Pocock Importance in Saturdays game

thomasm

A lot is being said about Pocock going to destroy us on Saturday. Can someone tell me the significance of the role(number 7) he is playing and why we are so weary of him. I dont think I have ever heard one player so talked up as a threat against us.

handsomecake

thomasm wrote: »

A lot is being said about Pocock going to destroy us on Saturday. Can someone tell me the significance of the role(number 7) he is playing and why we are so weary of him. I dont think I have ever heard one player so talked up as a threat against us.

i dont think his impact will be as big as people think,he will have to tackle a lot of big men all day. but the issue is australia have a world class if not the best groundhog/fetcher in the world in pocock and we are essentially playing without one. ferris heaslip and o brien are built like #6's / #8's imo.

flynninio

he is class but if we get enough guys into the rucks to clear him out we will cope. also i want see o brien rampaging straight thru him at every oppertunity. the back row for ireland looks on its day immense even if we dont have a recognised 7 in there. i think the go forward ball we have from these 3 will be awesome. am i rght in saying this is first time these 3 have played together?

yosser hughes

flynninio wrote: »

he is class but if we get enough guys into the rucks to clear him out we will cope. also i want see o brien rampaging straight thru him at every oppertunity. the back row for ireland looks on its day immense even if we dont have a recognised 7 in there. i think the go forward ball we have from these 3 will be awesome. am i rght in saying this is first time these 3 have played together?

I think you could be right. I can't remember the three of them playing together before. It's an exciting prospect.
edit: With regard Pocock OP.He is important because he wins a lot of the ball at the breakdown,he is arguably the best at it.Our back row are more ball carriers than ball winners.However David Wallace was more of a ball carrier than a traditional 7 so the management team obviously do not rate that aspect as highly I'm guessing. In fairness Heaslip wins his fair share of ball. However our forwards could possibly dominate in the scrum and lineout. Can't wait for the game.

LostPassword

thomasm wrote: »

A lot is being said about Pocock going to destroy us on Saturday. Can someone tell me the significance of the role(number 7) he is playing and why we are so weary of him. I dont think I have ever heard one player so talked up as a threat against us.

Pocock, (along with Brussow and George Smith in his day) is a world class ball pincher. He arrives as second man at the breakdown when the opposition has the ball and leeches onto the ball. What makes him so good is that he has extremely good body position, which means that once he is in place, he is impossible to shift, as he doesn't present any real target to allow people to hit him and clear him out - low centre of gravity, wrapped all over the ball. He also has great upper body strength and a really significant capacity for taking punishment, which means that he can hang on long enough to get the penalty / turnover, even when gigantic men are flying into him. The only real way to counteract this is to beat him to the breakdown and protect the ball / clear him out before he can get into position.

bamboozle

flynninio wrote: »

he is class but if we get enough guys into the rucks to clear him out we will cope. also i want see o brien rampaging straight thru him at every oppertunity. the back row for ireland looks on its day immense even if we dont have a recognised 7 in there. i think the go forward ball we have from these 3 will be awesome. am i rght in saying this is first time these 3 have played together?

SOB at 7 wont be used as a ball carrier as much as he'd be used if he was starting at 6. SOB is facing a tough day at the office trying to negate the powers of the worlds best groundhog.

Pocock on the pitch means 2 things for us, 1 - we can expect to be penalised a lot for not releasing in the tackle. 2 - we can expect to commit greater numbers to rucks thereby having less ball carriers and giving more space around rucks for Genia & co to exploit.

fatboypee

From where I see it, Pocock is predominantly a stealer (legitimately). He lives on the fringes and steals the ball before the ref has called the ruck formed.

Simple, elementary stuff but extremely important in that protecting breakdown suddenly takes on an extreme importance, forcing not more people to be committed to the rucks (as the ruck has not been called as formed) but a faster response to the breakdown. That in itself will dictate how wide the ball is pushed around the field and therefore has a significant impact on the style of play Ireland adopt.

profitius

Ireland need to commit more numbers to the breakdown so Pocock playing might be good for the Irish players.

BOD, D'Arcy, POC, Heaslip, Ferris, SOB and Healy are all capable of turning over ball so it should be a good battle.

peterako

Getting both nervous and excited now!

In theory we should be able to handle Pocock.....

But in theory we should be one of the very best teams in the world.....

Oh! Am I happy...am I sad???

Peter

Conas

I think it'll be Ferris's job to keep Pocock quiet more so than O'Brien's. We all know Ferris's ability to blow people away at the breakdown, and I'd expect Ferris to be doing a lot of cleaning out against the Aussies. Also expect him to be on the ground a alot doing the dirty work. Ferris was fantastic at the breakdown against the All Blacks last year don't see why he can't be a 7.

Pocock is good but overall I think O'Brien is equal to him in every aspect of the game.

Junior

Pocock will be very important as we seem to be running isolated runners the whole time, so if our runner is tackled and Pocock is in as second he can legally compete for the ball. In situations like that it's either penalty for holding on, or it's turn over for them.

wixfjord

Conas wrote: »

I think it'll be Ferris's job to keep Pocock quiet more so than O'Brien's. We all know Ferris's ability to blow people away at the breakdown, and I'd expect Ferris to be doing a lot of cleaning out against the Aussies. Also expect him to be on the ground a alot doing the dirty work. Ferris was fantastic at the breakdown against the All Blacks last year don't see why he can't be a 7.

Pocock is good but overall I think O'Brien is equal to him in every aspect of the game.

SOB is certainly nowhere near Pocock in terms of clamping on and turning over ball, which is where the problem may lie imo.

andrewdcs

Junior wrote: »

Pocock will be very important as we seem to be running isolated runners the whole time, so if our runner is tackled and Pocock is in as second he can legally compete for the ball. In situations like that it's either penalty for holding on, or it's turn over for them.

Yeah, too wide too early was hurting us against the USA, as I said for our games against France and England, we looked like Wales last year, lateral, isolated, putting ourselves under crazy pressure. Wales now seem to have ironed out the ticky tacky stuff.

I'm watching England 07 and the French 09 to pump up the belief... it's pretty thin on the ground.

Kinger83

Agree, our support players will have to make it to the breakdown much quicker than they have done thus far if we're to avoid getting turned over. With the likes of Pocock there we can't give him an inch.

Reloc8

Re Pocock :

Its not just numbers its smarts. When you get there on your ball you have to put Pocock on his arse, quickly. Once he's off his feet he can't continue to fight for the ball.

Kidney is hoping for a big shift at the breakdown on their ball from Ferris, Heaslip and BOD. Also POC actually.

Our plan where the opposition has a noted groundhogn and we don't should be put him down on the deck early in the phases, ideally with a tight five ball carrier so that you still have your main men up and involved, and only then look to go wider.

Reloc8

Re Pocock :

Its not just numbers its smarts. When you get there, you have to put Pocock on his arse, quickly. Once he's off his feet he can't continue to fight for the ball.

Kidney is hoping for a big shift at the breakdown from Ferris, Heaslip and BOD. Also POC actually.

Our plan where the opposition has a noted groundhog and we don't should be put him down on the deck by making him tackle early in the phases, ideally with a tight five ball carrier so that you still have your main men up and involved, and only then look to go wider.

shuffol

Pococks a great player but his impact depends upon the workrate of the Irish pack, if our recent performances are anything to go by he'll have a field day, however I think because of the hype he's enjoyed in the build up it'll focus the minds of the Irish players and may actually help us.

He destroyed us in the Autumn of 09 when he was a relatively unknown, then in the next game we were up against South Africa and Brussow who's reputation was massive after the Lions tour, the trepidation in the media was similiar to now but the Irish pack took him out of the game and he barely had a turnover all afternoon.

yimrsg

It's not just pinching ball he's brilliant at it's retaining it. The first try by Australia against Italy was built on two occasions of Pocock getting to the ruck as second and third man and making sure there is clean ball for the Aussies backs.

Ben Alexander's try was down to him denying the defenders a chance to get hands on the ball to slow it down or force a turnover so close to their line. He even supported him when he powered over the line.

I honestly can't see Ferris or SOB blowing him away at the breakdowns, instead relying on Heaslip to try matching him as our most proficient backrower at causing turnovers and recycling possession. Ireland's best hope of beating Australia is in nullifying him. Once (or if!) we can stifle Pocock effectiveness, we deny Genia and Cooper the quick ball they thrive on.

KidMonT

Pocock is Pocock. Ireland shouldn't be able to nullify him from the game but can minimize his effectiveness. I mean if the All Blacks struggled with McCaw in their side then we most likely will be in for a long day of slow ball and potentially many turn overs. Ireland don't seem to have any specific players who are true fetchers but instead focus on holding players up to cause a turn over. If we want to combat Pocock on the offense then all i can think of is we have to arrive into the rucks lower, harder and faster but going by our previous performances i'm not all too confident of that happening. We've looked extremely disjointed. Let's hope we actually do have a big game left in the team.

CouchSmart

Not to be too blunt but Pocock's game all-round is class. Support, top class. Groundwork, top class. Linking, top class. Running lines, top class. He's a class act, maybe even better than McCaw on his day.

Class.

thomasm

Thanks for the insights, cant wait for game

SoulRock

Pocock has a back strain, he may not play... if so this would be great news for Ireland!

.ak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXpx7aGvdnQ