SO MUCH HAS changed for Ireland since back in early 2020.

That’s when England out-half George Ford articulated something that lots of other people had thought for several years. Ireland were too reliant on Johnny Sexton in attack.

“There’s teams that are very dominant who play off 10,” said Ford on The Magic Academy podcast. “A team like Ireland is ‘Where’s Sexton? Where’s Sexton?’ Wherever Sexton is, is where the ball is going.

“I suppose from an attack point of view, it’s interesting that you don’t want to probably be as predictable as that in terms of… you want to have the ability to go either side or either way with different options.”

At that point, Ireland were already in the process of making their attack less predictable. It took time for us to really see the evidence on match days but just a few months later, it was starting to click and Ireland were moving towards having one of the most unpredictable attacks in the world.

These days, we get examples nearly every weekend. This isn’t to suggest that Sexton doesn’t remain the beating heart of this team. He is the inspirational leader whose skills – technical, tactical, and mental – are a huge part of making this Irish team what it is.

But there’s no doubt that things have changed in Ireland’s attack. It’s simply not all running through Sexton, even if he is still calling most of the plays and directing traffic.

“I think we have developed our game a lot more,” said Sexton himself yesterday, pointing to how the likes of Mack Hansen, Hugo Keenan, and Garry Ringrose have stepped up as playmakers.

“You’ve seen with Mack at the weekend when he took that ball on the shortside and threw a lovely pass to Jack [Conan] for the try,” said Sexton.

“Hugo, obviously with Garry being out, will have to take the ball-playing ability away and Robbie [Henshaw] has to come in and do that, or Stu or Jimmy, whoever’s picked.

“So we do need to vary it up, definitely. I don’t think we over-rely on going through 10 now.”

Wing pair Hansen and James Lowe have helped to make Ireland less predictable. Backed by Farrell and attack coach Mike Catt, they have license to roam the pitch and get as many touches of the ball as possible.

As Sexton said, Hansen’s assist for Conan last weekend was a peach.

Hansen’s work on the ball here is crucial but we should start by noting that Sexton is on the left side of the ruck, set up as first receiver there.

In the past, maybe the ball would have gone to him but Ireland have more decision-makers actively looking for space and opportunities now.

Scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park is one of them and he’s scanning as he moves to the breakdown, while probably receiving communication from Hansen and co. in the shortside on the right.

Hansen is not even the obvious first receiver on Gibson-Park’s right. As we can see above, Ringrose is set up in that role with his hands up, seemingly signalling for a pass.

Fullback Keenan is just outside Hansen, while number eight Conan is reloading out to the touchline to provide width. 

As highlighted below, Ringrose’s presence and animation serve to briefly hold Sione Tuipulotu [yellow], meaning that Huw Jones [blue] and Duhan van der Merwe [pink] are left with a 3-on-2 to defend.

Hansen accentuates the advantageous situation by straightening up off his right leg and delaying his pass to ensure that Jones and van der Merwe both sit down.

Keenan runs a short line off Hansen to further prevent van der Merwe from jockeying out onto Conan early, and Hansen beautifully executes his pass after an excellent pass from Gibson-Park – who had already cleverly assisted Lowe’s try a few minutes.

“It’s playing what’s in front of you and trying to play to the space,” said Sexton. “We did it well at times last week against Scotland where we played early when the space was there.

“There were moments that we missed, whether it was a mix-up in communication or guys being a little bit too eager to over-call something, different things like that we’ve had to fix up this week.”

Ireland’s first try in this game also demonstrated their development as a team that is not totally reliant on Sexton when it comes to creating and taking chances.

The phase before Hansen’s first-half try sees Sexton carrying effectively on Ireland’s left. 

As we see below, Sexton dummies an inside pass to Josh van der Flier before making it over the gainline and giving Ireland quick ball.

Before Sexton has even received the ball from scrum-half Conor Murray, we can see centre Ringrose beginning to organise Ireland for the scoring phase back on Ireland’s right.

And just as Sexton is tackled, we can see that fullback Keenan is now close to Ringrose, also shouting out instructions.

As Murray passes to launch the next phase, Keenan is still communicating to Peter O’Mahony outside him, seemingly indicating that he wants the flanker to run a short line to keep the defence as narrow as possible.

Keenan also appears to shout as last-second prompt to James Ryan in front of him to run short off Ringrose.

Everything settles beautifully into place as Murray hits second row Ryan Baird in the middle of the pod of forwards just off the ruck. Because Ireland snap into shape so late, it’s hard for Scotland to react ideally. The Irish forwards deserve credit too, of course. While Ringrose and Keenan are directing them, each individual needs to understand the principles of attack that are at play here. Skillful, intelligent forwards make any attack less predictable.

In this case, Baird sweeps the ball out the back to Ringrose and then Ryan runs a front-door option to keep the defence honest as Ringrose in turn swings the ball out the back to Keenan, whose run is beautifully timed.

The last pass from Keenan wide to Hansen is a stunner and allows the Ireland wing to gather at pace without breaking stride. 

Hansen’s finish is superb.

Of course, Ireland will miss Ringrose this weekend against England but they have others who can help to organise and distribute in this fashion.

Keenan, Hansen, Lowe, Henshaw, and Bundee Aki have all worked hard to improve their skills in these areas, becoming more comfortable as first receivers or set up out the back of forward pods, ensuring Ireland are a threat even when Sexton is on the ground and out of play.

“That’s the coaches that have done that,” said Sexton when asked if he has had to encourage these players to step up more.

“They’ve tried to make us more adaptable to be able to play what’s in front of us. If a defence is doing something that we haven’t expected, then we’re able to adapt on the run.

“I think we’ve shown that adaptability, especially last week when things were going badly in terms of guys dropping with injury and you end up with what we ended up with and we have to go back to two plays from our whole game sheet, and we made them work and we kept playing them over and over again.”

Ireland will hope for less injury disruption this time around and their plan is to deliver their best performance of this Six Nations yet. Sexton will be central once again but he will hope others can make the Irish attack unpredictable for the English defence.