“I think there was no rucks on any.”
Noel McNamara knew his calling card.
During a recent Champions Cup victory away to Bristol, Union Bordeaux Bègles (UBB) had the impressive feat of avoiding a single attacking ruck during three of their four tries. Or so this correspondent thought when starting off a conversation with the European champions’ Irish attack coach.
Turns out that during all four UBB scores, they did not have to recycle the ball once. Not a single ruck. Win possession, throw an offload, fast guy scores.
Pat Lam, the slightly hapless Bristol coach on the day, was asked how you can stop a side that refuses to take the ball to the floor, denying opposition poachers a chance to slow them down. “You’ve just got to be accurate. If you drop a ball, turn it over, kick poorly, they’ll strike.”
In other words, don’t given them the chance in the first place. If you do, there ain’t nothing a scrambling defence can do.
If there is one stat to highlight in advance of Ireland’s Six Nations opener against France on Thursday night, or indeed the tournament as a whole, it would be rucks per try. In an era dominated by aerial battles and kicking, more teams are trying to manufacture transition attacking opportunities. If they get some scraps, skilled handlers and fast athletes can pick off disorganised defences with ease.
Of the Six Nations teams, France look the best equipped in this part of the game. Remember Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s try at the Aviva last year? A counter-ruck earned a turnover. Maxime Lucu passed to Damian Penaud via Emmanuel Meafou. One wing fed another, LBB grubbering and chasing brilliantly as Ireland’s disorganised line was carved open.
England aren’t bad in this phase of the game either. They too have the athletes to maximise space and the aerial game to create it. See Ben Earl’s try vs Australia in November. Win the ball back in the air, pop it inside to a fast backrow and speed off through a defence set for kick receipt.
Ireland have spoken about their desire to improve their transition attack. Of the 14 Irish tries scored in November, three came either via securing a turnover or running back a kick. Just one came without a ruck, Tommy O’Brien’s effort against Japan. Work remains to be done.
In the French example above, three of the names mentioned are Bordeaux players. Two of them, Messrs Lucu and Penaud, won’t be involved come Thursday. Still, with the French backline expected to include UBB men Matthieu Jalibert, Yoram Moefana, Nicolas Deportere and Bielle-Biarrey, the insight of their club attack coach is valuable when assessing how Ireland can try to catch the transition attack king.
Just one of Ireland’s tries in November came without a ruck: Tommy O’Brien’s effort against Japan. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho
“There’s always three things,” explains McNamara. “There’s skill set, structure, mindset. We [Bordeaux] have the skill set piece, the ability to play in disorder as much as anything else.”
Offloading and pace are arguably the two most important skills here. As Ronan O’Gara once said, “speed kills”. Irish rugby’s reckoning with pace becomes more and more important. It’s no surprise that Tommy O’Brien scored Ireland’s lone ruck-less try so far this season.
“There isn’t an awful lot of structure that goes into it,” continues McNamara. “Then you have the mindset. We talk about it often, it’s a race between the attack and defence, who gets set first. When you lose the ball, you’re vulnerable. We try to capitalise on that as quickly as we can.
“It’s something that’s been adapted from football. José Mourinho was the first one who spoke about the moments in the game, the transition. It originally came from basketball, soccer took it on to another level.”
Is there the required mindset for counterattack within Andy Farrell’s squad? The ability to spot space quickly before the window of opportunity closes. “It’s about pace but speed of thought as well,” says McNamara.
Intriguingly, when the Co Clare native was coaching on home soil, running the Ireland Under-20s, he saw the required mindset in younger Irish players. “It’s different because there’s less at stake in lots of ways with the 20s,” he explains. “The reality is we probably played every possession as if it was our last with the 20s. It’s one of the purest forms of rugby.”
Young players to watch in the Six Nations
Does that fearlessness extend up to the senior ranks? Or does playing with such a focus on transition merely increase the risk of loose ball, playing into the hands of a team which is better at counter-attacking? “You talk about the jeopardy, it creates a bit of fear against us as well,” says McNamara. “If you’ve a fear of making mistakes, you’re in a dangerous place. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Ireland want to get more dangerous in transition. In terms of skill set (ie pace), they don’t have the same amount of talent as France or England.
The question remains if they can nevertheless improve their mindset and other skills – such as rapid identification of space – to remain competitive in an area of the game which only continues to rise in importance. If Ireland score on counterattack while going through minimal rucks, then progress can be identified.
22 entries
Another number to keep an eye out for over the next six weeks: the differential between a team’s 22 entries in attack and 22 entries allowed in defence.
According to rugby analyst Sam Larner, who’s just released a book on rugby’s data culture, having more 22 visits gained than allowed has the closest correlation to success other than points scored.
In a way, this seems obvious. Spending more time near the opposition’s line rather than your own would indicate a greater chance of scoring. Still, by linking this to the above point on transition attack, if more teams are only pulling the trigger when running at disorganised defences, then entries into the 22 are more likely to lead to tries than, say, when building phase after phase against a well-stocked line. So the stat has gained additional value.
Looking at recent Ireland games, Larner is not wrong. When Ireland beat Japan and Australia, they comfortably won the battle of entering the 22. When they lost to the All Blacks and South Africa, they were defending inside their own 22 more often than attacking in the opposition’s.
Interestingly, when beaten by France in last year’s Six Nations, Ireland still had more 22 entries (11 vs 10). A sign, perhaps, that for Ireland at least, it’s not just about 22 entries, but in what manner of attack you approach the try line. If doing so as part of multiphase attack against a robust defence capable of destroying breakdowns, good luck. If rushing forward off the back of a good transition attack (with minimal rucks) then you’re in business.
Plenty to keep an eye on as Ireland try to catch up with the more effective attacking trends in advance of next year’s World Cup.