My view on how we beat the French….
February 11, 2010 @ 5:46 pm | by Frankie Sheahan
Expose their midfield frailties: In commentating with RTE in France’s match in Murrayfield last Sunday, it was obvious that France gave the Scottish backs no time on the ball by using a rush defence. Scotland were crowded out every time the ball got past their outhalf and had zero time on the ball.
Using a rush defence is high-risk. It’s great for putting the attack off by forcing handling errors and by making big man-on-man hits and turning over the ball. However, the risk is that you can be caught flat-footed or side-stepped easier. If ball is slow coming from the Irish pack, or if our backs aren’t sharp enough, then France will rush up and the Irish midfield will be put off and turned over.
Playing against a rush defence also makes it more difficult for Rog to skip it to Drico or the outside backs, as was evident in the first minute against Australia in November where they picked up a loose ball for a 7-pointer.
Ireland can expose this rush defence in two ways.
Rog can dink or chip a couple of balls behind the defence early on. We can have Bowe or Earls on Rog’s shoulder as he is kicking – the winger thus acts as both a diversion and a chaser for the kick. What tends to happen to the defence in these cases (regardless of whether the kick works) is that they lose confidence in their rush strategy as the game goes on and then tend to stagger a bit more i.e. the midfield doesn’t move in one straight line, revealing gaps.
We can meet fire with fire – by using a “rush attack†whereby Tomás feeds fast ball and Rog uses lightening hands to pop it to D’Arcy or Drico running at full speed at an angle. The timing and angle are very important here.
Fortunately, Rog is one of the best in the world at countering these defences with his chips, and O’Driscoll and D’Arcy proved against Munster in last year’s Heineken Cup semi-final how defences can be caught ball-watching with the rush strategy. The fast feet of D’Arcy is a big plus for us in this area.
Defending the Maul
France have caused havoc in Paris against Ireland before by using the “catch and drive†from a lineout and creating rolling mauls that make 20 or 30 yards, often forcing us into giving away penalties.
In the world cup in ’07, I was guilty of coming in at the side of a French maul and giving away a crucial penalty – I felt at the time I had little choice, that their drive had to stop. You can’t underestimate the atmosphere in Paris on these drives, and often it is impossible to slow them down when the crowd are behind them and they are at full flight.
There are two ways we can defend the maul; John Hayes is the best in the business at tackling the catcher. For those unfamiliar with rules on the lineout / maul, a defender can’t pull a maul down once formed, however the first defender can tackle the catcher before the maul fully forms. As such, Hayes needs to deck the catcher the second his feet hit the ground before the rest of the French forwards can surround him and get the drive going.
If the maul does get into full flight then the best ‘creative’ technique for the defence to use is to drive on one side of the maul, forcing the attacking maul to twist or spin towards a 45 degree angle. This will disrupt their drive and make their guys at the front of the maul redundant, leaving the ball carrier who was at the back of the maul exposed and vulnerable to being legally tackled.
Both of the above strategies are very high-risk and open to referee interpretation . . . so we do need to be careful
Key Battle - Backrow
The battle of the backrow is a mouth-watering prospect. They are two of the best backrows in the competition, if not the world, and the individual and collective battles will be very interesting. France’ openside Ouedraogo was simply fantastic against Scotland and we all know of the ability of Dusatoir and Harinordoquy. On a good day, this backrow is capable of being the best in the world. They can be lethal in an open game and they are most likely the reason why France employ the rush defence – because these guys are so quick that they can cover behind.
Remember that Bonnaire will be on the bench – he is a seriously quality player and the thought of him not being good enough to get into any starting XV is frightening.
Regarding the Irish backrow, Wally is a better ball-carrier than any of the French backrow – and no matter how intimidating the French backrow may appear, I guarantee you they’re more scared of Wally in full flight then we are of them.
He needs to take on ball and run straight at the France outhalf Trinh-Duc. Heaslip has stepped up to the plate in a big way in this fixture before and needs to be at his very best again to take on Harinordoquy. It’s good to hear that Ferris is fit for the blindside.
The comparison between the two backrows is that the French are more akin to scavengers while our boys are more physical ball carriers. So we need to avoid the scattered game and give the ball to our 3 boys off set-plays and attack the 10 channel.
Game Plan
Unlike my blog this time last week before the Italian match, when I said that Ireland should play an open game – we now need to play the percentages and keep the game as structured as possible. That doesn’t mean that we’re consciously looking to slow the game down – it just means that we’ll play fast when we want to play fast – and slow things down when we want.
We simply cannot get into a loose, open game that we experienced in the first half in Paris four years ago - that will play right into their hands. Kearney needs to kick instead of counter-attack and Rog needs to kick over the heads of France’s back three as opposed to running it too much. Jerry and Paulie need to secure lineout ball and the team in general cannot afford to be too erratic.
Remember – this is the first time Ireland have played the French in a major sport since Thierry Henry’s handball on November 18th broke our hearts!
Allez les verts.
I will write my next blog after the game. Again, all comments are welcome.
