Saracens’ defensive performance against Leinster has drawn an awful lot of praise from pretty much everyone.

But what did they do? And is there anything to reflect on for Munster this weekend or Ireland going forward? Well, first of all, we have to look at the defensive principles that Saracens employed against Leinster and what they looked to achieve from an individual and collective perspective.

When you’re preparing to play against Leinster or Ireland, you would be badly letting yourself down if you didn’t prepare a specific plan for how you’re going to deal with Jonathan Sexton. There are a few different ways to approach Sexton but I thought the way that Saracens did it was quite interesting.

Pressure The Screen

Most teams will play with a “screen” of some kind in 2019 and Leinster, in particular, are very good at this. Basically, a screen is where two/three forwards or heavy carriers run a line off a ruck with the intention being that the ball will go behind them – either directly from the base of the ruck or by a pass back from the screen itself – to the creative player standing at the rear of the screen.

Leinster like to build a multi-screen setup with Sexton as the fulcrum, especially from a centre-field ruck position. Saracens’ defensive approach was based on attacking this “hinge” to isolate and pressurise Sexton.

Here’s a look at Saracen’s approach from a centre-field position;

The first thing we notice – number management.

Saracens don’t commit numbers to the breakdown on these central positions and it immediately gives them a numbers advantage on the next phase. They need it too because if you’re going to pressure the screen, you must have all your defenders in the primary defensive line.

The second thing we notice – Itoje’s pressure line into the second layer.

Itoje can only make this shoot up into the second layer because of the numbers on his inside shoulder – the two things are linked. He can ignore Ryan and Furlong completely because he knows he has three defenders covering.

Have a look at who Itoje is shooting on;

That’s right on Sexton’s line. The intention here is clear – Saracens want to squeeze the time that Sexton has on the ball when Leinster set up a screen on a centrefield position.

Look at how Saracens act on this centre-field screen.

The don’t hold and drift – as would almost be less of a risk here – they shoot hard on Sexton behind the screen.

Interestingly, when there was no screen, Saracens didn’t blitz. Have a look at the phase after the first GIF.

There’s good line speed here, yes, but Saracens aren’t shooting up hard at the edge of the defensive line like you’d imagine they would. They didn’t want to give Sexton a “corner” to run around by shooting into the second layer so they kept a flat line, compacted the space and set up collisions.

Saracens pressure was based on a couple of key questions.

• Where on the field are we defending?
• Is there a screen?
• Who is the screen attacker?
• What is the spacing between attacking pods?

If Saracens were defending any ball inside the 15m lines – centrefield position – they would blitz into any screen set up from Leinster.

Look at the pressure on Sexton and Ringrose from Kruis here. See how that action is different from Saracens work on this phase?

When Sexton is standing as a link between narrow-spaced pods, Saracens were happy to come up conservatively and they don’t attack the breakdown until the possession moves to the wing. Numbers, position and context – those were the keys.

When there was a good bit of space between Sexton and his target pod, Saracens would shoot into the passing lane to pressure Sexton’s passing lanes.

On this one, Leinster have looked to get width on the pass from ruck to target but McGrath’s pass isn’t the best. Either way, Vunipola was coming up hard on this pass and that’s to do with the spacing between Sexton and his probable target.

On this one, Leinster are slightly narrower but the target is very obviously O’Brien on the outside of the pod and Tracy’s lack of animation as he heads to the line makes this a good percentage option from Vunipola. When Leinster run a two-man pod off Sexton in these positions, they tend to follow a similar profile.

On this one, Vunipola takes the space from Sexton’s passing lane when there is significant width between the #10 and target.

This two-hit pod with one support runner recessed behind is a common Leinster phase option off centre-field position and Vunipola knows to pressure it.

Saracens defensive work on Leinster was based on staying out of the breakdown, keeping numbers in the primary line and Leinster’s structure in the context of where on the field they were defending. What are the implications for Munster? It remains to be seen but I think attacking Leinster’s breakdown is not the way to go – hit and pressure their screen structures.