"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.” - Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Running in smart lines
The honeymoon period is now over for Ireland at RWC2015. From this point on, the games are only going to get harder, the opposition will be fitter and the defences will be smarter. So far, Ireland have scored 13 tries and 94 points without having to dip into their full array of attacking options. However, the moves that they have used (and they’ve largely been the a variation of the same one) will have been forensically examined by Philippe Bérot and Patrice Lagusquet - the defence coaches for both Italy and France.
While Ireland’s attack has been effective so-far, the Canadian and Romanian defences both showed glimpses of what other, better organised, defenders will be looking to exploit.
Taking Risks
“When the better teams come along, they will obviously hit an awful lot harder, they’ll be smarter, they’ll commit less to rucks and they won’t get as narrow as Canada and Romania have. So, Ireland will have to even work harder for their tries and for their scores and so that’s why their off-loading game becomes very important.” - Brian O’Driscoll on last Monday’s Off the Ball
As described by Murray Kinsella recently, one of the key Irish backline moves so far at this World Cup has involved multiple options off multiple phases, with players grouped in pods of three to provide support, decoy or strike-running options. When performed at pace and with accurate passing, the play is ruthlessly effective and can be difficult to stop.
However, there were several occasions in Ireland’s opening two matches when Canadian and Romanian defenders were able to stop, disrupt or intercept those attacks and these incidents will have been of great interest to Joe Schmidt and his coaching team, who will want to know how their code was cracked.
Canadian D
One of the key roles involved in Irish attacks is that of the decoy runner. It’s a task that is usually (although not always) appointed to a skillful forward who has the ability to also take a pass and quickly off-load if necessary - Rory Best, Devin Toner and Peter O’Mahony are among the usual suspects in this position.
Even if this player is being used as a passing fulcrum, his involvement in fixing the eye of the defenders and presenting an obstacle for potential tacklers to get around is still critical in the success of the attack.
Against Canada, inside centre Nick Blevins and winger DTH Van Der Merwe were particularly adept at identifying Irish attacks and disrupting them.
In the GIF above, Van Der Merwe breaks-up an early Irish attack with a crucial tackle that prevented a near certain try. The winger is forced to make a choice between tackling Luke Fitzerald or standing-off and having to try and mark a potential 2v1 with Sean O’Brien outside of him. In fairness to VDM, it’s a brilliant piece of defending - he’s assessed the risk and has realised that he needs to make a play to stop Ireland’s attack.
It’s also difficult to find fault with any of the Irish players involved. As you can see from the first of the screen-grabs below, Paul O’Connell has effectively tied-up two Canadian defenders, which has created the time and space for Johnny Sexton to try and exploit the overlap outside.
However, the other point to highlight from this attack is how quickly VDM identifies the threat. A few frames earlier, the winger had already moved up into the defensive line and was aggressively moving towards Fitzgerald...Canada had their homework done.
The Scarlets winger was involved in another piece of exceptional defending in the second-half when he intercepted Johnny Sexton’s attempted pass to Dave Kearney.
In this instance, you could say that Jared Payne’s decoy run is slightly too fast, which means that he’s not a realistic target for Sexton once he receives the ball back from Luke Fitzgerald. It makes VDM’s choices a little more clear-cut as he must try to mark Rob Kearney, while also hoping to present a big enough obstacle to dissuade Sexton from attempting to reach his winger. In the end, it’s not the best of passes from the Irish out-half, who was probably trying to pass in behind VDM’s aggressive run but didn’t get enough elevation on the ball. If you’re being ultra-critical, you would also say that Rob Kearney is slightly too withdrawn from when Sexton regains the ball, which gives the defender more time to assess his options.
The final example from that Canadian match was produced from the defending of inside centre Nick Blevins. He makes a superb read and tackle on Sexton that very nearly forced a huge turnover that would have led to a certain Canadian try.
Instead, Ireland escaped after referee Glen Jackson ruled that Blevins had knocked-on in the tackle and play was called back for an Irish scrum. However, Joe Schmidt will be disappointed that another huge overlap was spurned. As you can seen in the screen-grab below, there’s a possible 5v2 overlap (including Sexton) if Heaslip can fix Blevins once he off-loads to Sexton. In the same screen-grab, Heaslip has already passed to Sexton without taking the ball close enough to the Canadian defensive line to serve as a decoy. As you can see in the GIF, Blevins isn’t fooled and is also able to get past the Ireland no.8 easily to make his tackle on Sexton.
The Ireland attack also had several close calls against Romania when their attacking plays were deciphered and disrupted. Just after the half-hour mark, Ian Madigan attempted a pass to Jared Payne that quickly turned into a hospital pass because the Romanian defensive line were quick to read the intentions of the out-half and Donnacha Ryan didn’t quite look as ‘animated’ as he could have.
Just eight minutes later, the same scenario almost resulted in a Romanian try. In the final play of the first-half, Madigan was running another loop play when his pass to Darren Cave was nearly snagged for an intercept try.
Again, Jared Payne could hold onto the ball for a split second longer to present more of threat to the Romanian defence but it’s the run of Simon Zebo that reduces the chances of success. The full-back never really looks like a potential receiver as he moves from out to in and his intention appears to be to act as a blocker or an obstruction than viable option for Madigan. Unfortunately, he over-shoots the Romanian out-side centre Paula Kinikinlau, who keeps his eyes firmly fixed on the ball and nearly claims an intercept that could have put a much different complexion on the half-time score.
Conclusion
Ultimately, all of the above examples didn’t result in any conceded scores for the Irish defence, which has looked pretty solid so-far in Group D. However, Joe Schmidt will be well aware that each of those incidents could have resulted in an opposition score.
The concern is that, if Canada and Romania have both been able to do their homework on the Irish attack, it means that the Irish players will require even more diligence and subterfuge throughout the rest of this World Cup if they’re to continue to create and finish chances.
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
