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There is something really satisfying when a coach susses out his opponents’ weaknesses and then presents a side that follows the game plan perfectly to create a dominant victory.
The coach is the New Zealander Joe Schmidt. The team is Ireland.
The hapless opponents were England, who were defeated 19-9 at Dublin in a Test that suggests that Ireland, rather than England, will be the great hope of the northern hemisphere to win the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
Schmidt has taken a side that had the occasional good day – as Ireland did against the Wallabies in the pool round match during Rugby World Cup 2011 – but far more bad days – as they did later on in the tournament – to a side that has won its last 10 Tests.
This sort of consistency is virtually unheard of for Ireland. Coach Schmidt has been the conductor of the triumph, orchestrating a side that plays uncomplicated but effective rugby that is in-tune with the challenges posed by different opponents.
Schmidt worked England out brilliantly. He saw that without Mike Brown or Ben Fonden there was no threat of running back the ball from the back three. The English three were also lacking in technique and skill in catching the high ball.
Conflating this weakness is the fact that the England pack is a fleet of tanks: tough, slow-moving, and built to smash forward gradually. There is no real pace in the pack. No forward has the inclination or aerobic fitness to be as assertive going back in defence as the pack is in smashing its way forward.
So Ireland kicked the ball an astonishing 44 times.
Some of the kicks were long and raking, and forced the heavyweight pack to come back a long way to become involved with the next set of plays. Others were shorter and higher bombs, which ended up in fierce rucking and mauling contests as England failed to claim catches and move the ball on.
The result for the England pack was the debilitating effect I have called, when talking about the same tactics being used against South African sides in the past, ‘the running of the bulls’.
The England pack became tired with the incessant running back and fierce mauling. The more tired they became, the more likely they became of giving away penalties. England were penalised 13 times and their captain, Chris Robshaw, admitted that this was far too many penalties to concede – in their own half many of them – with a sharp-shooter like Johnny Sexton lining up the shots at goal.
Even more worrying for England is that the referee Craig Joubert – who will referee many of the top games at the RWC, including perhaps the final if the Springboks don’t make it – identified the many illegalities that England use at the ruck and maul. In the past, Joubert has missed these illegalities.
The sign of a strong side that is well-coached and capable of winning important trophies is when even the journeymen play strongly and contribute to the strength rather than the weakness of the side. No disrespect to Rob Egerton, but he played this role for the 1991 Wallabies when they won the RWC tournament.
Jared Payne, the New Zealand utility player who was more of a stand-out in the ITM tournament than he was in Super Rugby, played strongly for Ireland in the centres, providing muscle and determination to compensate for the relative smallness of the other backs.
All sides that win the Webb Ellis trophy have an outstanding halves combination. In Conor Murray (a big halfback) and Johnny Sexton (tougher than he looks as his smashing tackle on George Ford demonstrated), Ireland have a halfback and a flyhalf who, as a pair, are better than any other in world rugby.
England were exposed with their halfbacks, who dithered over the ball, kicked aimlessly and generally could not give any direction or meaning to the few attacks England did try to mount.
When Sexton was on the field the Ireland halves were decisive and precise in everything they did. They played what was in front of them using the plans and system, as exemplified by Robbie Henshaw’s try from Sexton’s smart kick, which came just after the fly-half motioned Henshaw to the zone where he was going to kick.
The Ireland pack revealed a scrum that held its own against England’s juggernaut eight, and a combative and smart lineout that stole a couple of England throws. The ferocity, pace, power and skill of the Ireland pack was more in the mode of a southern hemisphere pack, with plenty of mongrel and an instinct to make the decisive plays.
Ireland’s 10 wins in a row (and still counting) is a record for the national side. The All Blacks recorded 10 successive wins in the years 1987-88 when a World Cup was won. The Wallabies won 10 in a row between 1998-99 before winning the ’99 tournament. England won 10 Tests in a row between 2002-03 when they won the 2003 RWC.
Ireland’s victory over England moved them to third place on the World Rugby ranking, knocking England back a place:
New Zealand 93.70
South Africa 88.23
Ireland 86.38
England 85.11
Australia 82.95
Wales 82.85
France 78.96
Argentina 78.23
Samoa 75.39
Scotland 75.22.
Ireland are in Pool D of the 2015 World Cup, facing France, Italy, Canada and Romania. If they win their pool, as they should, they go into the half of the draw that should not contain the All Blacks (Pool C) or the Springboks (Pool B) until the grand final.
The winner of Pool D plays the runner-up in Pool C (probably Argentina) in the quarter-final. The winner of this quarter-final is will probably face the winner of Pool A (either Australia, Wales or England).
We know that upsets happen in the Rugby World Cup. But right now, following their tremendous victory over England, admittedly in Dublin and not London, Ireland’s hopes of a breakthrough 2015 tournament are ‘alive, alive Oh!’