A PROBLEM THAT hadn’t been one for Ireland is now becoming a costly issue. For so long, this Ireland team have been able to point to their discipline as a strength.
Recently, those standards have slipped. Across their last eight games Ireland have collected six yellow cards and one red.
With Ringrose watching on as France came to town, Ireland shipped five tries in Dublin – two of which came during the 20 minutes the hosts had Joe McCarthy and Calvin Nash in the sin bin. McCarthy saw yellow for a needless tug on Thomas Ramos’ jersey in the first half, before Nash was sent to the sideline after a high tackle on Pierre-Louis Barassi after the break.
Those cards weren’t the sole reason Ireland lost to France but the periods when they were down to 14 proved damaging. Even when Ireland were back to 15, some of the team were clearly still drained from the energy expended while defending a man down.
Ireland know this is an area they need to address, even if their overall penalty count has been decent – only France (30) have conceded less penalties in this Six Nations than Ireland (36).
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Ireland still want to be a team that carries a physical edge and uses ‘the dark arts’ in the right manner, but they need to do it while staying on the right side of the officials.
“It is difficult to strike the balance I suppose,” says lock James Ryan.
“Look, we pride ourselves on being sort of a smart team, but it’s the difference between those unavoidable penalties and the avoidable ones. We’re always trying to limit the amount of avoidable penalties that we give away, and I think by and large we’ve been OK with that. And then sometimes there’s just unavoidable ones as well that you give away by playing on the edge and wanting to be aggressive and get after teams.
Ryan spoke to the media in Abbotstown earlier this week. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
“So it is always a balance we’re trying to strike. A team like France, you don’t want to be giving them too much access into the game and Italy will be the same this week. So it’s something we’re definitely aware of.”
The other jarring aspect of Ireland’s performance last weekend was how they struggled to deal with the power of the French pack, which received a serious boost from their risky 7/1 bench split.
While no doubt a major factor, again, that in itself was not the winning and losing of the game. Ireland came out on top against a largely similar French pack in Marseille last year and can also point to two wins from three against South Africa over the past two years.
When asked about a potential power deficit against the French, Ryan highlights the areas where the Irish pack held their own against Fabien Galthié’s men.
“It might be a little simplistic because our setpiece was good. We were 100% at the scrum.
“Our defence wasn’t where it needed to be. We probably didn’t put ourselves in the positions to be as effective as we would have liked to be, if that makes sense. When the ball went away from us we didn’t work as hard as we usually do. I think a lot of it was our work off the ball. Usually we would be very good at it, but we were a bit slow to load, to get set.”
“I think the main areas was that we weren’t clinical enough in that first 20. We dominated possession and territory in that first 20 minutes. We had a number of entries to their 22, but it was 5-0 to France after 20.
“Certainly when we get into the 22, being able to be a bit more ruthless than maybe we were on Saturday (v Italy) is definitely something that we have taken as a lesson from the game. They were better than we were, a lot more clinical when they came into our half, and scored more often than not. We have to be better this week.”
Joe McCarthy received a costly yellow card against France. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
One of the key plays during that period saw Caelan Doris held up over the line following a brilliant defensive effort from France number eight Grégory Alldritt. This will have been a sore point for the Ireland coaches, with Mack Hansen also held up in the round three defeat of Wales.
“It’s tricky, because I think Caelan had a very good carry,” Ryan said. “It was just a very good piece of defence, Alldritt under him. Obviously, we had another incident in the Millennium.
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“I don’t know there’s much else you could have done. Certainly when you get close to the line and you get forwards in twos and threes and getting into shape, we talk about trying to play underneath them. We don’t want to get held up, because it’s not like you get a scrum-five anymore. It’s a goal-line dropout, so it can be a big moment.”
The bottom line: plenty to work on ahead of tomorrow’s final round meeting with Italy in Rome.
“The message has been that we were a little bit off, so the last couple of days we’ve been very honest and open around our performance and some of our shortcomings,” Ryan continued.
“So that’s been important, and then it’s just been about turning the page and getting excited about another week and the message has been this is the last week probably as a group together, different guys will go and other guys will come in now going forward, so it’s important we enjoy it, but you enjoy it when you put in a performance that’s a proper performance, not just by having the week together.
“So I suppose the message is delivering a proper performance on Saturday that can mean we finished the tournament on a good note.”
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Ryan: Ireland have to be 'smart' with discipline while cutting out the cards
A PROBLEM THAT hadn’t been one for Ireland is now becoming a costly issue. For so long, this Ireland team have been able to point to their discipline as a strength.
Recently, those standards have slipped. Across their last eight games Ireland have collected six yellow cards and one red.
Garry Ringrose paid a hefty price for poor tackling technique in Cardiff, receiving a red card that ruled him out of the crucial showdown with France last weekend. Wales’ two tries against Ireland came during the period where Ringrose was off the pitch.
With Ringrose watching on as France came to town, Ireland shipped five tries in Dublin – two of which came during the 20 minutes the hosts had Joe McCarthy and Calvin Nash in the sin bin. McCarthy saw yellow for a needless tug on Thomas Ramos’ jersey in the first half, before Nash was sent to the sideline after a high tackle on Pierre-Louis Barassi after the break.
Those cards weren’t the sole reason Ireland lost to France but the periods when they were down to 14 proved damaging. Even when Ireland were back to 15, some of the team were clearly still drained from the energy expended while defending a man down.
Ireland know this is an area they need to address, even if their overall penalty count has been decent – only France (30) have conceded less penalties in this Six Nations than Ireland (36).
Ireland still want to be a team that carries a physical edge and uses ‘the dark arts’ in the right manner, but they need to do it while staying on the right side of the officials.
“It is difficult to strike the balance I suppose,” says lock James Ryan.
“Look, we pride ourselves on being sort of a smart team, but it’s the difference between those unavoidable penalties and the avoidable ones. We’re always trying to limit the amount of avoidable penalties that we give away, and I think by and large we’ve been OK with that. And then sometimes there’s just unavoidable ones as well that you give away by playing on the edge and wanting to be aggressive and get after teams.
“So it is always a balance we’re trying to strike. A team like France, you don’t want to be giving them too much access into the game and Italy will be the same this week. So it’s something we’re definitely aware of.”
The other jarring aspect of Ireland’s performance last weekend was how they struggled to deal with the power of the French pack, which received a serious boost from their risky 7/1 bench split.
While no doubt a major factor, again, that in itself was not the winning and losing of the game. Ireland came out on top against a largely similar French pack in Marseille last year and can also point to two wins from three against South Africa over the past two years.
When asked about a potential power deficit against the French, Ryan highlights the areas where the Irish pack held their own against Fabien Galthié’s men.
“It might be a little simplistic because our setpiece was good. We were 100% at the scrum.
“Our defence wasn’t where it needed to be. We probably didn’t put ourselves in the positions to be as effective as we would have liked to be, if that makes sense. When the ball went away from us we didn’t work as hard as we usually do. I think a lot of it was our work off the ball. Usually we would be very good at it, but we were a bit slow to load, to get set.”
And crucially, Ireland didn’t execute in the moments when their good work brought them into position to strike. Ireland enjoyed the bulk of the possession and territory across the opening quarter but came out of that period with no points beside their name on the scoreboard.
“I think the main areas was that we weren’t clinical enough in that first 20. We dominated possession and territory in that first 20 minutes. We had a number of entries to their 22, but it was 5-0 to France after 20.
“Certainly when we get into the 22, being able to be a bit more ruthless than maybe we were on Saturday (v Italy) is definitely something that we have taken as a lesson from the game. They were better than we were, a lot more clinical when they came into our half, and scored more often than not. We have to be better this week.”
One of the key plays during that period saw Caelan Doris held up over the line following a brilliant defensive effort from France number eight Grégory Alldritt. This will have been a sore point for the Ireland coaches, with Mack Hansen also held up in the round three defeat of Wales.
“It’s tricky, because I think Caelan had a very good carry,” Ryan said. “It was just a very good piece of defence, Alldritt under him. Obviously, we had another incident in the Millennium.
“I don’t know there’s much else you could have done. Certainly when you get close to the line and you get forwards in twos and threes and getting into shape, we talk about trying to play underneath them. We don’t want to get held up, because it’s not like you get a scrum-five anymore. It’s a goal-line dropout, so it can be a big moment.”
The bottom line: plenty to work on ahead of tomorrow’s final round meeting with Italy in Rome.
“The message has been that we were a little bit off, so the last couple of days we’ve been very honest and open around our performance and some of our shortcomings,” Ryan continued.
“So that’s been important, and then it’s just been about turning the page and getting excited about another week and the message has been this is the last week probably as a group together, different guys will go and other guys will come in now going forward, so it’s important we enjoy it, but you enjoy it when you put in a performance that’s a proper performance, not just by having the week together.
“So I suppose the message is delivering a proper performance on Saturday that can mean we finished the tournament on a good note.”
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