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Choke, jackal and counter-ruck; working as an analyst and advisor for both Wales and England over the past decade, when Ireland came to town there was one outstanding area of the game I had to pay attention to above all others, and that was the breakdown.
If you couldn’t manage the breakdown effectively, there was no way you were going to beat Ireland. They were probably the first top-tier nation to realise that backs could compete over the ball like number 7s in the modern game, and they had two jackaling experts at centre (Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy) to do just that.
It was Ireland, the breakdown pioneers, who first introduced the world to the wonder of the choke tackle, in their group game against Australia at the 2011 World Cup. The Wallabies didn’t manage that area well then and they didn’t manage it well in Dublin on Saturday either.
Since the appointment of Joe Schmidt as head coach back in 2013, Ireland have added another string to their bow, becoming just as proficient at protecting and retaining their own breakdown ball as they are at stealing everyone else’s.
Ball presentation, movement before placement by the ball-carrier and angles of entry at the cleanout have all become very precise, drilled towards perfection.
Ireland’s fundamental attitude is all about ball control, about keeping the ball when you have it and getting it back quickly when you don’t. Against Australia on Saturday, they won 100 out of 103 rucks and except for one turnover concession, they shut David Pocock out of the game. Over their last three games against Australia and New Zealand, Ireland have retained over 96 per cent of their own breakdown ball over a colossal span of 341 rucks.
The other critical aspect of their ball control is that as the side in possession, you tend to win the penalty count in contact situations too. Against Australia on Saturday, the figures were as follows:
| Team | Pens for | Pens against | Turnovers lost | Others |
| Ireland ball | 5 | 1 | – | Wallaby yellow cards x2 |
| Australian ball | 2 | 3 | 6 | – |
Ireland won five penalties on their own breakdown ball and three on the Wallabies’, generated six other turnovers and benefited from two Australian yellow cards directly related to breakdown activity.
Their ability to control the point of contact has contributed hugely to Ireland’s penalty windfall over their last three matches, in which they have been awarded 39 penalties, while only conceding 11.
Since Franco-Irishman Alain Rolland took over as ‘match officials manager’ at the beginning of the year, there has also been a noticeable hardening of the refereeing edge in technical detail at the breakdown. This has enabled Northern Hemisphere sides to stay in matches for longer, against more skilled and faster opponents from the south, because they can control territory and possession via the ref’s whistle.
Ireland at the defensive breakdown
Ireland’s work at the defensive point-of-contact was outstanding against the Wallabies, and it was a tribute to both their accuracy and variety of technique:
The start of the game was a portent of what was to come, with Australia running the ball back from the opening kick-off only for Dane Haylett-Petty to be robbed as he went to ground.
With Australia routinely committing only one or two players to the ruck, two backs – #11 Keith Earls and #9 Connor Murray – are able to combine to overload the cleanout of Reece Hodge.
Ireland placed emphasis on getting the tackler on his feet quickly to contest the ball. The tackler does not have to retreat as long as an offside line has yet to be formed, so Earls can create interference in the ruck at 0:22, likewise Josh van der Flier at 13:16 and Kieran Marmion at 78:39.
Ireland’s sheer variety of technique at the point of contact caused problems for the Wallaby ball-carriers. If they took the ball in low, they were jackaled or counter-rucked (53:11), if they came in high to drive through the tackle they were choked. This was a particular issue for the 6’10” Rory Arnold, who came under heavy fire whether he stayed up or went to ground.
Ireland have several choke-tackle specialists, among whom Rory Best, Iain Henderson, Jamie Heaslip in the forwards, and Johnny Sexton in the backs. They brought off the choke on three important occasions during the match, and the technique has been refined so that now it only requires two or at most three defenders to be effective.
One defender gets his arms underneath the ball to prop up the ball-carrier, while the second defender slips around the back – #5 Henderson at 19:52, #13 Jared Payne at 28:22, Van der Flier at 71:22. The action of this defender is crucial, because it is he who (legally) blocks clearance of the ball when it finally goes to ground.
It was the variety of Ireland’s techniques in contact which led to Australian frustration and the two yellow cards on Dean Mumm and Bernard Foley, plus an irritated scrape by Pocock down the back of Van der Flier at 71:53.
At the same time, the refereeing of the breakdown is a thankless no-man’s land. Some referees would not have called the maul so quickly at 28:25 and 71:52, and they would have pinged Ireland for going off their feet at 53:10. These are small margins.
Ireland ball control
The best example of Irish ball control occurred as the game entered the final quarter with the result in the balance:
There are eight rucks in the sequence before Earls scores in the left corner at 65:43. None of them involve more than two Irish cleanout players, and five are ‘combination rucks’ involving both Irish backs and forwards.
The technique of the Irish backs is impressive, cleaning out against opponents far bigger than themselves – Earls ripping away Scott Sio’s arm at 64:59, #22 Joey Carbery performing a ‘scissor’ block on Kane Douglas at 65:21, #10 Paddy Jackson croc-rolling Will Genia away to the side at 65:38 before the score on next phase.
At the same time, the refereeing grey area is ever-present. Does Pocock stay over the ball for long enough to earn a penalty at 64:59 – or Genia, before he is removed at 65:37? These are split-second decisions which could have gone the other way under a different official.
Wallaby offloads
With Stephen Larkham and Mick Byrne working in harness on skills and offence, Australia are beginning to look like a potent force when they can find their attacking rhythm and string phases together quickly.
Where Ireland only appeared likely to score from close-range and depended on the penalty count to keep them in position, the tempo of the game shot up astronomically when the Wallabies had possession in the third quarter. In that period of the game, Australia looked like they could score from anywhere on the field.
The offload was a key weapon in the fluidity and speed of Australian attacks and, just like New Zealand, Australia were offloading at a rate of two to every one by Ireland.
However, the project is not yet complete and ‘finishing offloads’ in the outside third of the field (from the 15-metre line outwards) still need far more polish.
Two-thirds of Wallaby offloads derive from Israel Folau, but all the offloaders in these clips are making errors in the wide channels – Hodge at 7:08 and 37:42, Haylett-Petty at 53:41, Tevita Kuridrani at 69:02, Sefa Naivalu at 77:02, Folau himself at 27:06 and 50:23. Three of those mistakes happened with a clear potential score on the cards.
Summary
As they did against the All Blacks, Ireland showed their expertise in ball control on attack, and in turning ball over in contact on defence. This gave them a big advantage in penalty count, which in turn guaranteed them two-thirds of the territory and possession pie in the first half – as against New Zealand.
Ireland plotted their way upfield methodically but they never looked likely to score from positions outside the red zone. When Australia started to win possession more regularly in the third quarter, the tempo of the game threatened to increase beyond Ireland’s structured limits.
Overall, a well-deserved win for Ireland – but if Australia can repair their work in contact and improve their offloading game out wide, it is their curve of development which will rise more steeply in 2017.