Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

its a bit unfair to say Alred was riding the coattails of anyone though, wilkinson started on a very solid base but he credits him with bringing him to another level again. o gara has said working with both of them on the 2001 lions made him improve massively too. even recently someone like james o connor has improved after working with him

We've had 1 good performance this campaign against an England side in turmoil. We've been annihilated by France 2 years running, struggled against a woeful Wales team 2 years running, embarrassed by the Springboks and dealt with comfortably 2 years running by a very ordinary NZ team that sacked its coach. If this form makes Farrell and his staff "the biggest winners" then I dread to imagine how bad we'll be if they start getting things wrong.

Interesting analysis by TRK on the last day on our attacking setup.

Essentially says that everything is setup to usually play through #9. Whoever is at #10 is playing more like an auxiliary centre a lot of the time. He points out that we form this type of flat shape (below) a lot off ruck ball (as opposed to a deeper one where 10 is calling the play) in various parts of the pitch. We then go multi-phase before hopefully/eventually finding holes.

JGP decides the receiving options and #10 is expected to be a either a running option á la 12/13 or be an extension of JGP in terms of passing, organising those around him.

It got me wondering the following about our 9s/10s:

The upside of playing this way is when JGP is on song, he's almost unplayable. He snipes the edges, keeps the defence honest, we function really well as a team as a result. When he's not functioning well and keeping the tempo up/has poor passing/decisions, those outside of him suffer as they're playing so flat as compared to if it was the more traditional shape with #10 calling the shots.

I think it begs the question can Casey/Doak play that way if JGP is injured/subbed?

Is Sam P is struggling in attack because while he can absolutely be an extension of JGP's passing (he has better passing range that Crowley) he isn't much of a running threat. Teams know they can fan out that bit more. Another consequence of this shape is #10 will be in rucks more (see Crowley the last day securing ball repeatedly in that first half especially) or keep play moving when JGP is snagged (as Crowley did, SP has done also, you see Ringrose stepping in also at 9 at times, ). If a 10 is involved in the ruck he loops back around quickly to be part of the next play. SP is an abysmal rucker and I'd query his athleticism to get back around the corner. This isn't meant to be a criticism of SP btw, it's more that I'm wondering if he fits the system when it's setup like that. He'd look far better in a more traditional shape I'd wager where he is calling the shots more.

I do wonder is it why Frawley is getting a look-in now as backup 10 all of a sudden - he has the physical/athletic attributes to play the 10 role the way it's meant to be in the above system.

It'll be interesting to see if a) SP is brought back into the fold again the next day b) we continue to hold that sort of attacking shape, I hadn't picked up on it myself.

Back to TRK - he points out that going multi-phase over and back like we do, more rucks, more collisions etc saps energy and is wondering is it why we're getting sucker-punched on the counter. I'd be worried about Scotland in that regard, they're more likely to punish us than Wales

I think we saw the difference with Casey and JGP in the Italy match. Casey takes on a lot less of the decision making. His default was to pass to SP. And Sam was not always in a position to make anything happen with the play.

Sam had 36 passes and 9 kicks. Craig had 56 passes and 6 kicks.

JGP had 28 passes and 5 kicks. Jack had 16 passes and no kicks.

JGP was on for 5 minutes more than Jack so its not quite like for like with supply. But when you break it down roughly Sam was getting somewhere around 70-80% of the ball from Craig compared to Jack getting about 50% when he came on. That is putting a significantly greater portion of the playmaking responsibility on Sam and something which he didn't do great with. If he isn't in a position to move the play on with another pass the ball should be going to Stu or one of the forwards until he is the right call for the play. Whether that responsibility sits with Sam for not directing Craig or for Craig defaulting to Sam I don't know. Probably somewhere in between.

On the other hand Jack has played very well as that extra centre carrying option out the back with the service from JGP. He is obviously a better runner than Sam with a higher tempo and is very good at the short passing game. Frawley probably also fits this mould better than Sam also as he is also a very good 12. Having Sam on the bench probably necessitates a shift in gameplan slightly.

We also didn't win hardly any garryowens… most of Crowley's were on the money and we got a contester up there… but we didn't win or regather hardly any. Same against France. Our aerial game is very poor this tournament bar against England I think