A Tale of Two Kiwis
Perhaps it’s a reflection of how small the global rugby community remains, but it is curious how the lives and careers of Joe Schmidt and Vern Cotter have become interwoven through the years.
After they first combined to help Bay of Plenty to domestic honours in New Zealand, their unique double-act led them to Top-14 domination with Clermont Auvergne. Their success in France meant that they inevitably had to head-off in different directions to find new worlds to conquer. And yet, there they were once again last Sunday, two blokes from the north island standing between the southern hemisphere and world domination.
Ok, so I know that they weren’t able to overcome the fearsome southern hordes but it’s interesting to see how both men have changed in their approach since they last worked together.
An admittedly tired Irish side were out-manoeuvred by Argentina at the Millennium Stadium as the Pumas used quick handling and offloading to get around the edges of the Irish defence while relying on the predictability of the Irish game plan to win aerial battles and gain control at the breakdown.
Scotland were pipped in the dying seconds by a contentious Australian penalty, but they produced their best performance of the World Cup and their fans could ask for no more. What struck me most when I watched it back was that, in the biggest game of their tournament, Cotter’s side used a high-tempo and high-risk off-loading game that completely ridiculed the narrative this week that northern hemisphere teams are incapable of playing that brand of rugby.
A lot of the credit for Scotland’s performance probably has to go the work that Gregor Townsend has done, both as head coach at Glasgow and previously as a Scottish assistant coach. However, the willingness of Cotter’s Scotland to fling the ball around and take their chances struck an interesting contrast with the template used by Ireland earlier that afternoon.
Image: David Davies / PA Wire/Press Association Images
I haven’t gone back through the full video of Australia-Scotland, but the official stats say that the Scots had six off-loads during the game (two of them from Finn Russell) but the truly surprising stat from that afternoon is that Ireland produced seven successful off-loads against Argentina (the match report says four but I went back and counted ‘em), which matched their total against Romania.
Admittedly, at least three of those were made when Ireland were chasing the game (when weren’t they?) but it’s clear that they have the players and the ability to take more risks than they do. The question is, why aren’t they?
Risk Minimalisation Vs Scoring Potential
The hesitancy of Irish players to off-load in the tackle, particularly since the departure of Brian O'Driscoll, is, of course, a criticism that has been levelled at Schmidt before. In fairness, it’s hard to argue against a (winning!) system that plays to the strengths of your half-backs and allows your team to use a low-risk gameplan that forces the opposition into making mistakes.
However, the benefits of allowing players to be a little more expansive are also plain to see. It’s not just the All Blacks or the Wallabies that have demonstrated the power of the off-load in this year’s World Cup, but Sunday’s performances by Scotland and Argentina showed that a little flick of the wrists can go a long way.
Across their five games in this year’s Six Nations, Ireland made 21 off-loads with a high of five in each of the matches against Italy, England and Wales (and, surprisingly, only four against Scotland when they were chasing points). By comparison, England made 58 tournament off-loads, Scotland 54, Wales 39, Italy 44 and France made 73 in total.
In their five matches at RWC2015, Irish players made 24 off-loads; a heady seven against Romania and Argentina, five against Canada but just two against Italy and three in the win over France. Robbie Henshaw and Jordi Murphy topped the count with four apiece, with Jamie Heaslip providing three.
However, when Schmidt and his coaches sit down to review the games forensically, they should note that seven of those team off-loads led to try (or a clear try-scoring chance - more on that later). That’s almost a third of the off-loads made by the team that resulted in (or should have resulted in) points. It should be a tough stat to ignore when it comes to tweaking the approach for the next Six Nations.
Converting off-loads to points
Canada
In the opening game against Canada, Ireland were mostly able to play within themselves and use training ground moves and set-piece plays to score points. Of their five off-loads, three of them came in the same phase as Keith Earls, Rory Best and Iain Henderson all combined to keep the ball alive in midfield without ever really making any headway.
Ireland’s first off-load of the game occurred just 30-seconds before the above sequence, with Iain Henderson involved once-again…
And in the dying minutes, Peter O'Mahony fielded a restart and managed to keep his hands free, which set-up the possibility of a counter-attack.Romania
Against Romania, the Irish players produced perhaps the most spectacular example of how they can transform defence into attack by using quick off-loads, albeit without getting the scoreboard reward that their play deserved.
Simon Zebo's disallowed try was perhaps the most exhilarating Irish attack of the tournament and it featured key off-loads by Jared Payne, Jordi Murphy and Keith Earls (not to forget an important cameo by Rory Best) as Ireland attacked from within their own 22 and only missed-out on scoring one of the tries of the tournament by a few centimetres/split seconds/blades of grass.
Payne and Murphy had one more off-load apiece against Romania and you can see that Payne (who was one of Ireland’s strongest off-loaders before he was ruled-out through injury) in particular was attempting to keep the attack alive.
Eoin Reddan’s off-load came after he was tagged at the base of a ruck, while you can just about make-out Jamie Heaslip’s pass to Devin Toner as Ireland sought to add to their points haul at the start of the second-half.
Italy
Ireland chose to be conservative in their approach against a fired-up Italian side that had clearly marked that game as their best chance of reaching the quarter-finals. The off-loads by Heaslip and Henshaw both came in the early stages of the first-half and on both occasions it was Keith Earls who was the recipient in midfield.
France
It was in the decisive pool game against France that the ability of the Irish players to pass out of the tackle was at it’s most effective. Both of Ireland’s tries that day were created off the back of an off-load.
As I mentioned in last week’s blog, Robbie Henshaw's brilliant line-break set-up Rob Kearney's opening try and the Connacht centre finished-off that burst past Matthieu Bastareaud with a pass out to Tommy Bowe.
Although not a stereotypical off-load, Chris Henry’s hand-off to Rory Best kept Ireland driving towards the French line and the hooker was unlucky not to score himself before Conor Murray made it to the base of the post.
The other Irish off-load against Les Bleus was again from Heaslip as he quickly realised that Nigel Owens was playing an advantage and knew that he could attempt an off-load without risk of losing his side points. The sheer recklessness of it all!
Argentina
Against Argentina, Ireland were playing catch-up from unusually early in the game and their off-loading ratio reflected that. Unsurprisingly, it was also reflected in the tries that they scored in Cardiff.
At 17 points down, Nicolas Sanchez has just watched a penalty attempt cannon-back off the post, which would have seen Argentina go 20 points clear. Conor Murray gives Ireland some much-needed front-foot ball.
It's no coincidence that just two phases later (and again with the ref playing advantage), Robbie Henshaw produces another piece of magic to set Luke Fitzgerald free.
Fitzgerald turned provider for the moment that briefly gave Ireland hope of getting back on level terms. The initial break is a testament to Fitzgerald’s refusal to give up and keep pumping his legs but the pass to Murphy is pure timing, awareness and skill…
Suddenly Ireland were playing with momentum and belief once again and it was the younger players in the team that recognised the value of keeping the ball alive to try and stretch the Argentine defence.
Jordi Murphy got off-load fever with two in the space of a minute - the sheer audacity of him!
And finally, in the dying throes of Ireland's RWC2015 campaign, there was still time for Ian Madigan to try and launch one final attack.
Conclusion
The thing that struck me most as I went trawling back through Ireland's World Cup campaign seeking those flashes of individual skill was how many more similar moments that there could have been.
For every off-load there were two or three other examples of an Irish player who managed to free his hands and clearly thought about making a pass before then re-considering. Obviously on some, if not most, of those occasions, the player made the right call to retain possession as there were too many defenders crowding around the ball or his team-mates were too far away.
I’ve used Conor Murray as a pretty simple example here, but I could have chosen dozens of other examples to illustrate my point. He thinks about flipping the ball up to Keith Earls but it looks as though he decides that the risk is not the reward. Why not?
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