It’s weird to describe a game where Ireland won by 51 points as “frustrating” but that’s exactly what it was. Against 13 men, you’d expect this Irish side to load up on linebreaks and score every other possession but it was far from that. Most of the criticism in the aftermath of the game has fallen on the shoulders of Joey Carbery but that comes with the territory when you’re a #10.
I think Carbery’s use of Lowe as a secondary passing option on the loop route was (a) schemed before the game and (b) largely ineffective even if it did widen our attacking lines in a way that I think was designed to take pressure off our front five as a dominant collision (gainline + quick ball) unit.
When you look through the numbers, you notice a drop-off relative to other peak Irish performances – mainly the midfield. That isn’t just down to the individuals in question, even if I feel Henshaw had a particularly bad game by his standards, but it’s also down where the ball intersects with the gainline. Against Wales and New Zealand, our midfield pairing of Aki and Ringrose had one of the highest OWR scores of any players in the team. Aki and Ringrose had a combined OWR score of 93 against New Zealand and 51 against Wales.
In this game, Henshaw and Ringrose combined for a score of just 30, with only two dominant cleanouts between them. How much of that comes down to where the ball was being passed to as opposed to midfielders just deciding not to hit as many rucks?
If we’re passing the ball wider, our midfielders aren’t in a position to secure the ruck as effectively because they have to drift out to secure that ruck point instead of running forward to secure a ruck happening off #10.
I think when you see Mike Lowry putting up the kind of numbers that Garry Ringrose did against Wales and New Zealand, you get an idea of where the problems developed and why it felt like Lowry was less of a second handler and more of a strike runner and wide support runner.
Without the strong base of consistent dominant collision points – which we struggled to generate in a sequence throughout the game – our attacking work overstretched and over-relied on Lowe as a passer. That’s why our midfielders were “bypassed” as ruck support players and why everything seemed to bounce from touchline to touchline at times.
Ireland’s Offensive Ruck Work Score vs Italy
- 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. I’m 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.
| Dominant Clean | Guard Action | Attendance | Ineffective | Ruck Work Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Porter | 4 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 27 |
| Sheehan | 3 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 34 |
| Furlong | 8 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 41 |
| Beirne | 3 | 14 | 1 | 36 | |
| Baird | 4 | 17 | 2 | 1 | 47 |
| O'Mahony | 3 | 12 | 33 | ||
| Van Der Flier | 5 | 16 | 2 | 49 | |
| Doris | 1 | 10 | 2 | 21 | |
| Gibson Park | 0 | ||||
| Carbery | 1 | 3 | |||
| Lowe | 6 | 12 | |||
| Henshaw | 1 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 12 |
| Ringrose | 1 | 7 | 1 | 18 | |
| Hansen | 6 | 12 | |||
| Lowry | 5 | 12 | 1 | 38 | |
| Herring | 3 | 6 | |||
| Kilcoyne | 2 | 4 | 14 | ||
| Bealham | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| Treadwell | 4 | 8 | |||
| Conan | 1 | 4 | 11 | ||
| Casey | 0 | ||||
| Sexton | 1 | 2 | |||
| Hume | 2 | 3 | 12 |
Top Five ORW Rankings
- Josh Van Der Flier – 49 points
- Ryan Baird – 47 points
- Tadhg Furlong – 41 points
- Mike Lowry – 38 points
- Tadhg Beirne – 36 points
Van Der Flier showed up really well, for me, once again and I thought Ryan Baird did a decent job of mixing and matching his output in the second row even if he is still a little undersized for the role we used him in. I thought the dual roles of primary carrying and offensive breakdown work kind of nullified his top-end impact on both counts, though. Peter O’Mahony brought his usual game to this one and did it to a high standard but I felt that output was a poor fit for what we needed in this game, even if the wider game got him more involvements.
Tadhg Furlong was really strong, as you’d expect, and we really did need him on the field for the 62 minutes he played because the drop off in production when he came off the field was pretty stark. Sheehan did well enough too but I felt he was a little cluttered in his breakdown work compared to the more polished Ronán Kelleher. His ball carrying was a real plus though and he’ll be better for the pictures he saw here.
My biggest disappointment, though, was Caelan Doris who, a few good breaks into space aside, really didn’t slip into the power forward role as tightly as I expected. Ignore his metres made – that was bumped up by some backfield kick receptions and some wide breaks – the quality of his collision work wasn’t what it needed to be here and his usual breakdown output work suffered wasn’t enough to compensate.
