[su_dropcap style=”flat” size=”4″]T[/su_dropcap]he points you get for beating Italy count the exact same as beating everyone else in the Six Nations but as of late, they’ve been as much about running up a score for points difference as they are about handling the mundane business of bonus points. That’s not meant as a knock against Italy but there’s hardly another way to take it as anything but a knock at the moment. Italy are at a low ebb right now and this game was further proof of it.
When you look at Italy’s combined starting caps for this game – 288 – it paled in comparison to an Irish side that managed to start 493 caps worth of international experience, and that’s with two debutants and one guy earning his third cap in the starting XV. Experience isn’t everything but it still counts for an awful lot at test rugby and Italy are plainly in a rebuilding phase at the moment so while this result featured quite a healthy scoreline, we have to take the context of the opposition into consideration.
That didn’t mean that Italy were a walkover in this game – they gave us enough difficulty that we racked up bigger tackle numbers than they did and came out on the wrong side of possession and territory – but I think we knew that if we managed any spell of coherent attacking rugby, scores would come and that was mostly what happened.
Ireland were far from what I would describe as impressive here but, despite that, we were comfortable, easy winners.
My main interest in this fixture was the development of our attacking shape since the lockdown, our attacking breakdown efficiency and the suitability of players in the roles.
First things first, we were back to running the 3-2-X shape were using pre-lockdown. Hardly a surprise but we were sticking to the principles of earning width, stacking our structure with forward assets and showing a real willingness to play. Here’s an example of that shape with a splitting midfield two pod around a Sexton tactical kick.
All the way through the game, you could discern clear 3-2-X patterns. In this instance – again, with a kick option – you can see our entire front row standing in two different pods. Healy and Porter make up the middle two with Herring running the wider X option.
As you’d expect, you need a fair bit of handling capacity to make that style of game work and we certainly did that well. We passed out of screens, across the field on transition and tipped on well in contact at times.
As discussed before the game, the key to any 3-2-X system is gaining and securing width to allow the structure room to breath on the reverse back across the field. Ireland did this incredibly well. Have a look at this sequence here with a clear progression plan to find that wide position.
The last phase after Keenan’s looped carry is a clear “positional” phase, where Ireland are looking to extend the lines as far as they can. Before the ball comes out of the last phase, you can see Keenan working hard to get back across to the other side of the field because he’ll know that Ireland are looking to progress back across the field.
With a full forward set on the openside, Ireland were able to run a full 3-3-2 on the reverse phase with Keenan playing a big role on the last pass to Stander for a big gain down the other side of the field. We scored a phase or two later.
This kind of fluid action is exactly what we’re looking to do with the ball in hand. Earned width, full forward structures and looped wingers linking up and breaking the line with athletic forwards making gains in wide channels. Later in the game, we managed more expansive looks at this system with O’Mahony a hair away from turning a midfield two pod hit up into a massive linebreak with this offload.
That is the kind of expansivity that can come with this system and it will be a focus for the forwards, in particular, to challenge their skillset in situations just like these.
Our work at the breakdown facilitated this style and we ran at a smooth 97% ruck retention rate with 80% of our breakdowns completed in under 3 seconds but that will be tempered by Italy’s lack of competition over the ball. We, on the other hand, heavily contested the Italian breakdown. Ireland stole the ball 11 times and 11% of Italy’s breakdowns took longer than 6 seconds which is a pretty impressive return from a defensive perspective.
How did we end up defending so much? We kicked a lot of ball, although not through the box kick which I feel was a nod to the opposition. Stockdale and Sexton did the majority of our exiting and we seemed happy enough to give Italy a lot of lineouts and transition runbacks. Here, our kicking strategy translated into a lot of Italian possession and some unfocused play from Ireland, at times. I felt our work on kick transition left a fair bit to be desired and some of our kicking strategies didn’t have the return we were looking for and mostly just handed possession back to Italy. We were comfortable in defence, though, and managed to stymie Italy relentlessly in the tackle and over the ball at the breakdown.
The lack of box kicking was quite notable but I wonder how this will translate against France. We kicked the ball 26 times (Murray kicked 3 times with one of those being a kick through for Keenan’s try) but most of our kicks were either territorial attempts or exits like this, where Stockdale misjudged his initial footwork to stay in the 22 but got a kind bounce on his exit.
More of our exits looked like this, where were comfortable kicking long to invite a transition and an attempted jackal over the hit. Stander was unlucky here but you can see the principle – kick long, use transition defence to get in place, make a tackle, invite a poach.
I don’t see us using this technique against France and their kick transition but what we tried was mostly useful here, even if it did translate into more defensive phases than we would have liked.
It’s this aspect of our game that I have concerns about for next week, but we’ll leave that for the Red Eye. As it was, this was a decent performance that showcased some excellent individual performances and a growing comfort with the attacking shape Mike Catt is trying to implement. We will see next week if it is enough to challenge a resurgent French side on their own patch.
Notable Players
This was an unusually flat performance by James Ryan, in my opinion. It wasn’t bad – I don’t know if he’s capable of a bad performance based on his career to date – but it was a fair bit below the usual standard we’ve come to expect from James Ryan in a green shirt. He had a decent work rate across all the key areas you look for – carrying, lineout, defence, offensive breakdown – but he was below what I’ve come to expect from him.
Andrew Porter had a big game on the offensive and defensive breakdown, where he was his usual physically imposing self but the scrum was a bit of a worry on a few occasions. That’ll need to improve ahead of next week, to state the blindingly obvious, but he was good here.
I felt Bundee Aki had a hugely effective performance here. I’ve written on these digital pages before about how like a flanker he is and he lived up to it again here with a rake of defensive ruck arrivals mixed with some excellent passing, bruising carrying and a slick finish after an absolute world-class offload by Peter O’Mahony on a breakdown transition set.
Aki is a big character in this squad and this was a typical example of the energy, noise and physicality he brings. Quality.
A quick word on Hugo Keenan – what a debut! He took his tries well and was a sloppy infringement away from bagging a hat-trick. Great work rate, pace, willingness to offload and a fair bit of pop in his carrying. A really encouraging debut for the young man.
CJ Stander proved once again that he is the most complete back row forward on the island with a comprehensive performance that showcased everything he’s good at. Impact ball-carrying? Check. Menacing the breakdown? Check. Lineout takes? Check. Tries? Check. There’s very little that CJ Stander isn’t top quality at and this game was just another example of that truth.
This was the best performance I’ve seen from Tadhg Beirne at test level. I think there’s a tendency to look at Beirne’s game and judge him on the Hollywood stuff – the tries, the sidesteps, the lineout and breakdown steals – but that misjudges his ability to mix it up in the dirty work. He did a bit of both here. There were good carries, steals and examples of his handling but he worked his arse off at the offensive breakdown, topping the charts for first arrivals and cleanouts while being a consistent impact defender. It takes some performance to be the best player in a second-row pairing with James Ryan but Beirne managed that here. Excellent ★★★★★
I had a few questions before the game about how Will Connors would fit into the attacking shape Mike Catt is building here. Could Connors show he’s got the ability to be a test standard support forward? On this evidence, absolutely. He was top of the defensive charts, as you’d expect, with a collection of metronomic, dominant chop tackles that stopped Italy dead. But we know this about Connors. What else does he have? He’s not really a guy who makes heavy metres off #9 but he doesn’t need to be – he filled the “O’Mahony role” in the wide areas really well and made some nice passes, some good surges and, crucially, made 20 first three ruck arrivals to keep the 3-2-X system running smoothly.
This was a really good example of what Connors can bring at test level. He isn’t really a lineout option as a jumper. He was mostly used as a distributor, maul component or midfield chopper and that was reflected with all but two of our lineouts being full or six-man schemes – our only five-man lineout got stolen – but Connors showed enough that it isn’t a problem.
He showed in this game that he will bring what you know him for – a massive work rate and effectiveness in defence – but that he can also support the game with ball in hand and at the breakdown. You don’t select Connors to run over people, you select him to make big stops in defence, subtle handling in attack and to hit offensive rucks effectively.
This was an outstanding debut and, while next week will be a big challenge, he’s shown that he deserves his starting spot. Outstanding. ★★★★★
The Wally Ratings: Italy (H)
The Wally Ratings explainer page is here.
Players are rated based on their time on the pitch, if they were playing notably out of position, and on the overall curve of the team performance. DNP means the player did not feature and N/A means they weren’t on the pitch long enough to warrant a fair rating.
| Names | Rating |
|---|---|
| Cian Healy | ★★★ |
| Rob Herring | ★★★ |
| Andrew Porter | ★★★ |
| Tadhg Beirne | ★★★★★ |
| James Ryan | ★★★ |
| Caelan Doris | ★★★★ |
| Will Connors | ★★★★★ |
| CJ Stander | ★★★★ |
| Conor Murray | ★★★★ |
| Johnny Sexton | ★★★★ |
| Hugo Keenan | ★★★★ |
| Bundee Aki | ★★★★ |
| Garry Ringrose | N/A |
| Andrew Conway | ★★★ |
| Jacob Stockdale | ★★★ |
| Dave Heffernan | ★★★ |
| Ed Byrne | ★★★ |
| Finlay Bealham | ★★★ |
| Ultan Dillane | ★★★ |
| Peter O'Mahony | ★★★ |
| Jamison Gibson-Park | ★★★ |
| Ross Byrne | ★★★ |
| Robbie Henshaw | ★★★ |
