TRANSITION ATTACK HAS always been important in rugby.

It hasn’t just become central to the game because there’s lots of contestable kicking going on at the moment.

But the shift towards more aerial contests has undoubtedly refined teams’ focus on being dangerous in attack when they know the defence will be unstructured. Win the ball in the air and opportunity is rife.

By ‘transition’ we mean the moments when the ball has changed hands or one team has claimed the ball after it has been kicked. When the other team is shifting from an attacking or kick-competing state to a defensive one, they’re vulnerable because they’re not as organised as they would be when defending from a set-piece. Chaos is opportunity.

Opta’s data underlines the impression you might have had from watching the Six Nations in the last two weeks.

Teams are kicking the ball more often, and they’re also kicking more contestable kicks rather than longer tactical kicks.

According to Opta, there have already been 77 contestable kicks in the 2026 Six Nations, which is just three fewer than in the entire 2025 championship.

Teams are also getting better at retaining their own kicks, with attacking catches having risen and defensive catches having declined.

There are now far more tap-back attempts than ever, with an average of 7.2 per game in this championship, which is a huge rise on the average of just 2.5 per game in the 2024 edition.

France are the current kings of transition attack. ©INPHO ©INPHO

Of course, the big change in that timeframe came in November 2024 when World Rugby asked match officials to strictly clamp down on ‘kick escorting,’ the deliberate obstruction of kick chasers, which meant the return of more genuine one-on-one aerial contests.

With that has come the increase in tap-back attempts, where the chasing player doesn’t attempt to catch a kick but just looks to bat it towards their team-mates with one hand.

So whether through fielding the ball directly or winning the ‘scraps’ when it breaks from an aerial contest, there are lots of transition opportunities in the game at present.

That’s before you even consider the fact that transition attack can be sparked when the opposition knock the ball on, lose it in a set-piece, or kick longer down the field. All of those sources for more classic ‘counter-attacking’ remain important too.

So what about Ireland?

We dug into their damaging aerial problems against France, but they improved in the contests against Italy, winning some important battles in the air in the first half in particular.

Generally speaking, Ireland have been relatively good at retaining kicks. As we mentioned post-Paris, South Africa are the only team who have retained more kicks than Ireland since the start of 2025.

And when they retain their kicks, Ireland have been solid at scoring tries from that source.

The chart above shows where Ireland sit among the leading nations when it comes to converting retained kicks into tries.

These percentages include retained cross-field kicks and chips, as well as contestables, but they paint an encouraging enough picture for Ireland even if they’re some way short of world-leading France.

Let’s take a look at an example of Ireland scoring a try after retaining a kick in November.

Out-half Jack Crowley receives a goal line drop-out from Australia and immediately launches a contestable back over the Wallabies.

Mack Hansen is the chaser for Ireland and he does a superb job of controlling his feet, judging the landing point of the kick, and leaping to retain it.

With Hansen having won the ball, Ireland are into the kind of transition situation that can be so advantageous.

Australia have to regather their defensive shape quickly, while Ireland look to strike.

Rather characteristically, it takes Ireland quite a few phases to actually score here.

It’s Caelan Doris who crosses on 10th phase.

While this try underlines how valuable it can be to retain a contestable kick, it also highlights a notable part of Ireland’s transition attack.

Farrell’s side aren’t very good at immediately cutting teams apart in transition.

The chart below shows how lethal each nation is at turning a retained kick into a linebreak.

It’s not disastrous for Ireland, who are roughly at the same level as the likes of England and South Africa.

But it does build on the impression made by Ireland’s performance levels in other elements of transition attack.

When it comes to making breaks immediately after turnovers and kick returns, Ireland lag well behind.

As we see above and below, Ireland are not effective at immediately striking when they have won a turnover or received a kick.

Perhaps as a result, Ireland don’t score many of their tries from these possession sources.

Below, we see that just over 5% of Ireland’s tries originate with them counter-attacking from an opposition kick.

And below, we see that it’s a fairly similar story when it comes to tries originating from turnovers won.

Just under 9% of Ireland’s tries stem from this source.

Ireland generally don’t score many lightning-quick transition tries like the one below against Japan last autumn.

In this instance, they win a turnover near the halfway line, which Sam Prendergast scoops up before darting forward and playing a no-look pass inside to Tommy O’Brien.

O’Brien then scorches away to score on first phase.

As we saw in the charts above, Ireland don’t tend to turn many turnovers or kick returns into immediate linebreaks.

Now, lots of this is dependent on the situation. In this instance, there aren’t many Japanese players close to the ball as Ireland strike in transition.

But it’s also a rapid counter from Ireland at high speed, something that is deficient in their game in comparison with a team like France, who are brilliant at lethally striking without delay in transition situations.

Ireland know that all too well.

In the instance above, Prendergast volleys the ball to prevent a 50:22 from Matthieu Jalibert and the ball lands infield, sparking the French transition attack.

They’re excellent in these situations because they have speed, handling skills under pressure, vision, and serious intent to score without delay. 

Whereas some teams might carry and try to launch into phase play attack, France’s Nicolas Depoortère, Thomas Ramos, and Yoram Moefana immediately go at the disjoined Irish chase line and get the ball into Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s hands.

Bielle-Biarrey is one of the kings of transition in world rugby due to his acceleration, top-end pace, evasiveness, balance, awareness, and attacking kicking skills.

There aren’t many athletes like him in the game, but the likes of France and South Africa benefit from having this type of player – Cheslin Kolbe is another example – who excels when the game breaks up, but also does all of the important nuts and bolts of the game. 

As we discussed before the game in Paris, the French transition attack was already elite coming into this Six Nations and things have only improved for them in that regard.

France have scored 13 tries in their two games so far, with seven of them coming in transition.

Ireland, in contrast, have scored five tries but none have come in transition. Four have originated at lineouts, with the other from a tap penalty.

Ireland’s approach to transition appears to be more structured than France’s, possibly due to the profile of their players. 

One of Irish rugby’s recent strengths, everyone sticking to the system and focusing on the collective plans, can be a weakness in this area of the game, where instinctiveness and sheer athleticism are vital.

Whereas les Bleus have players who are clearly very comfortable and confident in chaos, Ireland are seemingly keen on imposing a little more order when they attack in transition.

In the example above, Italy knock the ball on and Jack Conan pounces on it to give Ireland possession.

While three men hit the breakdown, Ireland have already fallen into ‘shape’ to the left of the ruck with three of their forwards [pink] forming the kind of pod we so often see in their phase-play attack.

There’s a back [blue] set up in the boot behind that three-man pod, with another forward [pink] holding a little wider to run a decoy line in the next layer of the attack, and further backs positioned out wide.

This allows Ireland to move the ball wide to the left and make gains up that side of the pitch, but Italy are able to manage them and prevent a linebreak.

Further structured phases follow from Ireland but they fail to make further progress, so Jamison Gibson-Park delivers a nice kick into touch down the right.

This tended to be the case for Ireland in transition against Italy – they would snap into shape and move the ball wide without quite having the cutting edge to turn the promise into an end product.

The key is getting their most dangerous, fastest attackers onto the ball as often as possible in transition.

That’s what happens in the instance below as James Lowe wins the aerial contest under a Craig Casey box kick.

As is regularly the case, Ireland snap into their familiar 3-2 shape with a pod of three forwards off the ruck and another pod of two forwards further out in midfield.

Again, they use that shape to move the ball out to the edge, although it’s fairly predictable for the Italian defence.

Indeed, as Prendergast floats his pass out to right wing Robert Baloucoune, it looks like Italy’s Monty Ioane might make a big ball-and-all hit.

But here is where a player like Baloucoune shows his worth.

The Ireland right wing steps back inside Ioane, does the same to beat Leonardo Marin, then accelerates beyond Pablo Garbisi.

We can see here how Baloucoune is also looking for the offload inside to Jamie Osborne, only being denied the chance to release the ball by good work from Italy lock Andrea Zambonin, who is alert in closing off the offloading lane.

Baloucoune is part of an Ulster team who have been daring and effective in their transition attack this season, while his athleticism and decision-making lend themselves well to transition situations.

Ireland need to get the ball into his hands in better circumstances, even if their intent to find him is clear here.

And Ireland need to be ruthless when they create chances in transition, as they did with the clock in the red against Italy.

James Lowe makes a cracking intercept near the Irish 22-metre line and accelerates off upfield.

If this is Baloucoune, perhaps he goes the distance, but Lowe realises he won’t and instead buys time for his team-mates to catch up by slowing down, then using his power.

We can see Lowe considering an offload to Garry Ringrose or Jack Conan on his right, but it’s not clearly on, so he takes the ball to ground and Ireland recycle.

Over on Ireland’s right, Italy are underresourced and we can see Caelan Doris and Tadhg Beirne [red] screaming for the ball, with Baloucoune [yellow] at the bottom of the shot out wide. 

Doris and Beirne are skillful forwards so they would probably back themselves to move the ball into Baloucoune’s hands, even if it would take a long left-handed pass from Beirne.

But Gibson-Park has already decided to move the ball left to out-half Crowley, where Ireland have a chance.

If Crowley can even slightly square up to hold Italian loosehead prop Micro Spagnolo here, there’s a possible 2-on-1 chance for Nick Timoney and Stuart McCloskey on the edge.

But Spagnolo can drift out onto Timoney and make a tackle on the pacy Irish flanker, denying Ireland that opportunity.

Ireland still win a penalty at the ensuing breakdown, but the opportunity to score more immediately is gone.

It’s an excellent scramble from the hard-working Italian side, yet Ireland need to get better at turning these transition opportunities into scores.

With the shape of the game having shifted, this is more important than ever.