Munster’s work over the ball at the offensive breakdown has been pretty good over the few games.
Not perfect – few teams are – but when you have a lot of on-ball involvements, a lot of possession, your work at the offensive breakdown comes under a lot more scrutiny. How effective are you at retaining your own ball ruck to ruck? With a number of different pack and midfield combinations, we’ve been… pretty good.
The game against Connacht was a new high for collective ruck effectiveness on the ORWS scale.
- A Dominant Clean is an action that decisively secures possession when the ball carrier takes contact. A Dominant Clean does not have to be the first arrival at the breakdown but it is rewarded in the context of effectiveness. We will assign this action 3 points.
- A Guard Action is where a player plays a role in helping to retain possession after we have “re-won” the ball on the floor. Sometimes this can happen on a carry/ruck point where there is no active contention by the opposition. Let’s assign this action 2 points.
- An Attendance can be anything from standing as a “kick shield” on a ruck to adding a bit of bulk to ward against a counter-ruck. We’re marking this down as being worth 1 point.
- An Ineffective Action is a blown cleanout, a lean, a breakdown penalty or an action that I couldn’t see any direct benefit for. This will be worth -1 points.
If we start applying the points we’ve assigned to each action, we can generate an Offensive Ruck Work Score to get a proper view of Munster’s offensive breakdown output.
Munster’s Offensive Ruck Work Score vs Connacht URC Game 4
| Dominant Clean | Guard Action | Attendance | Ineffective | ORWS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kilcoyne | 7 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 37 |
| Scannell | 10 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 43 |
| Ryan | 5 | 15 | 4 | 3 | 46 |
| Kleyn | 16 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 69 |
| Beirne | 5 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 53 |
| O'Mahony | 14 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 61 |
| Cloete | 6 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 34 |
| Coombes | 13 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 67 |
| Casey | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -1 |
| Carbery | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Zebo | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Scannell | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| Earls | 6 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 25 |
| Conway | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Haley | 4 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 20 |
| Barron | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 22 |
| Loughman | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 23 |
| Archer | 3 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 24 |
| Wycherley | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 25 |
| O'Donoghue | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 28 |
| Cronin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Flannery | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Goggin | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 8 |
This was a remarkable performance at the breakdown by Kleyn, Coombes and O’Mahony. Coombes is particularly impressive given that he was also Munster’s primary ball carrier. That is CJ Stander tier output, which is as big a compliment when it comes to raw work rate as it gets.
Peter O’Mahony’s offensive breakdown numbers are impressive too and in line with what we already know he’s good at. O’Mahony is one of the best lineout/breakdown focused Combo Flankers in the country and his performance here typifies that.
Jean Kleyn’s impact, however, was on a different level for impact, power and straight dominance. His ORW score of 69 – earned in just 59 minutes – is the highest score of the season to date for Munster.
- Jean Kleyn – 69
- Gavin Coombes – 67
- Peter O’Mahony – 61
- Tadhg Beirne – 53
- John Ryan – 46
— - Best of the Backs: Keith Earls – 25
