TWO MOMENTS OF skill from Jamie Heaslip were Ireland’s attacking highlights from the 35-25 win over Scotland that rounded out their Six Nations campaign on Saturday.
The number eight delivered an excellent performance to underline his enduring importance to Joe Schmidt, and he will be a key man later this year as Ireland look to beat the Springboks in South Africa.
Heaslip’s first excellent offload came early in the second half and was the spark for Conor Murray’s close-range try less than three minutes later.
It’s a clever bit of playmaking from Johnny Sexton that gives Heaslip the opportunity to offload, as the out-half scans the Scotland defence and identifies that Richie Gray has shot up ahead of his teammates and left a chink for Ireland to attack.
Gray’s intent to bring linespeed is laudable, but he’s acting alone in this instance and leaves the defenders inside him in a difficult position as the dog-leg is created.
Sexton immediately recognises that there is space in between Gray and Ross Ford, the man directly inside the lock in Scotland’s defensive line.
With Gray offering a threat should Sexton throw a longer pass, the Ireland out-half’s decision is to attempt to engage Ford, dragging the Scotland hooker in towards him.
Sexton’s dummy pump to pass, combined with a subtle shift of footwork to his right is enough for Ford to be lured into turning in and planting his feet.
Sexton’s excellent bit of work – he was superb in these situations again on Saturday – opens the space even further for Heaslip to straighten into.
In the video clip, we can see that Heaslip’s initial steps are away from Sexton, drifting slightly to the right, but he reacts ideally to his out-half’s decision to take the ball to the line by straightening upfield.
Crucially, Heaslip is fully aware of Gray on his outside and the Ireland number eight never quite gathers the ball in two hands. Instead, he immediately plants the ball into his left arm and though there’s no powerful fend on Gray, Heaslip’s free right arm does help him avoid getting wrapped up in the contact that follows.
With Gray moving backwards, Heaslip has an advantage in this contest, but his leg drive is still impressive. Offloading is so much harder to do when the attacking player is not winning the collision, but Heaslip ensures he is moving forward and offloading beyond the tackle here.
The Ireland number eight benefits from the good decision-making of Tommy O’Donnell outside him.
One of the reasons that Ireland have been the best rucking side in the Six Nations, and one of the finest in the world, in recent seasons is because their players are highly tuned into arriving early to the tackle zone.
Winning the ruck and ensuring quick ball has been the priority when in possession, meaning that there have been occasions when the ball carrier has got his hands free only to find that the offloading option is not available.
The easy and safe thing for O’Donnell to do here is follow in behind Heaslip on the red line indicated above and be certain that Ireland will get quick ball from a good carry.
Instead, the Munster openside recognises that his back row partner has every opportunity of releasing the ball out of the tackle and runs a really positive line off his shoulder, accelerating at exactly the right moment.
Sexton’s playmaking, Heaslip’s leg drive and O’Donnell’s intelligent line ensure that this is a high-percentage offload. Coaches talk about 50/50s and the dangers in that regard, but this example is more akin to a 99/1.
John Barclay tracks O’Donnell to haul him down before he can take on sweeper Greig Laidlaw, but instantly we can see the damage done by a single offload.
Four Scottish defenders honeypot towards the ball, while Ford is struggling to get back onside to the right of the tackle zone.
O’Donnell does extremely well on the ground after Barclay brings him down, fighting to bring his upper body back onto Ireland’s side and allowing the possibility of a rapid recycle.
The Tipp man pops off a smart offload to the arriving Conor Murray, and we see the benefit of those four Scottish defenders having to swarm in around the ball after Heaslip’s contribution.
Sexton moves the ball on quickly and Ireland have a three-on-two on the outside edge.
Payne draws Tim Visser and attracts Duncan Weir inwards too by threatening with a burst of acceleration, before releasing an intelligent basketball pass over the top of the Scotland out-half.
The Ireland centre’s pass here is similar to the one he threw to Sexton in the build-up to Heaslip’s brilliant try against Italy a week earlier, and these situations are quite similar.
Seeing a teammate throw a successful offload or conjure attacking quality is highly infectious. That can be negative at times, in that a successful offload is often followed by a more reckless attempt to pass or offload, but it’s largely a positive thing.
Simon Zebo’s offload against Italy sparked positivity and energy in Ireland for that Heaslip try, while it is the number eight’s clever offload in this instance that inspires his backs in space on the outside edge.
Payne and Robbie Henshaw both pass extremely well in this instance as they seek to clinically finish the opportunity, Andrew Trimble receiving the ball as Henshaw draws in fullback Stuart Hogg.
Weir does superbly to scramble back for Scotland after being skirted by Payne’s overhead pass to Henshaw. Payne and Visser tangle off the ball, but realistically their contact has little effect on proceedings, as Payne would have had to slow to get behind the ball anyway.
Weir’s excellent scrambling work yields an important result as he gets himself in between Payne and Trimble, who has decided pre-contact with Visser that he is going to offload inside.
As we can see above – it’s so much easier to point out to a freeze frame after the fact than it is to make a decision in the intensity and volume of a Test match – the percentage for this offload is very low.
Trimble releases the ball out of his right hand and instantly appears to grab out towards it with his left, seeing that Weir is going to gather. Perhaps it was the offload that was one too many, but it’s nonetheless a hugely encouraging passage of attack from Ireland overall.
Schmidt constantly stresses that his players have full licence to play what they see on the pitch and deviate from the script, and this is one example. Murray’s try follows from the lineout platform provided by Weir stepping out into touch.
Teeing up Toner
In terms of direct scoreboard influence, Heaslip’s second offload of the game was more obviously effective as he teed up Devin Toner for his first Ireland try.
One thing worth pointing out in this score is the off-the-ball positioning of Sexton, who was an utter pain in Scotland’s backside all evening with his rage-inducing blocking, grabbing and shielding.
Few players are as clever and niggly off the ball as Sexton is and his actions clearly riled the Scots. His involvement in this try is among his most subtle in the game, but there is value in his positioning.
Having run a support line wide to the left of Murray as the Ireland scrum-half carried just before the phase on which Toner scored, Sexton plants himself into Scotland’s defensive line.
Most players would have simply retreated back to their own team’s side here, but Sexton is looking to disrupt. We see above that he ever so briefly blocks Duncan Taylor – who will tackle Heaslip – from getting into a wider position.
It’s a tiny, tiny thing, but it gives Taylor a split second less to glance out at Tommy Seymour and possibly ask him to get tighter in defence, filling the hole Toner will run into.
With Taylor slipping out past him, Sexton moves his attention in the Scotland line and places himself in the right spot to just obstruct Ryan Wilson from bursting forward, as we see above.
There doesn’t actually appear to be any contact at all from Sexton in this case, but with referee Pascal Gaüzère standing in front of Wilson, the Scotland number eight has to slip through a very narrow channel between Sexton and the match official to come forward.
His drift across to the right as the secondary tackler on Heaslip – the high tackler whose job it is to prevent the offload from going – is therefore delayed. Again, it’s a tiny thing, but note how Wilson just fails to get to Heaslip in time.
The offload from Heaslip is again of a high quality, both in its thought process and execution. The more obvious thing for Heaslip to do in this instance is release a pre-contact pass to Toner on his left shoulder.
However, Taylor takes one backwards step as that thought perhaps flashes through Heaslip’s mind, giving the Scottish defender the possibility of diving out at Toner should the pass go.
Heaslip is again decisive with his actions, running hard at Taylor’s inside shoulder and this time carrying the ball in both hands. He lifts the ball up and over Taylor and opens the door for Toner to hammer onto the offload.
With the 124kg lock galloping giraffe-like towards the tryline, Peter Horne is not in a favourable position to halt him as he sweeps from behind, but Toner makes sure by leaping towards the tryline.
Given the proximity of the tryline, Toner would be extremely hard done by to get penalised for jumping into the tackle here. Interestingly, rugby’s lawbook does not contain reference to jumping into or over tackles, with the offence usually penalised as dangerous play instead.
The real key to this try from Toner is Heaslip’s offload, as the sheer danger of an effective ball out of the tackle is underlined again.
Ireland are never going to be a team that offloads at will and in risky circumstances under Schmidt, but Heaslip’s contributions show that there remains a place for this skill in their armoury ahead of three intense battles against South Africa in June.
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