AS IRELAND LABOURED to victory over Russia in Kobe, Simon Zebo sat 9,500km away in a quiet corner of a South Dublin pub, tucked away from the heavy lunchtime trade that had peeled off from the office for a few short hours.
The vast majority of customers had no clue the former Munster player was in the building, but Zebo has become accustomed to going by unnoticed. Yesterday he was asked how Racing 92 were doing this season and even if he had been playing much himself.
What a difference a year makes.
As the months have passed, and despite harbouring ambitions of resurrecting his international career, Zebo has become more open to giving his honest opinion on the team.
Needless to say, after Ireland’s horror show against Japan and an unconvincing performance against Russia, he has plenty of opinions. Even less surprising is what he feels he is holding the team back.
“In attack, we just lack a freedom to express ourselves,” Zebo says.
“Joe has his structures and systems and the way he wants to play and put pressure on teams. That’s great and it works really well. Sometimes that something different would go a long way, especially with the talent we have in the group. The players are definitely there. If they’re given the licence they can be as good as any backs running on to front-foot ball.”
Not only have Ireland failed to fire against Japan and Russia, but the manner of their performances have also been hugely concerning, with Schmidt’s team making a number of uncharacteristic errors in both games. Zebo buys into the notion it is the sign of a team with a weight on their shoulders, forced to stick to a rigid gameplan even when it seems to be working against them.
“There is a bit of pressure. I wouldn’t say they play out of fear, but there is definitely a fear factor there in terms of mistakes or offloading, trying something and it not coming off.”
Of course, Zebo was once one of those backs slotting into an Ireland system which he felt restricted his talents, earning 35 caps and one Six Nations winners’ medal. Yet he never once went to Schmidt and asked for more freedom on the pitch.
“It would just be senior players who would discuss a gameplan. They bounce the ideas off Joe.
“Joe is his own man and he wants to play his way. It’s very evident, the set-piece moves have his fingerprints all over it. But after that, when the game is in phase play, we just lack a bit of freedom.
“Forwards get used quite a lot and if you’re playing South Africa, (or) a really big pack, you can’t really just do the one-out runners.”
Zebo’s reluctance to go to Schmidt was partly down to wanting to keep his place in the team, party down to feeling he knew the answer that would greet him.
“You don’t want to start throwing your hands up in the air and saying ‘I want this, I want that’, you’re part of the team and even though (you feel) ‘I could do something different’, you want to play and be a part of the team, so you fit in to the system.
“It was a tricky position when I was playing under Joe. Being on the outside now you see different things but when you are there you just follow along and you give it your everything and you try win for Ireland.
“But yeah, being on the outside now, you’d like to see one or two things done a little bit differently.”
Namely, he would like to see the head coach use the players at his disposal in different roles, adding that he believes Ireland could successfully employ the dual playmaker system often adopted by the likes of New Zealand and England, depending on the fitness of some key players.
“100%. That would be the mindset I’d be going,” he says.
“Robbie Henshaw, he’s a player who is very much capable of being a distributor but he’s not being used in that role. (Garry) Ringrose, these guys, they have the ability to playmake, but it’s just I don’t think they are in the team for that. I think the gainline and carrying up the ball, fitting into the structure that Joe wants to play, is very much the way the centres we have are being used.”
Zebo, who has floated between fullback and centre for a struggling Racing team in the Top14 this season, also believes there is room for both Joey Carbery and Johnny Sexton in the team.
“I’d like to see Joey get a go at either 10, 12, with him and Johnny. It’s tough, injuries are the cruel thing but he’s (Carbery) well capable. Both of them, a bit more width on the game, it’d be very good.
“You don’t want to turn our centres into battering rams, we need to have expansion on our game and it’s not there at the minute. It’s evident in the performances, we’re not able to get the ball wide and finish the chances we’re creating so hopefully that changes fairly quick.”
‘Fairly quick’ translates to a final pool meeting with Samoa next Saturday, ahead of a likely quarter-final against New Zealand a week later. Given the evidence, if Ireland do manage to finally break the quarter-final glass ceiling, it will be one of Schmidt’s finest achievements, and Zebo is keen to stress that he wants the team to go far in Japan.
“You never know, they could be keeping their cards close to their chest,” he adds.
“I don’t really believe that, but I’m just trying to see some way they can get confidence because I want them to do well in the tournament. I’d be more nervous heading into a quarter-final now than I would have been before the tournament, having seen everyone else as well. I just hope they can turn it around and improve the mindset in terms of playing.
“They need to try a few things and maybe try a few different combinations, just go 100% into it and try and evolve the attack as much as you can going into a quarter-final and give New Zealand a few different pictures to look at as opposed to what they’ve been shown.”
It remains to be seen whether Zebo is ever part of that picture again, but that’s an issue for another day.
Paddy Power Rugby Ambassador Simon Zebo was speaking in Dublin yesterday following Ireland’s victory over Russia.
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