It might be a surprise to learn that, in a game where Munster were taken apart at the breakdown, we had some decent Offensive Ruck Work scoring but it’s one of those occasions where you need to look at the stats position by position to get an idea of where the underperformance actually was.
As mentioned in the Wally Ratings for this game, Munster had issues ranging from positional confusion as it related to the new attacking system, different clean-out pictures, and problems with pass accuracy that affected all of these problems as a force multiplier.
Yet, even then, we have some strong scoring – particularly in the starting front five and front row replacements.
MUNSTER’S OFFENSIVE RUCK WORK SCORE VS CARDIFF
- 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 -1 points.
| Dominant Clean | Guard Action | Attendance | Ineffective | Ruck Work Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J.Wycherley | 4 | 9 | 2 | 26 | |
| Scannell | 6 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 31 |
| Knox | 2 | 7 | 1 | 21 | |
| Kleyn | 6 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 34 |
| F. Wycherley | 10 | 6 | 4 | 46 | |
| O'Donoghue | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 16 |
| Kendellen | 3 | 5 | 1 | 20 | |
| O'Sullivan | 3 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 25 |
| Patterson | 1 | 2 | -1 | ||
| Healy | 0 | ||||
| Coombes | 1 | 4 | 1 | 9 | |
| Fekitoa | 1 | 3 | 9 | ||
| Farrell | 1 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 14 |
| Nash | 4 | 1 | 1 | 12 | |
| Daly | 2 | 5 | 4 | 8 | |
| Barron | 5 | 2 | 2 | 21 | |
| Kilcoyne | 3 | 4 | 1 | 18 | |
| Salanoa | 3 | 4 | 17 | ||
| Ahern | 3 | -6 | |||
| Hodnett | 3 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 17 |
| Cronin | 0 | ||||
| Crowley | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |
| Frisch | 3 | 1 | 11 |
Top Five ORW Scorers vs Cardiff
- Fineen Wycherley – 46 points
- Jean Kleyn – 34 points
- Niall Scannell – 31 points
- Josh Wycherley – 26 points
- Jack O’Sullivan – 25 points
These players were joined by strong 55/25 performances by Knox, Barron, Salanoa and Kilcoyne, with Nash impressing on the wing. Chris Farrell guarded wider rucks quite well, but that score needs to be a good bit higher in this system.
The biggest issue for me is the relatively low scoring of the back row as a unit, especially the relative lack of Dominant Cleans. That highlights the “jankiness” inherent in the application of the new system. Players who primarily carried off #9 and cleaned off #9 had better, more consistent scores. Players who cover the wider channels struggled to get the accuracy needed at the breakdown and were more likely to pick up Ineffective Entries, Attendances or Guard Actions at best. On the other side of the coin, Shane Daly’s high number of Ineffective cleans shows the workload on the fullback and back three in general in this system. On a good day, I think the numbers for the back three will all be well north of 15. Daly would have been close to 20/21 without those four Ineffective entries dragging his ORW score down.
I think you’ll be able to keep track of the development of Munster’s attacking system by looking at the ORW scores of the back row, the outside centre and the back three specifically as the season progresses.
As a result of these scores, Fineen Wycherley has jumped up by one star to a ★★★ performance from a ★★ performance on the Wally Ratings. Thomas Ahern has been downgraded to N/A because he only played 10 minutes, with most of it defending, before having three really poor ruck entries. I typically don’t score players who play for less than 15 minutes in a game of this level, even if that would be worthy of a ★★ rating.
All other scores stay the same.
