Madigan v Jackson
At the halfway point of this Rugby World Cup warm-up series, one of the more difficult selection decisions facing Joe Schmidt doesn’t even impact on the starting XV.
The contest between Paddy Jackson and Ian Madigan to establish themselves as Johnny Sexton’s chief stand-in has ratcheted up several notches over the past fortnight as Jackson produced a quality display against a ragged Welsh side before Madigan stuck up his hand with a fluorescent (to borrow a phrase from Mark Robson) 80 minute display against Scotland.
We spoke to Trevor Hogan on the show on Monday night and he seems to think that Madigan has reversed the order at the start of the pre-season and has effectively leapfrogged Jackson to become the ‘deputy to the chief playmaker’.
“The received wisdom in my opinion was that Jackson was number two, but he would still go with Madigan as the sub because he's more flexible. I think now it's now maybe more clear cut and it could be that Madigan after the weekend has jumped in to number two...I do think it’s fair to say that Madigan’s feet are probably unmatched by the other players. It’s a lethal step.”
It seems likely that Schmidt will bring both players as back-up to Sexton and, although Madigan’s ability to cover three different positions makes him a more likely candidate to wear the no.22 jersey in the key matches, Jackson may well get a chance to start against Canada or Romania.
So, lets look at some of the strengths and weaknesses of both players, which were there for all to see across the course of both matches so-far.
Judging criteria
Before getting into the nitty gritty of ‘who-did-what-better-than-who’ it stands to reason that we should think about how Schmidt might be judging the performances.
Ian Madigan came into the studio on Tuesday night and spoke about how he feels as though all three outhalves aren’t competing against one another so much as they’re striving to better their own personal abilities and standards.
It’s a really good interview and I’d strongly recommend listening back to it, if only to hear about how Schmidt reviews incidents during matches.
“If you go for a big pass and it gets intercepted coz the pass didn’t come out cleanly, he’ll [Schmidt] ask you ‘what did you see there? why did you go for that pass?’. And if you say that you thought that their winger was too narrow and I thought I could send our winger down the touchline but what happened was the ball slipped in my hand slightly and it got intercepted. Then he’d say, ‘okay, I like your thought process there but you need to go away and work harder on that skill so that the ball doesn’t slip out of your hand when you’re passing it’.”
Madigan also talked about his own views of what exactly the nebulous phrase ‘game management’ means to him.
“For me, what it is, is making the right decision at the right time. If that means you run the ball from your own 5 metre line, that could be the right decision at that time. But if you throw out a pass and it doesn’t work out and the other team score then that’s ‘bad game management’ but if you throw out a pass, y’know you suddenly make a break and you’re up to the halfway line then it suddenly is the right thing.”
“A massive part of game management is trusting your instincts...If I go out onto the pitch and trust my instincts and do what I think is the right thing to do at that time, I think I’ll have a good game. Whereas if I’m going out and I’m doing things blindly that’s when things are going to go wrong.”
These are some of the key pointers that Schmidt is looking for from his playmakers in these warm-up games.
Jackson
Jackson did replace Simon Zebo for the final few minutes against Scotland last weekend and he made two key tackles in quick succession as he played his part in stemming the Scottish push for victory. However, most of his body of work so-far comes from the Millennium Stadium.
A lot has been made of the Ulsterman’s shaky start in Cardiff before he eventually settled into a rhythm and got the best out of his strike runners (how much are Darren Cave and Keith Earls in debt to Jackson’s passing for their own performances against the Welsh?). During the opening quarter in particular, Jackson appeared to be trying to force matters and there were several kicks which resulted in possession returning to Wales.
Keeping in mind what Madigan was saying about game management, at least two of those kicks by Jackson weren’t as reckless as they may have first appeared. It’s also important to remember that Hallam Amos was making his first Test start at full-back and Jackson would have been eager to test the 20-year-old’s positioning and fielding ability in that opening quarter.
The first example comes after just three minutes when an attempted a grubber went harmlessly over the touchline and allowed Wales to clear their line. In commentary, Jonathan Davies was critical of Jackson’s decision to kick away possession, but as you can see below, it was probably a worthwhile gamble. There’s clearly a lot of space behind the Welsh defensive line, which has got numbers up to match the Irish attackers outside of Jackson. In all likelihood, Schmidt will have looked at this and approved of the thought process but not the execution.
In contrast, Jackson tried a similar kick about 10 minutes later which had followed an initial counter-attack by Felix Jones and Jamie Heaslip. This time, he was kicking inside the Welsh 22 and consequently had less space behind the defensive line to exploit. As you can see, Ireland also had a 3v2 overlap outside him and the better option would have been straighten his line and fix a defender before feeding Iain Henderson or Felix Jones outside him.
There were two other examples of Jackson’s array of kicking inside that opening quarter. Firstly, there was a teasing kick that was designed to test Amos under the high ball and forced a knock-on and provided Ireland with forward momentum.
But then, the very next time he gets his hands on the ball, he produces a poor chip into the corner that was too long and aimless. Unfortunately, we can’t see how motivated the Irish kick-chase was from the camera angle but Eli Walker was left with far too much time to be able to clear his lines.
The point here is not to criticise Jackson for coughing-up possession, but to show that at least two of those kicks were worthwhile plays and that the out-half has improved on his all round kicking game in order to try and exploit gaps behind an aggressive rush defence.
As mentioned, Jackson’s variety of passing was perhaps the most impressive part of his performance against Wales. Since his return from the dislocated elbow that he suffered last season, he’s been taking the ball much closer to the gain line and his ability to fix defences before releasing runners makes him incredibly dangerous to contain. His longer passing and skip passes are routinely excellent, but it was his shorter passing that stood out for me during that game. I particularly liked this one in the opening-half, which unfortunately came to nothing in the end.
Madigan
The highlight of Madigan’s Tour de Force against Scotland last Saturday was of course his crossfield dink for Luke Fitzgerald’s try.
It’s a thing of real beauty and no little skill, but it’s also worth pointing out that Madigan knew that the referee was playing a penalty advantage and that it was effectively a free-kick. Joe Schmidt has drilled it into his players that they should maximise those advantage situations when inside the opposition 22 and it’s good to see that Madigan had the ability to follow through in such spectacular fashion.
As Trevor Hogan mentioned at the start of this (increasingly long-winded) post, Madigan’s ability to step off either foot gives him a real edge when it comes to attacking plays. There’s two examples that I want to highlight, one from either match so-far in the warm-up series.
The lead-up to Simon Zebo’s try against Scotland featured two moments of real genius from Madigan. First the Leinster man used his foot speed to send Dave Kearney through the middle of the Scottish defence and then repeated the trick just seconds later to allow Zebo to score. The best angle to watch this is from behind as you can see that the unfortunate John Barclay has a ringside view of Madigan’s dummy on both occasions.
There’s a couple of crucial things to watch out for in this clip from the win against Wales, when Madigan was introduced off the bench at inside centre. First is the understanding that Jackson and Madigan have managed to develop. Tommy O’Donnell has just pounced on a loose ball to win a turnover and you can see that both players have immediately moved to the right to exploit the space, with Madigan sprinting to get outside Jackson so he can take the ball out wide.
Secondly, is the trademark sidestep from Madigan that creates the hole that he bursts through before drifting towards the sideline and allowing Fergus McFadden to cut back in-field for the pass.
The third thing to watch out for is how quickly he works to get back into the attacking line, instinctively knowing that the Welsh defence is struggling. That hunger for work means that he’s standing at first receiver just two phases later and is able to fire out a wonderful floated pass to Jordi Murphy that sets up another attack.
It probably comes as no real surprise that defence is an issue that both players still need to work on. Despite their size, Jackson and Madigan are both exceptionally brave but in the aftermath of the matches that they each started, both players spoke about their disappointment at ‘slipping off tackles’. The interesting thing, I think, about their defensive frailties is that they have very separate issues that need fixing.
Jackson’s slight frame means that he rarely goes into a tackle on his own and when he does he can be blown away by the attacking player. Perhaps it’s unfair to single-out this example, which occurred so late during an energy-sapping game, but the video below highlights a rare occasion where Jackson flies into a tackle on his own and never really gets close to bringing down his man.
In contrast, I’ve always felt that Madigan’s main defensive weakness comes from a desire to take on too much responsibility. There’s the infamous example of Ryan Crotty’s try for New Zealand, when Madigan didn’t trust the man inside him and for a player who is used to getting involved as often as possible, it must be difficult to resist tackling a ball carrier when he’s headed straight for you.
Unfortunately, as you can see, it’s a habit that Madigan is finding hard to shake. In the lead-up to Justin Tipuric’s try, Madigan doesn’t trust that Jackson inside him will be able to deal with Eli Walker and sits back on his heels slightly, which is enough create the space that Tipuric and co exploit with devastating brilliance.
I’d suggest that Schmidt’s reaction to those two passages of play would be to tell both players to cram in some extra tackle drills between now and September 19th.
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