FORMER IRELAND WING Shane Horgan has cautioned against the expectation of a complete philosophical shift under new Ireland head coach Andy Farrell and, more pertinently, Mike Catt, the latter of whom will oversee Ireland’s backs as part of Farrell’s coaching ticket.
The 2009 Grand Slam winner suggested that there has been an element of revisionism in the discourse surrounding the team since Joe Schmidt’s departure, describing the notion that the Kiwi was inexorably conservative in his attacking approach as being a “crutch” on which Ireland’s players can no longer lean.
The risk-averse version of Schmidt painted in the aftermath of Ireland’s World Cup woes doesn’t tally with the coach under whom Horgan played for Leinster towards the end of his career, and the Virgin Media TV pundit believes Ireland may have become guilty of retreating into their shells towards the end of Schmidt’s tenure more so due to a “latent pressure” than by philosophical design.
Horgan also shared the pitch with English World Cup winner Catt on several occasions throughout their playing careers, but the 41-year-old doesn’t expect there to necessarily be a direct correlation between Catt’s preferred styles of play on and off the field.
And he maintains that when the pressure of the Six Nations hits home from 4:45 this evening, it won’t be as easy as many think for Ireland to shake the perceived shackles of the previous era.
“I think there’s a real danger when you’re connecting what you saw in a player and attribute those same characteristics [to them] as a coach, because it doesn’t always follow,” Horgan told The42. “You’ve got some of the most attacking-minded, almost reckless players that I’ve ever seen that have gone into coaching and they’ve become really conservative and risk-averse. So I don’t think one naturally means the other.
I think what’s more interesting from Catt’s perspective is what his coaching philosophy is. So, I know he’s a real disciple of [Brian] Ashton, and what’s he done in the meantime? I know he’s coming off the back of a not very successful time with the Italian team. Now, I think you can really compartmentalise what he did — they scored more tries than they had previously — but it wasn’t winning rugby.
“There’s a big challenge for him to deliver an attacking game that moves Ireland on relatively significantly because there’s been quite a lot of chat about that.
“There’s been a little bit of revisionism around the Joe Schmidt era, particularly in the last 12 months. And I do think he missed a couple of macro trends that were going on in the game and didn’t move the game on.
“There is definitely a desire to ‘free up’ the players I’ve heard that used a lot. And if Joe did restrict what they were doing — and I’m not sure if he did or if it was just a latent pressure — I think what Andy Farrell and I assume Mike Catt will be doing is trying to take that opportunity to be a little less risk-averse.
I think that was one of the hallmarks of Joe’s team when they got tense, was that they became risk-averse. From everything I’m hearing coming out of the camp, they’re going to move away from that. Now, in the pressure of a Six Nations in the first couple of games, let’s see how that translates.
Horgan acknowledged that “coaches change over time and maybe Joe did become a little more conservative” in what was a tumultuous and ultimately unsuccessful final year of an otherwise remarkable reign.
He stressed, however, that when he played under Schmidt himself, “It was always the case that if the opportunity was there, and if you didn’t take it, Joe would judge you on that, not just retention of the ball for having the ball’s sake.
“Now, he’d certainly judge you if you threw a reckless pass or if you tried to complete a skill that you should be able to complete and you didn’t perform it correctly,” Horgan added. “But at the same time — many, many times — if the opportunity was there out wide to move it and you took a more conservative option, my experience was he’d be asking why you were doing that.
“So, that’s what I mean about a bit of revisionism as well.
I think it’s been relatively convenient for players to go, ‘All we had to do was retain the ball, and we didn’t want to drop it — we were worried about what would happen if we threw the pass at the Monday-morning review session.’ Well, I think generally if you threw the pass and it was the right thing to do and you performed it correctly, you’d be getting a pat on the back.
“So, let’s see, now that that crutch has been removed, whether they do start taking those edges. Because the messaging since Joe finished, and particularly now with the new coaches in place is, ‘We’re going to free ya up, the shackles are off, we’re going to take the edges.’
“And it’s not as easy as is thought.”
In aid of the Peter McVerry Trust, Glenisk, the official yogurt of Irish Rugby, will host a one-day pop-up restaurant experience in Tang on Dawson Street, Dublin, on Monday 3 February from 7:30am. The menu will feature both breakfast and lunch options as well as a selection of all-day protein snacks developed in collaboration with the IRFU performance nutrition team. All proceeds will go to the Peter McVerry Trust.
