{"id":669485,"date":"2026-01-02T18:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T18:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/669485\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T18:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T18:13:10","slug":"negative-tadhg-beirne-blinding-ireland-who-risk-being-left-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/669485\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Negative’ Tadhg Beirne ‘blinding’ Ireland who risk being ‘left behind’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Ireland hooker and esteemed pundit Bernard Jackman has told his countrymen to embrace the new aerial laws instead of moaning about the state of the game.<\/b><\/p>\n

Just over a year ago World Rugby removed the \u2018escort\u2019 law, which had effectively enabled teams to use blockers to protect the catcher.<\/p>\n

That has led to much more of a contest under the high ball, but it has drawn criticism from a number in Ireland<\/a>, including coach Mike Prendergast and Tadhg Beirne.<\/p>\n

They feel that it is hampering the game and making it harder to attack, but Jackman disagrees and points to the rugby being played in the PREM<\/a> and Top 14<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018All teams in England have a plan\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cTadhg Beirne talking about how hard it is to play at the moment, this is actually something I would like to address,\u201d he told the RTE Rugby<\/a> podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have become very negative towards the rule change and it seems to be blinding our ability to see the positives from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the game was in crisis in England and France, you would say: \u2018Yeah, it\u2019s ruined the game\u2019, but luckily I watch a lot of rugby that\u2019s not URC<\/a> and effectively it hasn\u2019t stopped teams playing at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Top 14 in particular, teams are still playing some attractive, winning rugby, and likewise Bath and Northampton. I watch a lot of Premiership but I watched Bath-Northampton and while there was kicking in it, it did not become dour and stodgy.<\/p>\n

\u201cNearly all teams in England from what I can see have a plan as to how they can actually exploit ball being kicked onto them or the ball being kicked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an interesting narrative we\u2019ve heard a couple of times now from people who are very important in Irish rugby and I wonder how long it will last because I don\u2019t think the rule\u2019s changing. We\u2019ve either got to get with it and find a way of excelling or we\u2019ll get left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bernard Jackman: Why \u2018concerning\u2019 Leinster issue will leave Andy Farrell \u2018worried\u2019<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

While certain coaches and players in Ireland are frustrated by the direction of the sport, Jackman found a different view when speaking to people in England and France.<\/p>\n

\u201cI rang a few of my coaching friends in the Premiership and Top 14 but they all thought it was a good thing. They thought the game had become quite stodgy in the fact that if you kicked it, the opposition were more likely going to catch it and because teams were so organised with the kick-chase as well, it was quite difficult to do anything with it \u2013 the opposition often kicked it back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have really embraced the idea of how they can attack from chaotic situations and how much harder it was going to be to defend those. They were loving it.<\/p>\n

\u201cA couple in South Africa as well, who would naturally be quite conservative, think this is a huge opportunity to exploit space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland not the \u2018trendsetters\u2019 anymore<\/p>\n

Beirne\u2019s comments are perhaps not a coincidence given Ireland\u2019s downturn in performances, while France and England \u2013 both club and Test teams \u2013 are on the rise.<\/p>\n

Jackman doesn\u2019t believe that the Irish are only struggling because of the change in the aerial laws, however, with some of the strongest parts of their game also suffering.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to be the trendsetters,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven things like the choke tackle. The aerial game under Joe Schmidt, we were the best, the breakdown, the ball presentation, the recycling of the ball, we were the best \u2013 everyone else started to copy us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Andy Farrell way of playing with ball movement, shapes, we were the best, and it seems now that we\u2019ve been caught on the hop by this and we\u2019re not just setting the way, we\u2019re actually behind, which is worrying.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso the drop-off with the skill execution. We\u2019re never going to be the biggest team so if we\u2019re not skilful or highly technical, we\u2019re going to struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Six Nations: All the fixtures and kick-off times ahead of the 2026 edition<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Ireland hooker and esteemed pundit Bernard Jackman has told his countrymen to embrace the new aerial laws…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[71851,225,90462,678,12760,12,4151,79,16,15,4510],"class_list":{"0":"post-669485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-bernard-jackman","9":"tag-home-page","10":"tag-internationals","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-munster","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-rugby","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-united-rugby-championship"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115826865216339045","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}