Murray Kinsella Reports from Quinta do Lago

IT WAS 2021 when Andy Farrell really took hold of Ireland’s phase-play attack and began pushing it to new heights.

Farrell had been overseeing their attack work as head coach after he took over ahead of the 2020 Six Nations, with assistant coach Mike Catt implementing many of the plans out on the training pitch.

But the summer of 2021 was when Farrell “went to another level,” as Johnny Sexton recounts in his autobiography Obsessed.

“He took control of our phase attack, tightening up our shape and our option-taking and getting us to play at pace,” says Sexton. “He also picked a lot of Leinster players to start, which gave us real cohesion.

“The irony was that Faz’s attack shape was so similar to the one that Japan used against us in Shizuoka [at the 2019 World Cup], with multiple potential first receivers off Jamison Gison-Park, all with a variety of options.”

Sexton also writes that bringing in Paul O’Connell in early 2021 had a major effect on Ireland as the new forwards coach took control of the attacking ruck, implementing lots of the old demands Joe Schmidt had placed on Ireland. 

The combined effect was that Ireland’s phase-play attack began to shred teams. They swept past Japan, New Zealand, and Argentina that autumn, with their 1-3-2-2 shape working wonders.

They quickly became an attacking team that others studied. Indeed, current Ireland backs coach Andrew Goodman – who now takes on more responsibility with Farrell away on Lions duty – was watching closely in his native New Zealand.

“I’ve come from an outside perspective and know how much other teams and countries look to Ireland’s attack and love the way they do things,” said Goodman, who had a two-year spell as a player with Leinster before returning as their attack coach in 2022.

“If they’re showing best practice clips, Ireland are going to be up there. From my time with Crusaders, we’d always be looking at clips of Ireland and how good they were at the line with the decisions and multiple options.”

Goodman is leading Ireland’s attack now with Farrell having started his Lions role.

Goodman joined last summer as backs coach, which revolves around leading Ireland’s set-piece strike launch plays and specific work with the backline, but he has now taken on Farrell’s usual role leading the phase-play attack too.

“There’s a couple more things I need to pick up with Andy gone and we’re all having to pick up with Andy gone,” said Goodman.

“I’ve been lucky to work under Andy for a couple of campaigns now and see how he delivers messages and live feedback at training. So I’m trying my best to do as much as the load he would have done.”

Ireland’s phase-play has been a superpower since 2021 and despite a dip last autumn and a growing sense that defences are beginning to become more confident in managing it, Goodman has belief that it can get back to former heights, even if evolution is always necessary.

“I think we need to do things our way the best we can,” he said.

“Yes, defences are getting better but I still believe when we do our things the best we can, we’ll still stretch defences with the phase attack.

Goodman at Ireland training. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

“You have to be confident in your DNA but you’ve also got to be confident that you can keep improving and say ‘this is the way we do things’ and be happy with it.

“You’ve got to get better at what you do well, but you’ve also got to evolve your game because teams analyse you so well these days.”

Goodman shows off a neat sidestep when asked if Leinster’s change in approach under Jacques Nienaber – with an apparent drop-off in their focus on phase-play attack than was the case under Stuart Lancaster – has made Ireland’s life more challenging.

The Ireland assistant coach praises what Nienaber is giving his players with “world-class little bits of gold that we have to use when they come into Ireland” and underlines that the national team have had enough time in their training camp in Portugal – which concludes today – to get their game firing.

“Ultimately, we get them aligned to the way we want to do things and that’s the challenge of a two-week build-up, making sure we are aligned.

“I always heard there’s no excuses with a two-week build-in, we’ve got to get our best game running and that’s what we’re driving for one week of Six Nations.”

So rather than sensing that they need to alter their attacking philosophy and systems, Ireland believe that they need to sharpen their skills and decisions.

“We’ve done everything we can in training in terms of touches on the ball and making sure we have really competitive sessions to put boys in game-like situations and putting their decision-making and skillset under pressure. The boys are training well.

“We’ve touched on November, we’ve looked at it extensively as a coaching group and passed the key things on to the group that we think can improve us during this period, like execution.”

Goodman has a valuable sounding board In the Ireland set-up in Sexton, who was the key player in Ireland’s attacking revolution under Farrell up until he retired following the 2023 World Cup.

The Kiwi attack specialist reveals that Sexton is a “great padel partner” who he teams up with regularly, but his rugby expertise is the key. Sexton’s main remit is to work on Ireland’s kicking game and mentor their out-halves, but Goodman tends to run plenty of the attack stuff by him.

“For us coaches, he’s got such a great eye on the game,” said Goodman. “Personally myself, I run things past him and I love him because he’s honest and he’ll provide his own opinion on things as well and that always leads to discussion and debate and then ultimately you get to a really good spot.

“I’m using him a lot, he’s got a great eye for the game and hopefully he can continue in that role for as long as possible.”

There is another coaching body on deck this week in Munster attack coach Mike Prendergast, who is getting up to speed with the Irish set-up after being named Ireland A coach for their game against England A next month.

Sexton was in Portugal with Ireland. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

Prendergast’s main duty since joining on Sunday has been to get aligned with the senior coaches ahead of that Ireland A game but he is another renowned attack specialist who has been chipping in.

“He’s been helping out when he can, he did some stuff with the number nines today,” said Goodman. “He’s a hugely experienced coach, great relationships with the group already and he’s been helping where he can.”

The main area which Goodman has had control over up until now – Ireland’s set-piece plays – went brilliantly in November.

10 of Ireland’s 15 tries in the Autumn Nations Series came from lineout platforms, two from scrums, two from five-metre taps, and one from restart receipt.

Goodman works with forwards coach Paul O’Connell, Ireland’s lineout specialist, and others on his plays. It’s an area of the game Goodman loves.

“It’s something that, at all levels of rugby, presents exciting opportunities,” said Goodman.

“It’s always exciting seeing something from the training field transfer to a high-pressure situation. We’ve put time into that side of the ball.”

And yet, Goodman believes the strike plays might not be the most relevant thing this weekend. England have picked a pack which is light on top-end lineout quality with captain Maro Itoje the only elite jumper in the starting XV. However, the pack is high on mobility, jackaling quality, and power in contact.

It might be that England look to keep the ball out of touch, denying Ireland the lineout platforms from which they were so effective in the autumn.

“When you think of playing England, are they going to give us the lineouts or are they going to contest [with their kicking game]?” said Goodman.

“It’s an important balance to strike around the unstructured stuff.

“It’s a part of the game we want to improve on, our transition speed and execution in unstructured parts of the game to finish off a couple of opportunities that we didn’t in November because we still created a lot. It was just the last touch or last pass or decision that we need to tidy up for game one of the Six Nations.”

Goodman isn’t a giddy communicator in front of the media but you can sense his rugby excitement about Ireland’s attack.