Ronan O’Gara and Brian O’Driscoll were on OTB’s Friday Night Rugby and discussed Ireland’s evolving game-plan ahead of the World Cup.
Ireland seemed to have been figured out by England and Wales during the Six Nation with Schmidt’s side looking bereft of ideas for long periods of those games.
O’Driscoll reckoned that England’s refusal to contest in the rucks in the first four or five phases of attack left Ireland stumped and unable to build momentum.
“They just said, ‘Don’t be losing bodies in there, hopelessly going for ball. Just stack the field. Two in the back field, the other 13 in the front field and just defend that.’
“Then they’ll be forced to kick it and they’ll kick it on their terms and then there’s an opportunity to counter-attack. I think Ireland have had to evolve their attack after that.
“Joe [Schmidt] has had so much success with it but I think teams have started to work that out for sure. That’s why their phase play has got a lot more focus and that’s the chat that I’ve been hearing from training,” O’Driscoll commented.
Can they still pull the trigger?
While O’Gara noted that sticking to the game-plan has proved very successful for Ireland in the last number of years he was concerned whether or not they still had attacking instincts.
“Are we playing what we see in front of us? Or is it that there’s such massive trust in what they’ve prepped during the week that usually comes off?
“That would be the only question I have in my head and it really interests me in the fact that how is the team set up during the week to go after the opposition with the ball?
“How much is put on pulling the trigger live as opposed to playing rehearsed moves?” O’Gara questioned.
While Sexton and Murray are the most important players in Ireland’s attacking structure the centres and outside backs must also take responsibility.
The scrum-half and fly-half are the fulcrum of all sides' attacking play but can’t be expected to see everything and it is then that the centres and outside backs should step up and make decisions.
“I couldn’t imagine any player and certainly not Garry Ringrose or Chris Farrell, who are the likely 13s, to go, ‘Well it looks like there’s a bit of space out here but I’m not going to call something.’
“That’s innately a part of you as a player where you identify an opportunity for you to get a go at something,” O’Driscoll said.
O’Gara agreed that all sides need to occasionally break out of the gameplan and play heads up rugby at times and identified it as a crucial trait of great sides.
“Good becomes great when you stick to that, but also when you have the capacity to pull the trigger when you see something.
“If they don’t it’ll be a regret of theirs. There’s obviously satisfaction but real competitors need to have internal satisfaction as well to make sure that they have got the most out of it from a personal point of view.
“Otherwise I don’t think they’d be telling you the truth. Everyone wants to be performing to the best of their ability and showing their best,” O’Gara said.
Ireland still have three warm-up games before they kick off their World Cup campaign against Scotland and it will be interesting to see any further changes in their playing style.
While they are unlikely to show their full hand before heading to Japan, how they do against England and Wales may well be telling of how far they’ll go in the showpiece tournament.
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