By Jimmy Davidson: RUGBY COMMENT
10 February 2006
Ireland'S head coach, Eddie O'Sullivan has a twelve-man management team to assist him in preparing the National team, four of which have specific responsibility for the on-field playing performance of the international team players.
Assistant coach Niall O'Donovan, a successful coach with Munster and the Ireland Triple Crown winning side, is responsible for the Forwards. Former Great Britain Rugby League International Graham Steadman is the Defence Coach. Former England team out-half Mark Tainton is the Kicking Coach, while Ulsterman Brian McLoughlin operates as Skills Coach, having successfully developed rugby at RBAI and helped the Irish Under 21 sides to triple crown victories in 1996 and 1998.
As professionals, O'Sullivan and his four-man team are accountable for the National team performance and, as a consequence, must take responsibility for the lack of basic skill, understanding and tactical ineptitude displayed by their players against Italy last week.
In the modern game - with assisted lifting in the lineout, and referees permitting crooked feeds into the scrum - there is absolutely no reason why the forwards should not guarantee possession in both set pieces. Under O'Donovan's direction, however, the Irish forwards continue to demonstrate a total lack of imagination and inventiveness in using first phase possession.
The Irish lineout is predictable. There is no variation in the numbers employed in the lineout to outwit the opposition and release other forms of attack by the loose forwards. Neither do forwards peel off the back of lineouts to surge over the gain line and engage the opposition backs. The Munster maul appears to be the only option available although it did produce Flannery's try.
The slow supply of ball at the base of the scrum, and incessant feed by Stringer to the backs, merely launches the opposition defence and subjects the Irish threequarters to constant pressure. There is no attempt by the pack to wheel, nor for the back row to attack with ball in hand.
The lack of variation is inexcusable, and to hide behind the admission that the Italians played well is an abject failure to acknowledge that the predictable Irish forward game made things easy for Italy to go forward in defence and attack.
It was painful to watch world class players in the Irish backline taking a flat alignment in attack, thereby playing into the arms of the aggressive Italian pressure defence. Repeatedly, the receiver got both man and ball at the same time. Even when the Irish attempted a deeper alignment, the players took the ball in static positions by failing to run onto the ball. It was the worst form of schoolboy incompetence.
Last November, during the autumn series, I was apoplectic when I saw the return of the upraised hand at the base of defensive rucks and mauls - supposedly signifying taking responsibility for first man defence and the square stance of the defenders. Both positions totally contravene the mechanics of going forward. The first step, by necessity, is backwards.
If you don't believe me, look at the Irish forwards feet position at the base of rucks in the French match, and judge the results. How I would love to be proved wrong !
The Irish coaching team should have spotted, and remedied at half-time, the elementary failings of the Irish players. The Irish video analyst Mervyn Murphy, along with O'Sullivan, must surely have highlighted the causes of Ireland's abysmal performance this week, so that the head coach and his players can eliminate the fundamental shortcomings.
If they do not, or cannot, then it will not be the begrudgers who seek accountability, but the entire coaching fraternity.
Eddie's back-up team must stay ahead of the game
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Eddie's back-up team must stay ahead of the game
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Epaddy, Freedom Fighter
Epaddy, Freedom Fighter
Did he watch the match? There were only 6 scrums in total awarded to Ireland. At least 3 of them were in defence where all we were doing was clearing our lines, which we did effectively while I seem to remember Murphy being put away off a scrum only for himself and Bowe to c~*k up a try scoring chance. Hardly a great amount of scrums to come to any conclusion from. And since when has an Irish scrum managed to do anything more than retain possession? Control a wheel!!! We don't have the players Jimmy.The slow supply of ball at the base of the scrum, and incessant feed by Stringer to the backs, merely launches the opposition defence and subjects the Irish threequarters to constant pressure. There is no attempt by the pack to wheel, nor for the back row to attack with ball in hand.
I'd agree with him on the lineout, need more variation and more runners close in. However if he'd been watching Ireland v France games recently he'd realise that when we beat the French or get any joy out of them it's when we've 7/8 man lineouts and we spread the ball quickly away from their forwards. e.g. when Stringer used to feed Hendo straight from lineouts, worked a charm then and I can't see us not doing it this week, especially given that the French 10/12/13 defence is probably where they're weakest.