When it comes to Munster’s breakdown work I want three things; brutality, violence and efficiency. I don’t ask for much. In the opening two games of the season, Munster’s ruck work was really, really poor. The away game against Cardiff was actually something I’ve never seen before when it comes to the sheer number of breakdown turnovers we conceded but that had nothing on the game against Dragons a week later.
If you want an illustration of powder-puff, weak, ineffective breakdown work from your front five, primarily, but our pack in general you should just watch that game back. We were bullied.
Our pack produced 35 ineffective breakdown entries against the Dragons so, is it any surprise that we laboured offensively? No. Against Zebre it was broadly the same, with a slight improvement. The same happened against Connacht.
What would happen against a Bulls side that prides itself on being heavy in the tackle, heavy over the ball at the breakdown and a nightmare to clean out?
Munster would batter them.
MUNSTER’S OFFENSIVE RUCK WORK SCORE VS Vodacom Bulls
- 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 -2 points.
| Dominant Clean | Guard Action | Attendance | Ineffective | Ruck Work Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loughman | 1 | 12 | 1 | 28 | |
| N. Scannell | 7 | 11 | 1 | 44 | |
| Archer | 4 | 9 | 2 | 32 | |
| Edogbo | 7 | 12 | 4 | 49 | |
| Kleyn | 5 | 18 | 4 | 55 | |
| Beirne | 6 | 16 | 2 | 1 | 50 |
| O'Mahony | 6 | 7 | 1 | 33 | |
| Coombes | 7 | 7 | 35 | ||
| Casey | 1 | 3 | |||
| Carbery | 0 | ||||
| L. Coombes | 11 | 1 | 1 | 21 | |
| Goggin | 8 | 9 | 42 | ||
| Fekitoa | 4 | 2 | 1 | 17 | |
| Nash | 2 | 6 | |||
| Daly | 3 | 8 | 25 | ||
| Barron | 1 | 4 | 11 | ||
| Kilcoyne | 3 | 7 | 23 | ||
| Salanoa | 1 | 3 | 9 | ||
| Ahern | 1 | 8 | 19 | ||
| O'Donoghue | 1 | -2 | |||
| Murray | 2 | 1 | 4 | ||
| Crowley | 1 | 5 | 13 | ||
| Hodnett | 2 | 6 |
Top Five ORW Score
- Jean Kleyn
- Tadhg Beirne
- Edwin Edogbo
- Niall Scannell
- Dan Goggin
Munster went from 35 ineffective breakdown entries by our pack to just two. Look at the number of dominant ruck entries by OOOOOOHHHH EDWIN EDOGBOOOOOOOO, look at how consistent Jean Kleyn was across the full 80 minutes, look at Beirne’s output, look at how O’Mahony and Coombes balanced carrying output with real physicality at the breakdown.
Look at how that big back five allowed our front row to throw down the most consistent breakdown performance of the season so far.
These are all things that we would expect to see with Munster’s system playing well. A PPC rating of 1.4 should have a large breakdown output when it works well and that’s exactly what happened here. We had a PPC rating of 1.5 in our first two games of the season but really low breakdown output. Is it any surprise that we lost those games knowing what we know now? No.
I wrote a few weeks ago that we’ll start to see this system working well when our midfielders’ ORW scores went up and that’s exactly what happened with the hugely impressive Dan Goggin building on his previous excellent work with a top-drawer breakdown performance.
Edwin Edogbo’s score of 49 in just 51 minutes is genuinely one of the most impressive things I’ve seen in the last few years given how young and inexperienced he is combined with how big, physical and experienced his opposition was.
It’s all encouraging stuff and, if it can be duplicated against Leinster, should lead to better performances than we’ve been used to.
