“They’ll be showing that try in a hundred years”
– Matt Williams

Just like Ronan O’Gara’s kick over the top for Tommmmmmy Boooooooowe in Cardiff, some tries are destined to be replayed again and again. A century from now, if there’s any try going to be beamed directly into our skulls via the holonets that’ll sum up this Grand Slam win in Twickenham, it’ll probably be CJ Stander’s game-changing 25th-minute try.

This one was a Joe Schmidt special down to the studs.

Let’s have a quick look at how it went down.

Wheels Within Wheels

Some tries are constructed to exploit an expected opposition response. In essence, you use their own video work against them.

You might remember this English lineout move from the Red Eye;

Ireland spotted it pre-game and read it like the first Harry Potter book – Bundee shoots hard onto Farrell and he’s a hair off a dominant hit on the English 10 but Ireland had this move off England’s lineout well scouted. England didn’t really self-scout this and ran the same gimmick that Ireland would have expected.

Stander’s try was built off a kind of self-scouting – looking at what your opponent is looking at – and had a specific target in mind; Sam Simmonds.

We’d gone after Simmonds’ on another set-piece earlier in the first quarter;

Murray drew out Robshaw, Leavy held him, and the pass inside to Earls was going to release Ringrose down the side of the scrum at an isolated Simmonds.

It was almost successful.

Simmonds is a smaller back row by test standards in both height, frame and weight. While that makes him a mobile defender, that can sometimes mean he’s defending a little more space than he’d like as a “gap” defender. England use his pace and relative power to shore up slow areas on set-piece defence.

It was this tendency that Ireland would look to target off a lineout later in the half. First, let’s look at the lineout;

It’s a typically insane Peter O’Mahony jump, but you’ll see that Ireland have shortened numbers in the lineout. What does that mean? It means that England will number up on the three forwards Ireland have stacked in midfield.

Leavy and Stander are standing narrow off the lineout with Sexton lurking behind them. Tadhg Furlong is standing quite a bit wider with Bundee Aki standing outside him. Ringrose is lurking just out of shot too, which will exercise Te’o and Joseph.

England have lined up Vunipola outside Farrell, with Hartley and Simmonds lining up outside the loosehead prop. Vunipola is England’s heaviest tackler, so it would make sense that he’d be standing in Stander and Leavy’s channel. Hartley is lining up on Furlong, and Simmonds seems to be tracking Aki but it’s likely he’ll be used to attack any midfield ruck because Ireland’s flankers are quite a bit away from any midfield point of contact.

Simmonds is most useful as the link between forwards and outside backs on this kind of set-piece defence because of his pace and agility.

Just like Ireland would have wanted.

Here’s where it gets a little screwy.

Any team that does any bit of video work on Ireland will know about our halfback loops. Murray does them in open play but they’re mainly known as one of Sexton’s go to movements off set-piece. Schmidt knows that teams know this, so he’s added in a lot of schemes that play into this stereotype and exploit it.

Here’s the picture at the key moment;

Stander has drifted through the line, as was always the plan. Sexton passed the ball to Furlong and then moved into a typical loop pattern. Simmonds, who lined up on Aki, is now presented with an incredibly difficult decision – is this ball going on the loop to Sexton and out to Stockdale or Ringrose? Or is it going to Aki on the inside shoulder?

Sexton is showing for the ball like he normally would on a loop, Ringrose is attacking hard on the outside shoulder, Stockdale’s lurking in the second layer and Aki’s going inside shoulder. Is Aki a decoy for the loop? Or is he the carrier?

Simmonds, having probably looked at 10 examples of Sexton’s loop before the game, stepped out of Aki’s line to bet on Sexton. You can see him make the decision early enough, too.

That makes the hole for Aki to burst through, with Ringrose as a finishing option on his outside shoulder.

The pass from Furlong can’t be given enough superlatives. For a tighthead prop to execute a swivel pass under pressure with the perfect hang time like that is beyond remarkable, and it’s a testament to Furlong’s multi-faceted skill set.

But the job is only half done.

The Finish

From here, Aki has three options – carry himself, an easy pass to Ringrose that would have seen him probably get wiped by Watson, or a high-risk pass to Stander that would give the Big Guy a chance for a power finish.

Let’s see what happened;

Look at Ringrose peeling off to attack Watson against the grain! That’s typical smart play from Ringrose and shows the confidence he played with. But Bundee’s work is what I’m most pleased with. See how he weaves towards his left slightly? That holds Watson and prevents the fullback from chasing the ball onto Stander and making his job even harder. Bundee’s pass is perfect, too. Superb stuff.

From there, this is all CJ.

You’ll remember him lurking beyond the ball earlier in the play? That’s a deliberate construction to give him an advantage as a potential pass option on this movement.

When Aki passes him the ball, Stander’s job is the simplest – and hardest – job in the game. Run straight and don’t let them stop you before you get to the line. There are few men in world rugby that I’d back to do that job ahead of Christiaan Johan Stander

Wigglesworth makes contact with Stander 9m out. Haskell hits him at 5m. But they can’t stop Stander getting the ball against the base of the post and scoring a try that typifies this Irish squad. Power, subtlety, intelligence, subterfuge – all on the big stage with big stakes.

This Schmidt Special worked like a charm and will, rightly, go down in history as a special score in the annals of Irish rugby.