[su_dropcap style=”flat” size=”4″]C[/su_dropcap]ommitting to expanding your attack is an all-encompassing concept. It isn’t just about shapes and structures, it’s about baking in behaviours and tendencies to a group of 40+ professional rugby players so that each group of players inline for a specific position knows instinctively what’s happening and going to happen in a given moment on a rugby pitch against a variety of opponents. Last time out, I looked at possible systems and structures that Munster could use during the restart and beyond based on some of our work from the season pre-lockdown and this time, I’ll be focusing on some of the players that I think will play a large part in those systems.
RG Snyman and Damian De Allende will play a large part, yes, but they are far from the only players who will be important to what Munster are looking to achieve in the next few months and then in the longer term. Whatever about the upcoming season, we’ve still got a PRO14 final to try and get to and then win.
Half Lock
I know that the term “half-lock” can be an irritating phrase. I was once shown a screengrab of it being used in the wild on a forum with no context and the replies were as scornful as you can imagine. Think of it as a shorthand description for a role and desired skillset rather than a position like “blindside” or “Number 8”.
If I was to describe the role that, say, Maro Itoje plays when he’s wearing #6 and Pieter Steph Du Toit and compare those players to what is expected of Peter O’Mahony wearing the same #6 jersey? What differences would we see? In that equation, I would say that the role Itoje and Du Toit fill is closer to a 4/6D Lock whereas Peter O’Mahony would be closer to a Heavy Support Forward – a player who is primarily focused on the set-piece with a big focus on ruck support and ball handling during phase play and, in O’Mahony’s case, a defensive focus that can manifest itself in front up tackles or defensive breakdown work.
What about when you compare those players to a Liam Squire, Shannon Frizzel or Tom Curry when they wear #6?
My point is, there are lots of roles in a rugby team – and a pack in particular – that aren’t adequately explained by the name associated with the number on their back and every team has their own requirements linked to the way they play.
So, to me, a term like “half-lock” is a closer description of what a player is actually selected to perform as opposed to what might be the stock expectation associated with a “blindside flanker” or an “openside”. A tighthead prop will be expected to scrummage and lift in the lineout, for example, but their role in phase play depends on the player’s individual qualities and will vary from player to player. So you could have a tighthead prop who is an Impact Ball Carrier and one who might be more of a Heavy Support Forward.
In my time working as a semi-amateur analyst, I found it useful to classify players into these “roles” and then construct teams and units based on the qualities of the players available rather than shoehorning guys into cliched jersey names. This is far from a revolutionary approach so I mention to explain my thinking on what I mean by certain role descriptions I’ll use in this article as opposed to fairly nebulous terms like “openside” or “number 8”.
Anyway, the role of a half-lock as I’ve come to describe it over the last few years is a player that;
- Is a primary jumper and lifter in the lineout with a strong focus on offensive maul builds and front line maul defence.
- Ideally, your half-lock would be taking anything from 30/70% of your lineout ball and be a component part of your reduced number lineouts.
- Is comfortable and effective scrummaging on the loosehead side if required.
- The biggest advantage of a half-lock is the bench versatility they give you. A half-lock can move into the second row in the second half to allow you to bring a more explosive ball carrier on as the game opens up.
- Is a comfortable and effective primary ball carrier and passing threat.
- Is a primary first up defender as a tackler or first arriving jackal.
When you consider the role like this, you see a player that can play in any slot across the back row but, most commonly, on the blindside flank or #8. I think this kind of player is a vital component in any elite team with an aim on competing at the highest levels.
Whatever about the game in a few years from now, the last five years have shown us that you are never punished for getting size into your pack. We’ve seen this trend in selection for top sides like Leinster, Saracens and then England, South Africa and recently France at test level when it comes to their decision making on the makeup of their pack.
A half-lock gives you more lineout options, more power during phase play on both sides of the ball and versatility in your bench planning for later in the contest. If we look at the players in the Munster squad who fit this description, we find;
Closest Complete Fit – Tadhg Beirne, Gavin Coombes
Almost Complete Fit – Fineen Wycherley
Partial Fit – Peter O’Mahony, Jack O’Donoghue
When we look at this list, you’d see Coombes and Wycherley being important players for Munster for the latter part of 2020 and perhaps even sooner. Beirne’s pre-season injury (unsure on the projected duration) will complicate things for the end of the 19/20 season but I think the key principle of play will be to have that half-lock (or as close as we can get) in the back row.
Coombes and Wycherley give a slightly different look to the role. For me, I think Wycherley is technically a better a lineout option at the moment and a better offensive breakdown player. I do think that Wycherley is a different case in that he’s played all of his rugby this season as a second row, both starting and as a replacement, but he’s got the game to be versatile. There’s very little that Wycherley does as a second row that wouldn’t translate to the flank, especially as, ultimately, I think a half-lock can be easily defined as a ball-carrying second row in every aspect except for where they pack down in the scrum.
I think Munster need size in the second row and Synman, Kleyn and Ahern (with Holland supporting for the season) will play key roles. Wycherley is invaluable to Munster this season because of his ability to fill out multiple roles for Munster’s back five.
On the other hand, I think Coombes has the ability to fill this role perfectly.
He’s already a pretty reliable option in the lineout and for my money, he’s shown that he’s an excellent ball carrier, especially off #9.
His ability to move the ball coupled with that ball-carrying ability is a key part of his game and in a Munster back five that’s lost Arno Botha over the close season I can see Coombes playing a bigger role as the season advances if injury and form allow. This is, of course, a view of someone looking at glimpses of what I’ve seen of from Coombes over the last number of months and there are a whole variety of “below the water” issues that can make or break a guy’s career prospects.
Still, when you look at our back row ball-carrying without Botha – one of the most consistent performers for Munster over the last two seasons – Coombes stands out.
Beirne is a different type of player to Coombes, in my opinion, but I would say that he looks like a more elusive runner with a slick handling game and some of the best offensive and defensive lineout work in the country coupled with elite defensive breakdown work. They are on different levels right now – one is entering the peak of his career and another just starting it – but I think they both give Munster variety, size and three (four with O’Mahony/O’Donoghue) primary jumping options.
The key for Munster is size in the back five and lineout dominance to open up opportunities for our other back row components and this is where I think Beirne, Coombes, Wycherley and O’Donoghue will play important roles. This won’t be crucial when it comes to most opponents, just ones where we feel we have a size disadvantage in Cat 1, 2 or 3 games.
It was this same principle of combating a size disadvantage that I think lead to Steven Hansen selecting Scott Barrett in the back row against England. When people look at the All Black underperformance in that game I think a lot of it comes down to a lack of balance in their back five because of that decision. Read was already acting as a half-lock and stacking Barrett in much the same role (but without the added pop in his ball-carrying) acted as a hindrance to the All Blacks wider scheme, rather than giving them the physicality they required. This is the basic premise of playing with a half-lock – it has to be with a view to allowing more specialisation elsewhere.
For me, selecting a half-lock allows you to pick a more specialised set of roles in your other two back row slots. For Munster in Category 1 games, this will mean likely mean CJ Stander plus one other with a variety bench option to either keep the flow going or change up the picture for most of our Category 1 games.
Those three other slots will be interesting, especially as the season progresses. If we play a half-lock in Category 1 games, I think Beirne, Stander and O’Mahony will be the likely starting pair with Cloete/O’Donoghue/X coming off the bench.
Beirne’s injury will probably complicate things ahead of the restarted PRO14 – I genuinely feel that a 4/5/6 of Snyman/Kleyn/Beirne was in the offing – but O’Donoghue/Stander/O’Mahony gives us similar qualities. O’Donoghue’s game has evolved into something close to a half-lock since his return from that long term knee injury. His lineout work on both sides of the throw is probably the best of any of our back row players outside O’Mahony and his work in the maul has been consistently excellent for the last number of seasons.
He’s been improving as a ball carrier but his set-piece versatility makes him an excellent option in any of the back row slots in any Category matchup. It might feel like I’ve forgotten Peter O’Mahony in all this but I think the current breakdown interpretation coupled with Munster’s tweak in style could mean something of a resurgence for the club captain.
O’Mahony’s lineout work is beyond reproach from an offensive and defensive point of view. He’s comfortably one of the best back-row jumpers in the game and I doubt that will change anytime soon. His ability to negatively affect the lineout patterns of opposition teams makes him an incredibly valuable operator before you ever factor in anything else. This recent number-crunching by J. Wallusch on Twitter shows how important the lineout is as a launching point for tries in the contemporary game – his numbers focus on the Gallagher Premiership but the numbers translate well to the NH game – so O’Mahony’s defensive lineout ability will be a valuable tool for Munster and, I believe, Ireland going forward.
O’Mahony’s work outside the set-piece is where I think there’s the most scope for improvement post-lockdown.
When I say improvement, I don’t mean him all of a sudden becoming a player that he isn’t and hasn’t been. I mean utilising him in a role that maximises his skillset. I think the biggest “victim” in the shakeup of the last few seasons has been the changing position of O’Mahony’s role from an offensive POV. I think the positioning we saw of O’Mahony during this season just gone is closest to where I think he’ll be most productive.
For me, that’s as part of a wider pod of forwards in a system that works on getting the ball to them at the end of a series of 2+ passes. You can see how O’Mahony and Stander were positioned in this still from the Racing 92 game in Thomond Park.
Spotting O’Mahony in these wider pods was quite common during the season (and on previous seasons) and the reasoning for putting him in these positions is pretty simple – it’s down to his skillset.
He’s relatively quick, he’s got an excellent range of passing and he’s one of the best ruck support players in the sport. Simply put, when the ball swings wide to O’Mahony, he’s capable of fixing a player, passing accurately in space or close quarters, supporting a break and then nailing the wide ruck if the phase ends in a tackle.
It’s this kind of scenario, albeit a more ideal one would see O’Mahony with Earls outside him in this instance rather than being in a position to take a pass from him.
You’ll often see O’Mahony in these wider positions because his general tendency when he’s scrummaging on the blindside is to stick on the touchline closest to him once the scrum breaks and the same is true of his behaviour after a lineout. That’s usually why you see O’Mahony appearing in wide pods relative to the ruck or used as a blindside option.
If the set-piece started there, that’s usually where O’Mahony will be as the phases progress. The above scenario is exactly where O’Mahony is strong. Even though the pass was pretty poor he was able to assess the space outside, decide against a pass because of White #11’s angle on Conway and then make a good push over the gainline.
Seeing O’Mahony running onto the ball at the end of two passes is exactly where we want him and our attacking concepts this season will reflect that. In a half-lock system – whether that half-lock starts at 6 or 8 – the other two back-row forwards must act like wing forwards. We need them to be wide carrying forwards who are comfortable handling the ball, supporting breaks and who have the power to be a real difference-maker when they get the ball at the end of a sequence of passes.
This example from the Racing game is a good example.
O’Donoghue and Scannell need to link up better here but this kind of moment is exactly where we want our wing forwards linking up. Look at Stander’s wide positioning slightly behind the play – if we can make the pass stick here, we’ve got a surge down the touchline with real power waiting to finish.
When you look at the other players in our squad and academy, you see a lot of players who meet this wing forward archetype – Tommy O’Donnell, Chris Cloete, Jack O’Sullivan, John Hodnett, Jack Daly and Alex Kendellan. These are all players who I think are better served attacking in the wider channels based on what I’ve seen on them at pro-level. Alex Kendellan is a bit of a question mark in that we have to assess how he looks as a professional. Jack Daly is someone who’s played a fair bit of 7s and from what I’ve seen of him in preseason games but he, too, is something of a question mark at senior level.
John Hodnett, for me, is a guy who is perfectly suited to the edges of the attack with his power, acceleration and handling.
John Hodnett’s acceleration is something else #MUNvKIN pic.twitter.com/ckIhdouBF7
— Three Red Kings (@threeredkings) February 15, 2020
Hodnett has shown a lot of Wing Forward qualities in his appearances pre-lockdown and that’s even more true of Jack O’Sullivan, who recently signed a three-year senior contract at Munster last year.
Munster and, indeed, all the Irish provinces tend not to award three-year deals to young players straight out the gate without good reason. A cursory look at O’Sullivan’s work during the season just gone hints at a serious player. He’s got the footwork and acceleration to be a danger off #9.
But he’s got the pace, elusiveness and handling ability to be lethal when taking the ball off #10 or wider.
Nice try for Jack O’Sullivan here pic.twitter.com/uWxL2s45Hm
— Three Red Kings (@threeredkings) December 17, 2019
Any attacking concept that sees O’Sullivan running onto more of these kinds of phases as opposed to trying to restart the play off of #9 will be a positive for both him and Munster.
It isn’t too much of a stretch to see a combination of 6. Coombes 7. Hodnett 8. O’Sullivan at some point the international window with Coombes acting as a half-lock to release Hodnett and O’Sullivan as wing forwards with Cloete coming off the bench. You could just as easily construct a back row around 6. Wycherley 7. O’Donoghue 8. Coombes or 6. O’Donoghue 7. Cloete 8. O’Sullivan.
Either way, I think we’ll see the best out of Munster this season with a strong focus on size and lineout dominance in the back row, regardless of the game category.
