Munster needed a performance on Saturday night in the worst way and they produced it.
Outside noise was at a fever pitch, Ulster brought a strong team to Thomond Park and the weather was bad – really bad. Simon Zebo’s red card in the 14th minute came before Munster managed any effective attacking sequence. We didn’t have the position for it. When he was red-carded, however, it would have drastically changed Munster’s ruck priorities.
When you’re down to 14 men, your ability to hang onto the ball – to effectively control possession – becomes incredibly important because any turnovers at the breakdown are particularly lethal when you’re down a winger.
You can control the backfield when you’re defending because you understand the space where the opposition might target but when you concede a breakdown turnover you’re particularly exposed. Why? If you’re going to properly stress the opposition offensively, your back three have to be engaged and with one missing, it puts pressure on your fullback, winger and outside centre to cover the idea of losing possession. Sure, throwing an intercept is lethal even if you had 18 players on the pitch but the idea of throwing a wide-wide passing set to the edge where you’re down a winger could be reliably expected to produce a situation where you could be counter-rucked and jackalled with absolutely no one nearby to cover. With a greasy ball and a wet pitch, that’s an easy situation to visualise and avoid.
So you need to hang onto the ball.
Munster did just that with a 98% retention rate from 136 rucks.
Munster’s Offensive Ruck Work Score vs Ulster
- 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. We’re 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 -1 points.
| Dominant Clean | Guard Action | Attendance | Ineffective | Ruck Work Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kilcoyne | 3 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 36 |
| Scannell | 5 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 51 |
| Archer | 3 | 23 | 4 | 0 | 59 |
| Ahern | 4 | 17 | 1 | 1 | 46 |
| Wycherley | 5 | 26 | 4 | 0 | 71 |
| Beirne | 9 | 19 | 1 | 1 | 65 |
| Hodnett | 2 | 17 | 1 | 1 | 40 |
| Coombes | 3 | 19 | 4 | 0 | 51 |
| Casey | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Crowley | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 10 |
| Zebo | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Scannell | 2 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 28 |
| Farrell | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 23 |
| French | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Haley | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| Barron | 1 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 25 |
| Wycherley | 1 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 21 |
| Ryan | 3 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 31 |
| Kendellen | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 17 |
| O'Donoghue | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Cronin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Healy | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Daly | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
Some of our incredibly high ruck numbers can be assigned to three tight 5m sequences – one being 9+ phases – but most of this was just very solid ball retention on a day when that would be at a premium.
Top Five ORWS
- Fineen Wycherley – 71 points
- Tadhg Beirne – 65 points
- Stephen Archer – 59 points
- Niall Scannell/Gavin Coombes – 51 points
- Thomas Ahern – 46 points
Fineen Wycherley took a while to get going in the game – a bit like Munster, in general – but began to really rack up his breakdown workload as the game progressed and put down some of the most efficient and impactful work I’ve ever seen from him in a game of this level. When you combine this season-high ORWS with his 12 carries and 11 tackles, you’ve got a serious performance that showcases the kind of top-level player Fin Wycherley is capable of becoming consistently. He’s still only 24 and, it could be argued, still has physical development to add to his frame. I still think we need to settle on what his actual role set is and where he might be best deployed in the medium term but with performances like this, that becomes a moot point to a certain extent.
He’s been upgraded to a Five Star performance for the Ulster game as a result of his outstanding breakdown work.
