I hate watching games like this back.
I think Ireland’s analysts will probably think the same. There’s very little useful information you can take from it, other than Ireland buffed their points difference, earned five points and, at the time of writing, had not picked up any injuries that might affect the more serious games to come.
There really is no way to speak about Romania in this contest that doesn’t sound patronising. They pitched up quite physically, they took their try well in the opening minutes and they never stopped competing (not to sound too much like a Bank of Ireland ad) but the gulf in class was just too wide for them to realistically bridge. Ireland put 82 points on them but it could and should have been 100 points or more.
As an exercise in getting low-impact minutes into Sexton alongside the bulk of the starting XV, it was the equivalent of a few rounds on the heavy bag as opposed to a full-on spar. It was a forgettable World Cup pool whooping with all the calorific value of a tube of toothpaste for dinner. In a way, I think the Irish coaching unit will be glad they’ve got this match out of the way because everything will scale up in intensity from here.
In my initial watch of the game – inside the first five minutes – I thought that Romania actually had a decent understanding of Ireland’s counter-transition starter plays, to the point that it pushed Ireland off scheme to the point that it cost us an early try.
Seeing a team disrupt Ireland’s lineout while also denying us the kind of counter-transition starter positions we love was… concerning. By kicking deep on each return, they attacked Ireland’s thinking. We want to hit our post-transition phases further up the field or off the lineout but Romania kicking so deep and accurately blew that wide open. We had to return the kicks in kind and, when Romania didn’t engage with our transition defence, we just kept… kicking it back to them looking for them to make the kind of errors we wanted.
Instead, it was Ireland who blinked first when Sexton over-chased a half gap on the edge.
If Romania kept that level of response to our counter-transition game, it would have made for a far stickier contest in my opinion but they didn’t have the tactical discipline, the fitness or the consistency of skill execution to keep it up for longer than fits and starts.
In fact, straight from the restart they immediately lost their discipline by handing Ireland the exact sort of kicking error we thrive off.
Have I seen that somewhere before, you might think? You have, just a few weeks ago. England coughed up a post-transition try from more or less the same position with more or less the same principles involved.
Romania would continue to exit with that length for the majority of the game and, as their chase line tired, gaps would open up all over the field. The more tired they became in response to each post-transition sequence, the more likely they became to just hoof the ball away with a confused chase that would often cluster around the contact point.
Ireland will be disappointed that they couldn’t take better advantage of the spacing that was consistently opened up.
In that environment, Ireland were always going to score a bucket of tries and they duly did so. Romania kept on kicking long to relieve the pressure and they kept the ball infield to try to limit Ireland’s ability to maul and strike off the lineout – this only ended one way; getting punched up on counter-transition over and over again, from almost every kick they made infield, even restarts.
They picked their poison, so to speak.
Get the ball off the field and get pieced up by Ireland’s lineout maul and strike plays?
Or keep the ball infield and get slapped around on counter-transition? That’s if they wanted to kick at a high volume. If they didn’t want to do that, they could always play on-ball possession rugby and blow themselves up within 30 minutes.
When you’re a Tier 3 side playing the #1 team in the world, you’ve got nowhere to turn unless you have a specific unit game-breaker like a massive scrum or maul, and Romania had neither of those.
You quite often hear about how the elite Tier 1 sides should play Tier 3 sides more often – and I agree – because Romania will 100% be a better side after this World Cup for playing Ireland, Scotland and South Africa. The downside to these games is that, for the true elite of this game, playing Romania takes something from you. It’s a game where you spin your wheels, run in a few scores and ultimately learn absolutely nothing of value.
Ireland’s second try is a good example of a window that would never happen against serious opposition.
Look, you can only beat who’s in front of you. Tonga will be a much more difficult challenge because they have size and power all the way through their side, as well as a game-breaking ability on transition that will cause us pause, for a time. Even then, we should beat them fairly comfortably.
Ultimately, nothing we have played against by the end of next weekend since the end of the Six Nations will prepare us for what is to come against the Springboks in a fortnight.
There’s nothing to be afraid of – we’re an excellent side – but the level change from beating Italy, Confused England, Samoa, Romania and, I expect, Tonga, is like jumping from a tepid paddling pool right into a volcano when it comes to changes in level.
The next two weeks will tell a lot about our levels in training, more so than anything else.
| Names | Rating |
|---|---|
| Andrew Porter | ★★★ |
| Rob Herring | ★★★ |
| Tadhg Furlong | ★★★ |
| Joe McCarthy | ★★★★ |
| James Ryan | ★★★ |
| Tadhg Beirne | ★★★★ |
| Peter O'Mahony | ★★★★ |
| Caelan Doris | ★★★ |
| Jamison Gibson Park | ★★★ |
| Johnny Sexton | ★★★★ |
| James Lowe | ★★★ |
| Bundee Aki | ★★★★★ |
| Garry Ringrose | ★★★ |
| Keith Earls | ★★★ |
| Hugo Keenan | ★★★★ |
| Ronan Kelleher | ★★★★ |
| Jeremy Loughman | ★★★ |
| Tom O'Toole | ★★★★ |
| Iain Henderson | ★★★ |
| Josh Van Der Flier | ★★★ |
| Conor Murray | ★★★ |
| Jack Crowley | ★★★★ |
| Mack Hansen | ★★★ |
