Written by Eoin Harte
Ireland’s physical style may be too demanding to produce back-to-back for seven weeks to win the World Cup, according to Andy Dunne.
"My concern as a general rule in the Irish style is again that ruck count," Dunne told Wednesday's OTB AM.
"We average about 140 rucks per game and the other top five teams in the world average about eighty.
"So we’ve sixty extra rucks to win an international, relative to other sides.”
While Ireland’s focus on rucks is currently providing dividends for the team, the physical nature of this style of play could lead to more injuries and could prove fatal for their World Cup chances.
Several injuries may not be of the greatest concern to Schmidt however, with Dunne saying, “you could just as easily counter that we’ve got greater strength in depth, in order to do it.”
Compared to other national sides, the number of rucks that Ireland go through is largely down to their reluctance to look for offloads.
"Most of our forward runners will tuck [the ball] and seek out contact and probably run at an angle where their head is looking at the floor and they’ll probably hit the floor," Dunne stated.
"They’re preempted to hit a ruck in order to set up the next phase."
"Most of our forward runners will tuck and seek out contact and probably run at an angle where their head is looking at the floor"
@pHDunner took a look at @IrishRugby's style of attrition on this morning's #OTBAM and why they do it just so very, very well... pic.twitter.com/JXQHtOENMK— Off The Ball (@offtheball) January 16, 2019
While offloads can often unlock defences far more quickly than straight forward crash ball play, it does leave the attacking side open to a counter-attack as turnovers become far more likely.
"We don’t embrace that as a national side [offloads], we hit a lot of rucks but we’re very good at it," Dunne reasoned.
Schmidt's meticulously planned plays are currently working well for Ireland, but there are valid concerns over how long this style of play will continue to work.
"I think there’s a danger in general in being prescriptive. An opposition side will analyse us and it does make us slightly predictable,” Dunne said.
In contrast, the All Blacks employ a completely different mentality, with their former skills coach Mick Byrne known for saying, “If we don’t know what we’re going to do, the opposition definitely don’t.”
While this can result in chaotic play, the lack of predictability has worked wonderfully for the current world champions, who score many of their tries in open play.
