Justin Marshall's chalkboard: How Osborne can influence the southern derby

Highlander's wing Patrick Osborne. Photo / Peter McIntosh

I am going to take a look at the big South Island derby this week and focus on an in-form player, Highlanders wing Patrick Osborne.

One of the hardest things about being an outside back is that sometimes play just doesn't run your way and there are times when it seems the harder you try to get involved, the more the ball avoids you.

The Highlanders have manipulated a ploy around scrum time that ensures Osborne is a factor. In keeping with the ideal requirements for a modern wing, Osborne is tall, strong and quick off the mark. He can make an outside break and has a strong fend. He's a guy you want in the action - Jamie Joseph and his coaching team make sure that he is.

If you look at the illustration, you'll see how they create opportunities for him off attacking scrums.

Rather than aligning Osborne in the usual position for a blindside wing, which is either on the blind giving him about 3-4 metres to work with, or behind the first- or second-fives, the Highlanders will have him behind the halfback and No 8.

This gives them myriad options. They can still run the blind, with Osborne darting with the halfback. He can also play first receiver on the open side, taking the pass direct from either halfback or no 8. The advantage of him playing first receiver in this situation, and what makes it harder to defend, is down to where he starts.

If the Highlanders have won good, clean scrum ball, by the time he gets the ball he is at full pace and that means he will more often than not get outside the flankers and run straight at the opposition first five-eighth. That means the defence immediately has to make adjustments for second-phase ball.

Those are his two main straight-from-scrum choices, but there are an abundance of options he can take wider. He can run off the first-five's inside or outside shoulder; he can do the same with the second-five. Osborne can also traverse and wider route and inject himself alongside the centre and bring fullback Ben Smith into the play. In short, when he reads the defence, he can inject himself as narrow or as wide as the team chooses. Those are the subtle ways the Highlanders are maximising his pace and power.

So how do you defend it?

If I was Andy Ellis on Saturday, and the Crusaders are defending scrums in their own half, I wouldn't bother with the traditional nuisance-value stuff, trying to slow down the ball at the base of the scrum. I'd trust my No 6 and right wing to cover the blindside options and align myself defensively to cover the first-receiver charges that get Osborne outside the flankers.

That will limit the Highlanders options and leave the Crusaders less vulnerable from phase play.