Six Nations: Easterby unlikely to let Ireland’s miserly defence rest on their laurels

Judged by the only statistic that matters, aside from the scoreline, which was to concede only one try against such a potent side as France, last Saturday’s defensive performance by Ireland was one of the rocks upon which an epic win was founded.

Even so, it wasn’t without its imperfections. Ireland missed 38 tackles out of 186 attempted, which equates to a 79.5 per cent success rate, whereas France stayed in the game largely through making an eye-catching 248 tackles out of 271 (91.5 per cent).

Admittedly, most teams would find the French wingers, Damian Penaud and Ethan Dumortier, along with Antoine Dupont, a handful. Between them, Penaud (11), Dumortier (nine) and Dupont (six) accounted for 26 of those 38 missed tackles.

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“Against a team that scores tries and when they do get into strike zones they can hurt you, we only conceded one try,” said Simon Easterby on Thursday in evaluating the plus side of the collective display in his specialist domain.

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“There was a huge amount of work-rate, we scrambled well and we only conceded three defensive penalties. We conceded seven penalties in total but I guess we didn’t give them massive access into our half or into our 22,” he added in highlighting the discipline of Ireland’s defence.

“They kicked goals as opposed to going for touch and didn’t spend a huge amount of time in our 22 which is where sides like France can start to hurt teams,” Easterby noted and, indeed, France opted for four penalty attempts at goal rather than once opting for attacking lineouts.

This contributed to them spending just 57 seconds in Ireland’s 22, as opposed to Ireland’s nine minutes and eight seconds in the French 22.

“So, there was lots of positives. A very good attacking team with massive individual threats and we kept them to one try, but on the other side of that there’s plenty to work on and plenty of individual and team fix-ups that we can be better at.”

Penaud’s wondrous 85-metre try in the 18th minute, helped by Anthony Jelonch’s offload return has to be largely attributed to the individual brilliance of a player who probably remains the best right-winger in the world. Even so, Easterby said Ireland could have done more.

“I think we have to make sure that we go after them if we have a chance, and we did initially, but then we’ve got to make sure we’re not disconnected off the back of that and that’s across the board in all aspects of our game but certainly, defensively, against a team that are particularly good when it’s broken field.

“They nearly scored the try of the century against New Zealand a couple of years ago [from] behind their own goal-line and they have the ability to hurt you from deep.

“We could definitely have avoided getting to that position where Penaud gets the second touch and make sure that we’re not allowing them to get that far up the field from the position of strength that we were in, and then obviously we’re scrambling and trying to recover and we don’t get to him.”

While Shaun Edwards describes Gael Fickou as the ‘captain’ of his defence, Easterby said the calls for Ireland’s line speed and alignment is more a shared responsibility.

“I think there’s a couple of guys that take responsibility,” he said, most probably with Johnny Sexton and Garry Ringrose in mind. The latter defends in the most challenging and key defensive position of outside centre. Not for the first time, he was credited with four missed tackles, but they are usually good reads out of the line which force carries back inside to traffic.

“We’re fortunate that we have good guys who have a huge amount of understanding and they know what defence gives a team. As much as this team can attack brilliantly, on the other side of the ball we know how valuable it can be to not only stop a team scoring, but pressure a team, get the ball back on our terms.

“The Mack [Hansen] intercept that gave Hugo [Keenan] the chance for Mack to get a second touch only to be stopped by [Antoine] Dupont on the line, that’s good defence that is turning defence into attack.

“It’s a huge part of this team. It helps when the head coach is massively into defence as well and knows how important it is. It spreads through the group.”

With Tadhg Beirne ruled out for ten to 12 weeks after undergoing an operation on the ankle injury he sustained against France, Iain Henderson looks set to make his first Test start since last year’s championship against Italy, with Ryan promoted to the bench in an otherwise largely unchanged side.

Easterby confirmed that Johnny Sexton is in line to resume training next Monday while Dan Sheehan could come back into the mix along with Ronan Kelleher and Rob Herring, pending the latter completing his Return to Play protocols.

“Dan is one that’s coming back to recovery and we’re hoping he’s available next week,” said Easterby during the first day of a two-day get-together at the IRFU HPC today for a reduced 25-man squad who will today train against the Irish Under-20s.

The Italian game may come too soon for Robbie Henshaw (wrist), Cian Healy (hamstring), Jamison Gibson-Park (hamstring) and Tadhg Furlong (calf), although most, and possibly all of them, look like coming back into the equation for the round four game away to Scotland a fortnight later.

Regarding Furlong, Easterby said: “We’re very hopeful, and so is he, that he’s going to be involved at some point in the Six Nations.”