IRELAND KICKED THE ball 45 times in play against Australia on Saturday, which is a whopping tally for any team.

There were 44 kicks in play from Ireland during last July’s Test against Georgia, which was played in torrential rain, but they went one better against the Wallabies last weekend.

The wet conditions in Dublin obviously contributed to Ireland going down this kick-heavy route, but Andy Farrell’s side also clearly felt that they could beat Australia in the aerial contests that are now pivotal to top-level rugby.

Yet, it wasn’t just contestable kicking last Saturday, with Ireland bringing a nice variety to their kicking game against the Wallabies. 

Halfbacks Sam Prendergast [14 kicks] and Jamison Gibson-Park [13] led the kick tactics from Ireland, but Mack Hansen [3], James Lowe [7], and Tommy O’Brien [2] chipped in, while replacement out-half Jack Crowley [4] picked up where Prendergast had left off.

Of course, Ireland are going up against perhaps the leading proponents of kicking, competing aerially, and winning scraps on the ground in South Africa this weekend. It promises to be an intriguing part of a highly anticipated battle.

Farrell’s men had a nice tune-up for that contest by controlling the Wallabies game with their kicking, very often putting themselves into good attacking positions from where they were ruthless in scoring.

Ireland had 12 entries into the Australian 22 and scored six tries, landed a Prendergast drop goal, and won one penalty, meaning it was a clinical performance from them. 3.8 points per entry into the 22 is a strong return.

Ireland’s first try stemmed from one of the many garryowens they hung up over the Wallabies, with out-half Prendergast causing strife for the Australians with his kick.

Ireland have lost the gainline on the first two phases of their lineout attack and Prendergast doesn’t mess around – he swiftly decides to go to the kicking game.

Prendergast signals that he’s going to hang a bomb up, giving his chasers a cue.

The kick from Prendergast is superb, with 4.91 seconds of hangtime on his up-and-under.

Usually, anything around 4 seconds on a contestable kick is enough to give chasing players a chance to get under the ball, as well as causing stress for the opposition fielders.

In this instance, Ryan Baird chases and Wallabies wing Harry Potter loses the flight of the ball as he looks to make an overhead catch.

A bouncing ball is a nightmare for the Australians and it’s Ireland who win the scraps, with hooker Dan Sheehan regaining possession.

Australia now have to scramble to find defensive shape and they never fully recover.

Ireland attack swiftly and the Wallabies concede a penalty, which happens frequently in such scenarios. The visitors are then slow to react to the penalty and Gibson-Park taps and sends Lowe hurtling at the line.

There’s one more carry from James Ryan before Hansen’s opening try.

The key here is that everyone is a genuine threat.

Sheehan [red below] accelerates forward and gets his hands up as if to receive a pass.

Sheehan’s animation causes Wallabies centre Len Ikitau [blue above] to briefly slow his feet, worrying about having to turn in to contribute in a tackle on Sheehan.

That buys Jack Conan more time on the ball to get his sweep pass away before Ikitau can hit him.

Outside Conan, tighthead prop Tadhg Furlong [green below] is a viable option for a tip-on pass.

Furlong times his run well from a nice depth, accelerating towards the Wallabies. Not only does he occupy Joseph Aukuso-Suaalii directly in front of him, but Furlong also distracts Jake Gordon [yellow above] outside Aukuso-Suaalii.

Gordon is initially attracted towards Furlong’s line as he worries about contributing to that possible tackle on his inside, which again means that Prendergast will have a hint more time to get the ball away when Conan sweeps it to him.

The transfer from Conan isn’t completely clean, with the ball deflecting off Furlong and taking a bounce, but Prendergast and then Stuart McCloskey show composure and slick handling to shift it to Hansen.

There is no penalty advantage playing here for Ireland, making this finishing play more impressive.

It’s rare enough to see a sweep pass from a forward this close to the tryline, but Ireland back their skills to move the ball into space as the forwards do a good job of preserving it.

Another excellent Prendergast kick lays the platform for Hansen’s second try.

Ireland are awarded a scrum free-kick, Gibson-Park pops the ball to Prendergast, who glances up, sees an opportunity, and acts without hesitation.

Noticing that the Wallabies have left an opening on their right-hand touchline and backing the length of his kicking game, Prendergast unleashes a beautiful low spiral kick.

The ball skids off the turf and is heading for a 50:22 as Wallabies fullback Max Jorgensen scampers across looking to rescue the situation.

But under pressure close to the touchline, Jorgensen errs by knocking the ball on.

It’s a technically excellent kick from Prendergast that requires vision in its conception but the thing Farrell probably liked most was his young out-half totally backing himself when he identified the chance. No second-guessing, no hesitation, just pull the trigger.

Ireland get a five-metre scrum and score in two phases.

McCloskey’s carry off the set-piece is crucial because he batters over the gainline before Ireland pull the trigger with another accurate string of slick passes.

Again, the use of a face pass across the man who looks like the obvious receiver is key.

In this instance, Baird [red below] looks like the probable ball-carrier off Gibson-Park this close to the tryline.

Again, Baird gets his hands up and makes a dart as Gibson-Park passes, and that helps to hold Ikitau [blue] above on Baird, meaning one pass from Ireland takes out four defenders.

That leaves Aukuso-Suaalii [green below] with lots to cover. He has Henshaw in front of him, while Prendergast is set up in behind Baird as if to take another sweep pass from the blindside flanker.

It looks as though Prendergast catches Aukuso-Suaalii’s eyes in particular and the fizzing, flat pass from Gibson-Park to Henshaw catches him off guard. He stops coming forward very briefly, which is exactly what Henshaw needs in order to get the ball away.

Before he even gets the ball, Henshaw is turning his body in to open it up so he can play a swift ‘shoulder ball’ to Prendergast swinging behind him.

With Suaalii hesitating, Henshaw has time for a little juggle before he gets the ball away cleanly to Prendergast, who makes a nice decision to skip Lowe and send Hansen untouched under the posts.

Having again got into position through a successful kick, Ireland are clinical in finishing.

A trio of good kicks lead to the third Irish score.

First, they make a successful exit from their own half, with Gibson-Park kicking superbly.

The Irish scrum-half gets 4.3 seconds of hang time on his box kick, which comes down about 25 metres upfield from where he kicks. 

The quality of the kick gives right wing O’Brien a great chance to go up and compete.

As is usually the case nowadays, O’Brien opts to go for a bat back on Ireland’s side rather than trying to win the ball himself against Filipo Daugunu.

Ireland’s secondary chase line works hard to get into position to hoover up the scraps and it’s Furlong who seizes upon the bouncing ball this time.

As we saw earlier, this kind of kick regain can be a great platform for launching an attack with ball in hand, but winning back a kick can often leave lots of space for another immediate kick.

The scrum-half understands that Daugunu has come up from the backfield for the initial aerial contest with O’Brien, then tried to chase the ball after the Irish wing bats it back.

As Ireland recycle the ball, we can see Gibson-Park scanning the now-empty right-hand side of the backfield.

He recognises that Daugunu is still near the ball.

Daugunu can see that no one has dropped into the left-hand side of the Wallabies’ backfield and he gets on his bike, trying to cover back.

But Gibson-Park is moving quicker and he rolls a beauty of a kick over Daugunu and into touch for a 50:22.

McCloskey makes another muscular carry off the ensuing Irish lineout, giving them gainline again, before further carries from Caelan Doris and Ryan.

On fourth phase, Ireland’s kicking game comes back to the fore.

This time, it’s wing O’Brien who nudges a grubber behind the Wallabies after Jack Conan sweeps a pass to him.

O’Brien recognises that Wallabies fullback Jorgensen [red below] is closing up onto the edge of the defence to make it a three-on-three.

In doing so, Jorgensen leaves space in the backfield and O’Brien takes it with a well-weighted kick.

O’Brien has shown himself well capable of accurate kicks in the past, but it’s possibly not something that Australia would have expected from him in this instance, with Ireland attacking in the 22 and no penalty advantage playing.

Ireland tried a few kicks like this against New Zealand in Chicago without success, but this one comes up trumps as Lowe and Sheehan make a big play on the chase.

Lowe shows discipline by not immediately smothering Jorgensen on the ground, instead giving him time to get up after gathering the ball.

Jorgensen opts to stay on the turf, so Lowe picks him up and then drives him over his own tryline, with Sheehan lending his weight to the mix too.

Ireland get a five-metre scrum and score.

Again, it’s a relatively ‘risky’ play without penalty advantage. Usually, teams just go for very few passes per phase from this close in, but Ireland get the ball wide on first phase.

Bundee Aki, just on for McCloskey, receives the ball from Gibson-Park and plays out the back of Henshaw to Prendergast.

The Irish out-half has passing options in Lowe and Hansen but at a very late stage, spots the chance to cross-kick to O’Brien.

Aukuso-Suaalii is very close to Prendergast when the out-half decides to kick, meaning he’s under maximal pressure.

If it goes wrong, the Wallabies could be scooping the ball up and going the length of the pitch, but Prendergast again backs himself to execute.

The kick obviously isn’t as clean as he’d hope, with O’Brien having to check and come infield to claim it, but Prendergast gets the ball out into space.

O’Brien is snared by Jorgensen and loses the ball backwards on the ground, but Hansen is alert in grabbing it and darting past Ikitau and inside Potter to finish.

It’s worth noting that Ikitau’s arrival onto the scene has been delayed by a bump from Henshaw in finishing his decoy line off Aki, as well as Lowe running upfield after Prendergast kicks. Those split seconds make a difference in allowing Hansen the chance to finish.

Perhaps Ireland’s best kick-related score was the one that was chalked off.

It starts with another scrum free-kick.

Prendergast delivers a towering kick, but this time he opts for a spiral bomb, which involves launching an up-and-under but hitting the ball vertically to create a spiral, rather than kicking through the end of the ball for an end-over-end flight.

Spiral bombs are notoriously difficult to judge as they fall from the sky with ever-growing unpredictability due to the spiralling flight of the ball.

Add in the fact that Prendergast gets a whopping 5.2 seconds of hang time on his kick and it’s a very tricky one for Jorgensen to deal with.

The ball comes down inside the Aussie 22, which Prendergast might have wanted to avoid in order to deny Australia a possible mark, as well as giving the chasing Lowe and Timoney a chance to get under the ball.

But the nature of the kick means Jorgensen midjudges it and spills it forward. Unfortunately for Ireland, Lowe also knocks the ball on as he looks to gather it.

However, it’s not spotted live and play continues as Andrew Porter grabs the ball and surges forward before another classy kick from Prendergast.

It’s an inch-perfect kick pass from Prendergast on a low trajectory that means O’Brien barely has to slow his feet to gather and cross.

Prendergast celebrates joyously.

But it’s short-lived as the TMO confirms the knock-on by Lowe and the try is chalked off.

However, Ireland’s fourth try involves yet another regained kick.

Crowley has replaced Prendergast at out-half and he continues to implement Ireland’s plan of going to the air.

Crowley receives a goal-line drop-out from the Aussies – which itself stems from a long Gibson-Park kick – and immediately points to the air for Hansen to chase.

Crowley gets 4 seconds of hangtime on his kick, but it’s relatively shallow, so Hansen has to control his feet well here.

He slows his chase, all while keeping his eyes on the ball. He also adds a swerve to his right just before leaping, adjusting to the flight of the ball and giving himself a better angle into contest.

As is his tendency, Hansen leaps off his left leg and gets his right knee high, which helps to propel him even higher, as well as giving him a hard edge to lead into the contact with.

Watch below how Hansen’s right leg helps him to win the contest against James O’Connor, colliding with the Aussie out-half and meaning Hansen comes down with a clean take. 

A clean take of a contestable like this is increasingly rare in top-level rugby, where batting the ball back has become far more common. It’s a huge moment of momentum-winning from Hansen. 

So once again, the Australians are in retreat mode and playing catch-up.

Ireland play on top of them with tempo and sharp skills, leading to Doris getting a one-on-one against Aussie back Andrew Kellaway.

Ireland’s fifth score came from a lineout strike , but their sixth and final try of the evening featured two cross kicks.

First, Crowley spots the space and finds replacement hooker Rónan Kelleher wide on the right.

Kelleher fields, throws a clever dummy, and makes big gains for Ireland up into the 22 before they sweep back out to their left.

The ball goes to ground, but Crowley picks it up and calmly flicks a pass away to Gibson-Park, who is now playing fullback after Hansen’s exit.

And Gibson-Park comes up with a delightful cross-kick to seal Ireland’s win, nudging the ball out in front of Henshaw to allow him to gather on the full without breaking stride.

After controlling the Wallabies game with their kicking, Ireland will be looking for something similar against the Springboks.

It’s likely to be a much more even contest in this area, but Farrell will hope his men can rule the air and find the space with their kicking game.