Changing game up is key as bigger prizes lie ahead
PHILOSOPHY doesn’t win the Six Nations. Tactical theorising or chinstroking arguments over how the game must be played won’t do it, either.
The championship is five discrete battles, and the best team is the one that finds a way around the different challenges they face.
On that measure, Ireland are in lock step with England towards a Twickenham showdown on St Patrick’s Day.
They wriggled out of Paris with a victory, turning what should have been a more comfortable day against a severely limited team into an epic.
And then they cut loose against Italy, trampling all over a woeful side with a malfunctioning defence to score eight tries.
Conceding three in the second half was not clever in a tournament that could be settled by points’ difference, but the wholesale changes, enforced and elective, that Joe Schmidt made to his team as the game wore on eventually carried a cost.
Ireland do what needs to be done. It could be added to the crest on the next jersey marketed by the IRFU, like the motto on a coat of arms.
Tactics against France were narrow and didn’t stray beyond the strictly necessary. The modesty of their ambitions almost caught Ireland out, but they did enough.
It is impossible not to thrive against Italy given their limitations, which is why it is important that the performance, good as it was, needs to be qualified.
However, Ireland did what they had to do, and if they manage to successfully maintain that approach, then they will win a Grand Slam.
Would that it was so simple. What Ireland have produced so far won’t be enough to beat England in Twickenham, and one wonders if it would do against Wales on Saturday week.
A truer measure of their patched-up team was delivered at Twickenham, and if Warren Gatland has to travel to Dublin mending his side as he goes, then it is difficult to see them winning.
Conor O’Shea had no doubt that Ireland won’t be beaten in Dublin, and it does seem as if this tournament is narrowing towards a decisive day in London.
The game Ireland will need to take the victory that day is one they need to start rehearsing as soon as possible. The stifling style of Paris won’t do, and the sloppiness that spoiled aspects of the Italian performance would also bring serious consequences.
Ireland are good, and in their discipline and the efficiency of their set-pieces, they are excellent.
It is their desire to leaven this rigorous plan with more unexpected, unstructured rugby that is in question.
Schmidt has cavilled in the past at suggestions Ireland play a heavily coached game, but there is evidence supporting both sides of the argument.
There is rich proof of this group’s ability when they do cut loose: beating New Zealand, or winning the Six Nations with a drubbing of Scotland in Murrayfield in 2015, thereby taking the title ahead of England on points’ difference.
The coach will have to trust in that daring game more often, because if the Six Nations is about winning five 80-minute tussles, competing at the World Cup will pose different challenges.
That is why tactics will eventually matter, because when it comes to beating New Zealand and probably Australia at the World Cup, Ireland will need more than a kicking game and sound set pieces.
It is one of the reasons why this year’s Six Nations intrigues, and why next year’s one will, too. Teams are driven by short-term goals but coaches need to be tempering these with long-term plans.
Eddie Jones has been talking for months about this, and why England will need to be fitter and more mobile if they want to try and win the World Cup.
Schmidt will never be so free with his intentions, but Ireland will share those concerns.
Happily, the coach has players who can play a game that keeps the ball in hand more. Johnny Sexton and Conor Murray need no further introduction, but Bundee Aki showed his game-breaking qualities against Italy.
The wretchedness of the Italian defence must be noted again, but Aki has pace and power that can break a defensive line, with opportunities then possible off the chaos he creates. Robbie Henshaw will be a significant loss, but Aki has class.
In the 40 minutes he played before hurting a shoulder, Jack Conan also illustrated why he causes excitement. He was, with Aki, Ireland’s best player in that first half.
The highlight was his pass for Murray’s try, but generally the mobility he provides was obvious.
Cases will be made for CJ Stander to start at No8 against Wales, but it should be Conan if he is fit. Stander, after all, was worked out by Gatland in Cardiff last year. The Welsh knew that if they tackled him low, he would go down with the ball; off-loading is not a feature of his game.
Conan has subtler skills, and playing him will challenge Wales in ways that will unsettle them and lead to possibilities for Ireland in attack.
The fitness of Tadhg Furlong is another cause for worry, even allowing for how well Andrew Porter did.
But Schmidt must be credited for expanding his options. He will need them now.
With those changes, though, come the prospect of daring and excitement. They are virtues this team needs, not just this spring but with the World Cup in mind, too.
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