PUT YOURSELF INTO Hugo Keenan or James Lowe’s boots for a few seconds.
If you’re Keenan, you’ve just rolled a nice grubber kick down the left-hand side of England’s backfield and you’re sprinting after the ball.
If you’re Lowe, you’re just outside Keenan and when you see the grubber kick, you also take off upfield on the chase.
England wing Cadan Murley is covering across and the ball keeps on rolling towards the in-goal area.
You know that if Murley is patient enough to let the ball roll into his in-goal area, he just has to ground it and play will restart with a goal line drop-out for England.
That wouldn’t be the worst outcome but you keep sprinting after the ball looking to put pressure on the inexperienced wing.
As you watch the ball trickle into the in-goal area, you’re probably a bit disappointed.
All Murley has to do is dot the ball down and the pressure on England has been lifted.
You begin to think about your next job – getting back downfield and into position for receiving a goal line drop-out.
And then all of a sudden, you realise that Murley isn’t going to ground the ball.
As you close in on him, he’s turning upfield, seemingly intent on running the ball out.
So what do you do?
Well, the instinct for the vast majority of us is to absolutely hammer into Murley.
You’ve sprinted 50 metres, so surely you’ve earned the chance to level the English wing after he makes the mistake of not grounding the ball.
How good it will feel to batter him out over the touch-in-goal line just a metre away, to double-up and drive him all the way over to that Aer Lingus ad on the hoarding.
But that’s not what Keenan and Lowe do.
Instead, they drag Murley in the other direction.
The brilliance of this from Keenan and Lowe is that they lift Murley back out of the in-goal area, into the field of play, then dump him into touch.
If they had driven him out over the touch-in-goal line, England would have been awarded a goal line drop-out because Ireland kicked the ball into the in-goal area.
It’s remarkably quick thinking, restraint, and law awareness from Keenan and Lowe.
The old mantra of a kick only being as good as the chase is multiplied in this case.
This was just one interesting moment on an evening when Ireland’s kicking game was crucial in Simon Easterby’s side overturning a half-time deficit to begin their Six Nations defence with a bonus-point win against England.
Yet, while there was some excellent Irish kicking, there were other bits that Johnny Sexton – now working as Ireland’s kicking coach – and the key players in this area of the game will look to improve upon.
It was a relatively kick-heavy game with 66 kicks in play overall, 29 for Ireland and 37 for England. There were 50 kicks in France’s win over Wales and 53 in Scotland’s victory against Italy, with a fairly even split between the teams.
Ireland’s very first kick of the game against England seemed to set a high standard for what was to follow.
Scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park opened their account with a fine exit box kick that allowed the chasing Mack Hansen to welcome debutant England wing Murley to international rugby in venomous fashion.
Gibson-Park gets more than four seconds of hangtime on his box kick, a good measure of success as it allows chasers to either get into the air to contest for the ball or be in position to land hits like Hansen’s in this case.
Hansen suffers an injury to his left leg in this tackle on Murley but bounces straight back up into a ‘barge’ as Ryan Baird and Rónan Kelleher arrive in behind looking for an early turnover.
This counter-rucking effort leaves the ball exposed and Gibson-Park himself nearly completes the turnover only for opposite number Alex Mitchell to wrestle the ball from his grasp.
Smartball data provided by Sage Insights shows that Ireland scrum-half Gibson-Park had the highest average box kick hangtime [4.3 seconds] of anyone on the opening weekend of the Six Nations.
Gibson-Park recorded the top three highest box kick hangtimes of the weekend, with five of his total six box kicks in the top 10 for hangtime.
The booming effort above is probably a little shallower than Gibson-Park intended but the sheer hangtime allows Lowe to bat the ball back for Ireland to spring onto the attack against an English defence that has to quickly organise itself after retreating.
And even when it appeared that Gibson-Park had box kicked too long, things worked out well given the height on his kicks.
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That was especially true in the 44th minute when Murley completely lost track of the ball, leading to a high-stress situation for England.
Ireland have failed to win the gainline on first phase of a lineout attack when Gibson-Park goes to the kick, which initially seems too long and even a little aimless given the lack of viable Irish chasers.
But to be fair to Gibson-Park, he has scanned the backfield before kicking and almost certainly seen that there is space in behind the inexperienced Murley.
The English wing has to retreat downfield – never ideal when trying to catch a kick – and loses track of the ball’s landing point, only managing to deflect it back into his in-goal area.
So this is different to the incident we started with above. In that case, Ireland kicked into the in-goal area but here, Murley touches the ball last before it rolls into the in-goal. If he grounds it this time, Ireland will have a five-metre scrum.
Although Murley himself gets out, Ireland smash Luke Cowan-Dickie over his tryline for a five-metre scrum anyway. A lengthy period of pressure in English territory ensues, eventually leading to Bundee Aki’s try to equalise at 10-10.
Indeed, just before the Aki score, out-half Sam Prendergast kept the pressure on England by rolling a grubber kick in behind them.
Gibson-Park fires a pass across the face of Josh van der Flier to his out-half, who has recognised that England fullback Freddie Steward [red below] has closed up from the backfield to the edge of the defence, which means there is space in behind.
Murley [yellow below] is working across from the far side of the backfield but Prendergast’s well-weighted grubber causes anxiety for the English wing as it bobbles along the ground.
Murley gathers but with Keenan and Lowe closing fast, he slices his clearance into touch for an Irish lineout in a promising position.
Aki’s try comes directly from that lineout.
Fullback Keenan kicked his fine grubber in the 68th minute to leave Murley under pressure once again.
On this aforementioned occasion, Ireland kick from the edge on first phase of a lineout attack, with the width of their launch play manipulating the English backfield.
Marcus Smith [red below], who has moved to fullback, closes up as Ireland move the ball all the way left from the lineout on the other side of the pitch.
While Smith is already turning back here, having moved up to cover another possible pass from Keenan to Lowe, the grubber rolls in behind him.
That means Murley [yellow below] has to deal with the kick again, having tracked across from the far side of the backfield.
None of this is by accident. As soon as Murley was selected – England announced their team early last week – Ireland would have been discussing how to put him under intense pressure on his Test debut.
Murley is a lethal try-scorer but not quite as renowned for his solidity in the backfield and Ireland clearly felt they could pose tough questions of him. He couldn’t find the answer for this one but will have learned plenty from it.
The home side didn’t manage to convert that opportunity but they did keep the pressure on with their kicking game.
They had evidently spoken about directly going after Marcus Smith in the air when he moved to fullback, with replacement out-half Jack Crowley popping this diagonal kick over Smith in the 71st minute.
Garry Ringrose chases aggressively but Smith does superbly to claim a mark, clearing it to touch.
Undeterred, Ireland go after Smith again just seconds later with their ensuing lineout attack.
Crowley picks out Smith in the backfield and launches a bomb on first phase.
Keenan gets over Smith on this occasion, batting the ball back on Ireland’s side only for the retreating Henry Slade to gratefully gather it in.
Still, it’s another pressuring situation for England and though they launch an exit box kick back into Ireland’s half, Keenan fields it calmly and a brilliant Irish attack produces Dan Sheehan’s try.
As with the earlier box kick examples, contestable kicks such as the one above from Crowley make even more sense these days given that chasing players have to be provided with clear access to the contest. The days of kick ‘escorting’ are over.
There’s no doubt that Ireland’s kicking helped them take control of the game in the second half, with several kick exchanges going their way.
One such example begins with Keenan delivering the longest kick from any player on the opening weekend of the Six Nations, a beautiful 53-metre howitzer straight from Smith’s mishit restart after the Tadhg Beirne’s try.
With plenty of time on the ball, Keenan picks out the wide open space deep in the English backfield.
Smith knows the danger caused by his poor restart and he is racing back, worried about a 50:22. Keenan gives the ball an almighty boot but it just sits up enough for Smith to get back and keep it in play.
Still, it’s a huge gain in ground for Ireland and they win the exchange that follows, with Smith clearing, Crowley kicking a contestable that goes too long, Smith kicking down the middle of pitch, then Lowe cleverly finding grass.
Lowe initially shapes to kick to his left but he scans the backfield and can see that England right wing Tommy Freeman [red below] has dropped back on that side.
Replacement out-half Fin Smith is the other backfield defender and as Lowe glances to his right, he identifies that Smith [pink below] is in a central position, while left wing Murley [yellow] is up high near the edge of the frontline.
Again, Lowe is immediately thinking about a 50:22 and though he finds grass in the English 22, Murley is able to track back and gather the ball close to the touchline.
He passes infield to Smith and with his entire team in front of him, he kicks for touch. Smith produces an excellent kick to hit the halfway line but that’s still a victory for Ireland in this kick exchange.
They have gone from receiving a restart in their own 22 to getting an attacking lineout on halfway.
Ireland get a free-kick at that lineout and pile on even more pressure as Crowley launches a towering garryowen.
Freeman can’t claim it and the ball bounces dangerously. Though it lands into English hands, hooker Theo Dan is then harried by Iain Henderson and Sheehan, leaving the visitors in the kind of position they don’t want to be in while trailing 20-10.
There were poor kicks from Ireland in the second half too – with Lowe kicking out on the full twice and Crowley getting too much distance a couple of contestables – but their pressuring tactics with the boot had a big say in the outcome of the game.
Conversely, some of their kicking in the first half saw Ireland inviting pressure from England, most notably for the opening try finished by Murley.
Having kicked too long with a contestable on first phase off an Irish lineout less than a minute earlier, Prendergast didn’t quite catch a ninth-minute spiral kick from his own 22.
Spiralling is a difficult technique to master and while Prendergast is capable of hitting beauties, this effort dips early and lands straight onto Smith on a low trajectory.
So as Smith looks up, there’s a 20-metre gap to the nearest Irish player, Ringrose.
That’s the kind of invitation to counter-attack that a player like Smith is never going to shy away from.
The Irish chase line offers clear opportunity too with wide spacings and a lack of energy in working upfield towards Smith.
Ireland pay the price to the tune of seven points and while the basic tackling isn’t of the standard Ireland have set for themselves as Ollie Lawrence breaks from a Smith offload and there is also an element of luck as Slade’s grubber just goes under Keenan’s foot to, Prendergast and co. will feel the entire situation could have been avoided.
As his second-half grubber showed, Prendergast had some excellent touches with the boot in this game too.
In the instance below, he cross-kicks to Lowe on first phase of a scrum attack.
Lowe skillfully drops the ball straight onto his left boot for a grubber into the English backfield, but the visitors cover the Irish play – which includes a dummy run from Gibson-Park and Keenan to the right of the scrum – very well in this instance.
Prendergast and Crowley are both fans of attacking kicks and this is something Ireland will probably look to get more from in the future.
21-year-old Prendergast used a surprise first-phase chip in just the fourth minute against England, catching them completely off guard from inside his own 22.
This chip kick is clearly based on Ireland’s scouting of England, which suggests they won’t be alert to the possibility.
Prendergast doesn’t quite catch the kick as he would have hoped. If he gets a better connection to nudge it further out towards Ringrose’s running line, the Irish outside centre is taking off upfield.
As it is, the ball lands further infield and bounces away from Ringrose, but retreating England lock George Martin can’t control the ball and the Irish centre snaffles it anyway.
Ringrose makes it over Ireland’s 10-metre line, ensuring the chip kick has been a success.
It’s always exciting to see Irish players using their kicking skills as an attacking weapon in this manner.
Penalty advantages are fertile ground for such efforts, as Robbie Henshaw showed in the first half against the English with a delight grubber on his weaker left foot.
Gibson-Park’s pass is excellent again and it’s a lovely option from Henshaw.
Lowe collects the ball before flinging a blind offload inside, knowing Gibson-Park will be hunting up on the inside support line. But it flashes past the Ireland scrum-half and England survive, with referee Ben O’Keeffe going back to the penalty.
Variety in the kicking game only adds to a team’s attacking palate so Ireland will be looking to build on these glimpses in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, they will look to limit giving the opposition time and space with poor kicks, while using their tactical kicking to apply more pressure and get the ball back in good positions.
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Sexton-inspired kicking helps Ireland to take control over England
PUT YOURSELF INTO Hugo Keenan or James Lowe’s boots for a few seconds.
If you’re Keenan, you’ve just rolled a nice grubber kick down the left-hand side of England’s backfield and you’re sprinting after the ball.
If you’re Lowe, you’re just outside Keenan and when you see the grubber kick, you also take off upfield on the chase.
England wing Cadan Murley is covering across and the ball keeps on rolling towards the in-goal area.
You know that if Murley is patient enough to let the ball roll into his in-goal area, he just has to ground it and play will restart with a goal line drop-out for England.
That wouldn’t be the worst outcome but you keep sprinting after the ball looking to put pressure on the inexperienced wing.
As you watch the ball trickle into the in-goal area, you’re probably a bit disappointed.
All Murley has to do is dot the ball down and the pressure on England has been lifted.
You begin to think about your next job – getting back downfield and into position for receiving a goal line drop-out.
And then all of a sudden, you realise that Murley isn’t going to ground the ball.
As you close in on him, he’s turning upfield, seemingly intent on running the ball out.
So what do you do?
Well, the instinct for the vast majority of us is to absolutely hammer into Murley.
You’ve sprinted 50 metres, so surely you’ve earned the chance to level the English wing after he makes the mistake of not grounding the ball.
How good it will feel to batter him out over the touch-in-goal line just a metre away, to double-up and drive him all the way over to that Aer Lingus ad on the hoarding.
But that’s not what Keenan and Lowe do.
Instead, they drag Murley in the other direction.
The brilliance of this from Keenan and Lowe is that they lift Murley back out of the in-goal area, into the field of play, then dump him into touch.
If they had driven him out over the touch-in-goal line, England would have been awarded a goal line drop-out because Ireland kicked the ball into the in-goal area.
It’s remarkably quick thinking, restraint, and law awareness from Keenan and Lowe.
The old mantra of a kick only being as good as the chase is multiplied in this case.
This was just one interesting moment on an evening when Ireland’s kicking game was crucial in Simon Easterby’s side overturning a half-time deficit to begin their Six Nations defence with a bonus-point win against England.
Yet, while there was some excellent Irish kicking, there were other bits that Johnny Sexton – now working as Ireland’s kicking coach – and the key players in this area of the game will look to improve upon.
It was a relatively kick-heavy game with 66 kicks in play overall, 29 for Ireland and 37 for England. There were 50 kicks in France’s win over Wales and 53 in Scotland’s victory against Italy, with a fairly even split between the teams.
Ireland’s very first kick of the game against England seemed to set a high standard for what was to follow.
Scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park opened their account with a fine exit box kick that allowed the chasing Mack Hansen to welcome debutant England wing Murley to international rugby in venomous fashion.
Gibson-Park gets more than four seconds of hangtime on his box kick, a good measure of success as it allows chasers to either get into the air to contest for the ball or be in position to land hits like Hansen’s in this case.
Hansen suffers an injury to his left leg in this tackle on Murley but bounces straight back up into a ‘barge’ as Ryan Baird and Rónan Kelleher arrive in behind looking for an early turnover.
This counter-rucking effort leaves the ball exposed and Gibson-Park himself nearly completes the turnover only for opposite number Alex Mitchell to wrestle the ball from his grasp.
Smartball data provided by Sage Insights shows that Ireland scrum-half Gibson-Park had the highest average box kick hangtime [4.3 seconds] of anyone on the opening weekend of the Six Nations.
Gibson-Park recorded the top three highest box kick hangtimes of the weekend, with five of his total six box kicks in the top 10 for hangtime.
The booming effort above is probably a little shallower than Gibson-Park intended but the sheer hangtime allows Lowe to bat the ball back for Ireland to spring onto the attack against an English defence that has to quickly organise itself after retreating.
And even when it appeared that Gibson-Park had box kicked too long, things worked out well given the height on his kicks.
That was especially true in the 44th minute when Murley completely lost track of the ball, leading to a high-stress situation for England.
Ireland have failed to win the gainline on first phase of a lineout attack when Gibson-Park goes to the kick, which initially seems too long and even a little aimless given the lack of viable Irish chasers.
But to be fair to Gibson-Park, he has scanned the backfield before kicking and almost certainly seen that there is space in behind the inexperienced Murley.
The English wing has to retreat downfield – never ideal when trying to catch a kick – and loses track of the ball’s landing point, only managing to deflect it back into his in-goal area.
So this is different to the incident we started with above. In that case, Ireland kicked into the in-goal area but here, Murley touches the ball last before it rolls into the in-goal. If he grounds it this time, Ireland will have a five-metre scrum.
Although Murley himself gets out, Ireland smash Luke Cowan-Dickie over his tryline for a five-metre scrum anyway. A lengthy period of pressure in English territory ensues, eventually leading to Bundee Aki’s try to equalise at 10-10.
Indeed, just before the Aki score, out-half Sam Prendergast kept the pressure on England by rolling a grubber kick in behind them.
Gibson-Park fires a pass across the face of Josh van der Flier to his out-half, who has recognised that England fullback Freddie Steward [red below] has closed up from the backfield to the edge of the defence, which means there is space in behind.
Murley [yellow below] is working across from the far side of the backfield but Prendergast’s well-weighted grubber causes anxiety for the English wing as it bobbles along the ground.
Murley gathers but with Keenan and Lowe closing fast, he slices his clearance into touch for an Irish lineout in a promising position.
Aki’s try comes directly from that lineout.
Fullback Keenan kicked his fine grubber in the 68th minute to leave Murley under pressure once again.
On this aforementioned occasion, Ireland kick from the edge on first phase of a lineout attack, with the width of their launch play manipulating the English backfield.
Marcus Smith [red below], who has moved to fullback, closes up as Ireland move the ball all the way left from the lineout on the other side of the pitch.
While Smith is already turning back here, having moved up to cover another possible pass from Keenan to Lowe, the grubber rolls in behind him.
That means Murley [yellow below] has to deal with the kick again, having tracked across from the far side of the backfield.
None of this is by accident. As soon as Murley was selected – England announced their team early last week – Ireland would have been discussing how to put him under intense pressure on his Test debut.
Murley is a lethal try-scorer but not quite as renowned for his solidity in the backfield and Ireland clearly felt they could pose tough questions of him. He couldn’t find the answer for this one but will have learned plenty from it.
The home side didn’t manage to convert that opportunity but they did keep the pressure on with their kicking game.
They had evidently spoken about directly going after Marcus Smith in the air when he moved to fullback, with replacement out-half Jack Crowley popping this diagonal kick over Smith in the 71st minute.
Garry Ringrose chases aggressively but Smith does superbly to claim a mark, clearing it to touch.
Undeterred, Ireland go after Smith again just seconds later with their ensuing lineout attack.
Crowley picks out Smith in the backfield and launches a bomb on first phase.
Keenan gets over Smith on this occasion, batting the ball back on Ireland’s side only for the retreating Henry Slade to gratefully gather it in.
Still, it’s another pressuring situation for England and though they launch an exit box kick back into Ireland’s half, Keenan fields it calmly and a brilliant Irish attack produces Dan Sheehan’s try.
As with the earlier box kick examples, contestable kicks such as the one above from Crowley make even more sense these days given that chasing players have to be provided with clear access to the contest. The days of kick ‘escorting’ are over.
There’s no doubt that Ireland’s kicking helped them take control of the game in the second half, with several kick exchanges going their way.
One such example begins with Keenan delivering the longest kick from any player on the opening weekend of the Six Nations, a beautiful 53-metre howitzer straight from Smith’s mishit restart after the Tadhg Beirne’s try.
With plenty of time on the ball, Keenan picks out the wide open space deep in the English backfield.
Smith knows the danger caused by his poor restart and he is racing back, worried about a 50:22. Keenan gives the ball an almighty boot but it just sits up enough for Smith to get back and keep it in play.
Still, it’s a huge gain in ground for Ireland and they win the exchange that follows, with Smith clearing, Crowley kicking a contestable that goes too long, Smith kicking down the middle of pitch, then Lowe cleverly finding grass.
Lowe initially shapes to kick to his left but he scans the backfield and can see that England right wing Tommy Freeman [red below] has dropped back on that side.
Replacement out-half Fin Smith is the other backfield defender and as Lowe glances to his right, he identifies that Smith [pink below] is in a central position, while left wing Murley [yellow] is up high near the edge of the frontline.
Again, Lowe is immediately thinking about a 50:22 and though he finds grass in the English 22, Murley is able to track back and gather the ball close to the touchline.
He passes infield to Smith and with his entire team in front of him, he kicks for touch. Smith produces an excellent kick to hit the halfway line but that’s still a victory for Ireland in this kick exchange.
They have gone from receiving a restart in their own 22 to getting an attacking lineout on halfway.
Ireland get a free-kick at that lineout and pile on even more pressure as Crowley launches a towering garryowen.
Freeman can’t claim it and the ball bounces dangerously. Though it lands into English hands, hooker Theo Dan is then harried by Iain Henderson and Sheehan, leaving the visitors in the kind of position they don’t want to be in while trailing 20-10.
There were poor kicks from Ireland in the second half too – with Lowe kicking out on the full twice and Crowley getting too much distance a couple of contestables – but their pressuring tactics with the boot had a big say in the outcome of the game.
Conversely, some of their kicking in the first half saw Ireland inviting pressure from England, most notably for the opening try finished by Murley.
Having kicked too long with a contestable on first phase off an Irish lineout less than a minute earlier, Prendergast didn’t quite catch a ninth-minute spiral kick from his own 22.
Spiralling is a difficult technique to master and while Prendergast is capable of hitting beauties, this effort dips early and lands straight onto Smith on a low trajectory.
So as Smith looks up, there’s a 20-metre gap to the nearest Irish player, Ringrose.
That’s the kind of invitation to counter-attack that a player like Smith is never going to shy away from.
The Irish chase line offers clear opportunity too with wide spacings and a lack of energy in working upfield towards Smith.
Ireland pay the price to the tune of seven points and while the basic tackling isn’t of the standard Ireland have set for themselves as Ollie Lawrence breaks from a Smith offload and there is also an element of luck as Slade’s grubber just goes under Keenan’s foot to, Prendergast and co. will feel the entire situation could have been avoided.
As his second-half grubber showed, Prendergast had some excellent touches with the boot in this game too.
In the instance below, he cross-kicks to Lowe on first phase of a scrum attack.
Lowe skillfully drops the ball straight onto his left boot for a grubber into the English backfield, but the visitors cover the Irish play – which includes a dummy run from Gibson-Park and Keenan to the right of the scrum – very well in this instance.
Prendergast and Crowley are both fans of attacking kicks and this is something Ireland will probably look to get more from in the future.
21-year-old Prendergast used a surprise first-phase chip in just the fourth minute against England, catching them completely off guard from inside his own 22.
This chip kick is clearly based on Ireland’s scouting of England, which suggests they won’t be alert to the possibility.
Prendergast doesn’t quite catch the kick as he would have hoped. If he gets a better connection to nudge it further out towards Ringrose’s running line, the Irish outside centre is taking off upfield.
As it is, the ball lands further infield and bounces away from Ringrose, but retreating England lock George Martin can’t control the ball and the Irish centre snaffles it anyway.
Ringrose makes it over Ireland’s 10-metre line, ensuring the chip kick has been a success.
It’s always exciting to see Irish players using their kicking skills as an attacking weapon in this manner.
Penalty advantages are fertile ground for such efforts, as Robbie Henshaw showed in the first half against the English with a delight grubber on his weaker left foot.
Gibson-Park’s pass is excellent again and it’s a lovely option from Henshaw.
Lowe collects the ball before flinging a blind offload inside, knowing Gibson-Park will be hunting up on the inside support line. But it flashes past the Ireland scrum-half and England survive, with referee Ben O’Keeffe going back to the penalty.
Variety in the kicking game only adds to a team’s attacking palate so Ireland will be looking to build on these glimpses in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, they will look to limit giving the opposition time and space with poor kicks, while using their tactical kicking to apply more pressure and get the ball back in good positions.
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