One Dimension
With all the teams at RWC2015 having now played at least one game, it’s interesting to see what the outside view has been of Ireland’s performance against Canada. The 43-point win was the largest winning margin of the opening matches and the power of the Irish maul as well as the incisiveness of their attacks were encouraging.
However, Justin Marshall and Mike Tindall had some interesting opinions on Ireland’s attacking ability, describing it as “lacklustre”, “slightly conservative” and “one-dimensional” with both men predicting that Ireland will struggle against superior opposition. It’s all opinion, of course, but I find it pretty astonishing that two experienced former players believe that there’s only one way to win a rugby match. As Ireland showed (against top class opposition) during the November Series and the Six Nations, they’ve formulated an extremely efficient playing style that is hard to beat. Tindall, in particular, featured in several top-class teams that weren’t afraid to win ugly.
Playing to your strengths has become something of a mantra for Ireland under Joe Schmidt and, although it may sound obvious, the logical conclusion to that mantra is also to play to the weaknesses of your opposition. Which brings me to Romania…
Toppling The Oaks
France’s 38-11 win over Romania on Wednesday night was actually an unfair reflection of how well Romania played for large parts of the game. They had a chance to take the lead with a straight-forward penalty in the 26th minute and the match was in the balance until the sin-binning of tight-head Paulica Ion during which time the French scored two tries in space of four minutes. Still, they only led 17-6 at the break and you can tell from Philippe Saint-Andre’s dressing-room display that he knew his side were being flattered by the scoreline.
Romania eventually wilted in the last quarter as the French bench and superior fitness made an impact, but they will certainly have exposed some potential weaknesses in the France set-up that the Irish management will hope to exploit.
Given their proud scrummaging tradition, Romania’s set-piece is a cornerstone of their game plan, while they earned an incredible 11 turnovers by repeatedly flooding the breakdown and forcing France into mistakes. The Irish scrum has been outstanding this season and it will be interesting to see if Joe Schmidt and Greg Feek will choose to take-on the Romanian pack on Sunday.
Despite highlighting the good qualities shown by Romania on Wednesday, they were also badly exposed in an area where Ireland are perfectly suited to exploit. Their kicking-game, specifically their defensive kicking, was poor and I suspect that Schmidt will be aiming to hammer home that advantage at Wembley.
The kick and the chase
So many facets of rugby rely on a combination of factors working together to achieve a successful result. A good line-out throw is only as good as jumper who claims it, who is only as good as the lifters beneath him, etc.
Similarly, an effective kicking game relies on accuracy from the kicker as well as energy and aggression from the chasers but these were elements that were lacking from Romania on Wednesday. Too often, their kicks downfield were aimless or poorly conceived.
Despite very nearly forcing a turnover with their first kick-chase in the 4th minute, the Romanian back-three showed little enthusiasm for a job that has become a mandatory task for Irish wingers. Even in the early stages, kicks like the one below weren’t chased-down with any urgency, allowing Brice Dulin to make nearly 20 metres before running into contact.
And later in the game (when minds and bodies were starting to fail but the difference between the two sides was still less than two converted scores), centre Florin Vlaicu produced this ponderous effort that was matched in it’s nonchalance by the absence of any sort of pressure from his team-mates. In fairness to Vlaicu, the initial kick had at least pinned Dulin to the touchline before he was allowed to jog out of trouble. Compare the absence of a Romanian kick-chase to the effort from Dulin, Noa Nakaitaci and Fulgence Ouedraogo just seconds later.
Clearing the lines
While the kick-chase is now an established method of turning defence into attack that can require some subtlety, Romania also looked nervy even when trying to clear their own lines. One of the basic skills of the game looked to be completely alien to them at times.
In the 15th minute, with France only leading by a single penalty, the Romanian forwards combined brilliantly to defuse a potentially dangerous situation on their own 22 by stealing a French lineout (not the only time they managed that on Wednesday). Immediately, you can see scrum-half Florin Surugiu gesturing to his out-half to move onto the gainline and push France backwards but the sliced kick by Danut Dumbrava (who had a poor game overall) effectively handed France another lineout from the same spot.
I’m picking on Dumbrava now, but there was also this sliced clearance while under medium pressure which visibly wounded Romania to the point where you can see his team-mates giving him an earful.
It came as no surprise when Dumbrava was replaced after 46 minutes and Romania head coach Lynn Howells may be tempted to re-think his half-back selection ahead of Sunday’s game.
Attacking kicks
Incidentally, that previous GIF was the final phase of a frenetic passage of play that had seen Romania steal (yet another) French lineout and attempt to build an attack. This time they spread the play quickly across the pitch from right to left and appear to have stretched the French line.
However, winger Adrian Apostol breaks the cardinal rule of playing against French teams: Never kick it to a player in space. His decision to fly-kick in-field as opposed to the more difficult kick down the line allows Dulin to sweep-up the ball and launch, via Morgan Parra, a counter-attack down the opposite wing.
One final example of Romania’s loose kicking game comes once again from the hapless Danut Dumbrava. With the game tied on three apiece and both sides still probing for weaknesses, the out-half spots a half-gap behind the French line which he tries to exploit but his kick lacks the necessary accuracy. A theme that was repeated throughout the match.
The Ireland management would have already identified ways to expose Romania. Their offensive lineout on Wednesday was sloppy and the half-step needed by scrum-half, Surugiu allows defences an extra split second to squeeze the Romanian backline behind the gainline. However, when Joe Schmidt reviewed the kicking game of this weekend’s opponents he would have recognised that one of the undoubted strengths of his side also happens to be a real weakness for Romania. I doubt he’ll worry if it’s a tactic that is too one-dimensional to exploit.
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