For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction; England’s one, two, three versus Ireland’s one, two, three, four, five – when punctuated with the word Mississippi – will get you the two second difference in the length of time in took each team to recycle. When this occurred England’s powerful players were able to build phases with their “little” outhalf George Ford dictating with ease his shot selection, whether out of hand or with the boot.
As the tap of quick possession flowed Simon Zebo faced a perfect crossfield kick with the highly talented and athletic Anthony Watson bearing down. Zebo missed and Watson scored. We can debate the ins and outs of Gaelic football catching or one up missed tackles or we can peel back to the breakdown and Ireland's use of the ball to find the root cause.
All bar two of the 11 open field phases leading to Jonny May's try after two minutes 50 seconds were three second recycles. The other two were under five seconds. Ireland couldn't slow the ball.
Later on at 09:03, with England carrying powerfully into heavy Irish traffic, scrumhalf Ben Youngs attempts a snipe around the fringe. From the breakdown Chris Robshaw hits number eight Ben Morgan who trundles up. The monster Sean O'Brien reads it perfectly, waits patiently (fractions of seconds!) and pounces as he's done hundreds of times before. When O'Brien reads early and gets over the ball he's impossible to shift. However, worryingly, England had a plan based on a deep understanding of our game and our threat allied with the power to destroy. Are we stereotyped?
On 24:14 O’Brien once again reads the evolving breakdown but is once again bundled off the ball by Morgan. Extraordinary. Our pool minnows will not have this ability so it’ll only resurface again later in the pool stages.
Tossed aside like rag dolls
Why is this a concern? Twenty seconds later
Jonny May
scored a “try” that was called back for a forward pass. Again the Irish defence was shattered and passive but at its core was not one up missed tackles (which is an issue) but Irish players such as O’Brien being tossed aside like rag dolls, ensuring England’s recycle remained at three seconds.
This is a real worry. There were only 12 scrums in Twickenham (in which Ireland did very well to steal two English feeds) and 26 lineouts (which I’ll discuss next week) but there are, on average, 175 breakdowns per match. Lose the averages against the big boys and lose the match. Align that to Ireland’s use of errant English kicking. Both Wales and England have kicked more than Ireland and many of those kicks were spot on, but many were not. I had hoped Ireland’s “new” back three would use these opportunities to punish.
They have two major options, kick or run. If kicking, then there is a question of s shot selection: Garryowen for regather, green grass for a chasing line or row Z of the stand? But factored into this selection is the scoreboard, field position, possession stats and, crucially, momentum.
Hence shot selection needs to do what’s best for the team at that point in time. Having allowed England build phases and the scoreboard loose kicks were not punished as we simply handed the ball back with England’s flow unabated. This is mentally and physically exhausting.
The other option is to run the ball back. Here Ireland are unclear. On Friday I noted the various methods employed against Wales – fullback catches, fullback runs into heavy traffic of fatties and going to deck with a breakdown recycle taking over five seconds, affording the opposition ample time to reorganise in defence.
On 11:22 England executed their first sloppy kick which landed into the superb Dave Kearney’s bread basket. With Ireland’s first real possession in a thumping opening Kearney carried into heavy traffic. Tommy Bowe then carried and was smashed by English prop Joe Marler, miles behind the gainline; this should not happen.
One phase later Conor Murray box kicked away possession and the English flow continued. England’s next sloppy kick was fielded by Bowe on 12:15. He Garryowen’d straight back to the English affording them an attacking five metre lineout and Ford’s crossfield kick left Zebo in a terrible bind defending against Watson.
Huge pressure
In all this time Ireland were under huge pressure and kicked possession away cheaply. Clearly the minnows will struggle to punish this tactic but France, Argentina (who we would hope to meet) and England/Wales will not. This use of possession has to improve with the scoreboard, clock, field position and momentum in mind.
Then on 33:47 Robbie Henshaw gathers and hits Zebo off another English kick. Inside his 22 Zebo’s instincts take over and feigning a kick he powers into green grass. Brilliant job but the next play has a five second recycle and kills Ireland’s flow, forcing a poor kick. When to counter? What to do off a creative counter attack? Where to attack next?
A key question to explore over coming weeks will be; when fielding sloppy opposition kicks what opportunity do Zebo or Rob Kearney see and consequently what actions need to come from the remaining 14? The good news, there are many positives and we've plenty of time! liamtoland@yahoo.com
