the 4-pod. When the fourth forward isn’t needed at the ruck directly in front of them, they have become better at reading that and redirecting their focus elsewhere.

Mbonomabi’s work helps to attract Pumas’ eyes inwards as the Boks now use their 2-pod for a direct carry off Hendrikse.

Hendrikse picks out number eight Jasper Wiese outside tighthead Malherbe for a powerful carry over the gainline.

Malherbe and Mbonambi resource the breakdown and now Hendrikse decides to have a snipe for further gains.

On sixth phase of the attack, du Toit gets on the ball as first receiver out in the left-hand 15-metre channel.

Libbok steps in as the scrum-half to pass to du Toit, who charges forward.

Libbok again plays scrum-half as the Boks come back off the left-hand touchline.

The 4-pod have organised themselves to his right.

Now we see another variation within that pod as Wiese tips-on to Etzebeth for an impactful carry.

Again, note how Etzebeth starts from a deep position to accelerate onto the ball.

Rather than playing to the openside, the Boks decide to go back down the shortside where du Toit has held his ’1′ position rather than chasing the ball.

The blindside flanker receives the pass from Kriel and powers infield away from the touchline as the Boks’ progress continues.

We can see below that Malherbe [red] is moving towards the breakdown as du Toit carries.

Similarly to the example against Ireland involving Smith, Malherbe feels he may be needed in the ruck. That means adjustment from the other forwards out of shot – again the 2-pod is reduced to just one forward.

Malherbe isn’t needed in the end but ruck security is of prime importance.

As it is, the Boks again come back infield to their 4-pod.

As highlighted below, Libbok is in the boot once again.

And now we see another variation from the 4-pod as Libbok receives the sweep pass from Mbonambi while Etzebeth and Wiese attract attention just outside the hooker.

This gives Libbok time to assess his options.

He has Nché running the short option as the single man left for the 2-pod, with everyone having adjusted infield one slot when Malherbe headed for the breakdown.

But with Pumas flanker Pablo Matera opting to blitz up from the edge of the narrowed Pumas defence, Libbok is calm in double-pumping and playing out the back of Nché, in behind Matera to fullback Aphelele Fassi.

The Pumas are on the ropes and Fassi swings a pass wide to right wing Kolbe.

Note that Kolisi has held his role as the wide forward on the right-hand side.

And Kolisi even provides a hint of distraction for Argentina outside centre Matías Moroni as he tracks across to try and tackle Kolbe.

That proves impossible as Kolbe’s stunning sidestep beats Moroni and he has the power to finish through the despairing effort of Tomás Albornoz and Matera.

It’s brilliant, flowing play as the Springboks to score on ninth phase of a sustained attack that lasts just over a minute and sees the Pumas chasing shadows.

It’s not the kind of score the South Africans had generally been associated with during their back-to-back World Cup triumphs but Brown has brought a new slant to their attacking play.

The 1-4-2-1 system has helped these skillful, athletic Springboks players to flourish, threatening defences in a fresh way.

Interestingly, the Boks weren’t the only team using 4-pods during the Rugby Championship, with the Pumas also having some success.

We get a good example below as they break through the Wallabies during their 67-27 hammering of Joe Schmidt’s side.

This happened directly after the Wallabies had failed to field a Pumas restart so it’s not part of a wider phase-play attack, but Felipe Contepomi’s side snap into nice shape as the turnover is secured.

The option the Pumas use is of particular interest as they hit the second man in the pod, hooker Julián Montoya, who then skips across the face of the third man to connect with the fourth.

We can see how the Wallabies are caught flat-footed and disconnected by this option as they try to organise after the restart loss.

The Australian defenders are used to the second forward in a pod tipping onto the player directly outside but Montoya’s option sees them caught on the hop.

While the circumstances are fairly unique here, we have regularly seen the Pumas using 4-pods in their phase play attack too.

In the instance above, we see a tip-in pass from the second man in the pod, with two options outside accelerating at the line from deeper positions.

The Wallabies cover the inside pass well but an offload allows the Pumas to play away.

Their attacking framework appears to be extremely fluid, with a whole range of options depending on the situation. Often, they play off the touchline through 3-pods but 4-pods are certainly part of the blend.

Going back to our starting point with Leinster, it has been interesting to see a seemingly growing flexibility in this regard too. Take this example from their win over Benetton.

This is on second phase after fullback Hugo Keenan has fielded a Benetton kick.

Out-half Frawley has four forwards outside him and a fifth, Andrew Porter, on his inside.

Frawley skips to the third forward on his outside, hooker Kelleher, who offloads to the fourth, back row Jack Conan. 

Despite all the forwards in the vicinity, Leinster get turned over at the ensuing breakdown but it’s still an intriguing sight.

And in their URC opener against Edinburgh, we saw a play that brings us right back to the example we started this article with. The shape below should be familiar.

It’s exactly the same as the shape Leinster used to send Ringrose sprinting upfield for that Frawley try against Benetton and the sequence of passes is almost identical.

Gibson-Park hits the third man in the 4-pod, Conan in this instance. Conan sweeps out the back to out-half Prendergast. Rather than playing centre Charlie Tector at the front door, Prendergast goes out the back to Osborne who is met by firm Edinburgh defence.

Still, it’s fascinating to see the same Leinster pattern play out upfield as they use a 4-pod in the Edinburgh half.

This example comes on fourth phase from a lineout attack so it’s part of the ‘map’ that attack coach Tyler Bleyendaal laid out for his players in their preparation for the game but perhaps we will see Leinster use the 4-pod more fluidly in phase play in the future.

Between smart exit plays and the increasingly popular 1-4-2-1 system, the 4-pod is back with a bang.