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Analysis: Ireland's killer blow against the Springboks – The triangle double screen

The double screen running lines

With just under ten minutes to play in their test match at Aviva Stadium, Ireland held a 17-3 lead over South Africa.

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The Irish had worked into a dominant position in the match, but needed to land a knockout blow. With this smart play, they opened up South Africa’s Boks with this beautifully constructed move off quick lineout ball which led to their match-sealing try.

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Attaching the blindside winger as an inside option off the playmaker and using a ‘screen’ or ‘block’ play to open up the hole is becoming a trend this international rugby season, as we highlighted last week.

Ireland became the latest team to find success with it, disguising Stockdale’s line well by adding more complexity to the movement – a double screen to confuse South Africa’s defence.

In the lineout setup, Ireland openside Sean O’Brien (7) positions at halfback. This allows reserve halfback Kieran Marmion (21) to join Jonathan Sexton (10) wider in a triangle formation with Jacob Stockdale (11). Stockdale is the boot man and will stay on Sexton’s hip. As the line out unfolds, reserve prop David Kilcoyne (17) peels off the front of the lineout into halfback, pushing Sean O’Brien wider.

The triangle formation with Sexton, Scotdale and Marmion

Ireland will break through the midfield channel between Jesse Kriel (13) and reserve midfielder Francois Venter (23), highlighted in red.

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The running lines of the double screen

The Irish midfield is going to running decoy lines (highlighted green) that will draw their opposite defenders in with them. In Aki’s case, his extreme angle will pull his opposite Handre Pollard (22) as far as he can before running into South Africa’s flanker.

Ireland will run two screen passes with the Irish halves sliding in behind each decoy. Marmion will receive the back door behind Aki (12), and Sexton will receive the back door to Henshaw (13), before Sexton feeds the unsighted blind winger Stockdale on the inside.

Marmion’s execution on the first screen is a little bit off, he receives the ball inside Aki and risks an obstruction call.  Pollard was sucked in by Aki and is attempting to pull up when Marmion runs behind his second five.

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Marmion receives the ball on the wrong side of Ahki

The next screen pass is executed perfectly by Marmion, and Henshaw’s decoy line is the key. Francois Venter is fixated on Henshaw at the bottom of the screen below.

Ventor already has eyes for Henshaw while Pollard braces for Marmion
Francios Venter tackles Henshaw out of the play and Pollard is blocked from getting to Scotdale

Venter takes the cheese and commits to Henshaw out of play, and Ireland now have Jesse Kriel isolated.

Henshaw’s line also prevents Pollard from getting across to make a play on Scotdale, giving an extra second in which the gap will be open which is a key design feature of this play. It’s essentially legalised obstruction.

Kriel has a split second to make a decision, and despite Sexton giving early ball to Stockdale on a no-look pass, Kriel decides to take Sexton. The gap is too wide to cover and he’s also caught on Sexton’s outside shoulder. Stockdale streaks away downfield.

Two phases later Ireland score as South Africa cannot reset their defence following the massive breach. The killer blow is landed taking Ireland out to a 22-3 lead with less than eight minutes remaining.

 

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H
Hellhound 15 minutes ago
France put World Cup pain behind them with unbeaten run in November

France is starting to look like they are finally over their WC headache, although they were lucky that NZ had a very bad game. The Argies as usual is one game good, the next bad. If they can sort that out and be more consistent, they could become contenders for the WC.


NZ, Argentina (if they are more consistent), and now the Wallabies too is in an upward curve (can they be consistent?), as well as Fiji(as inconsistent as Argentina) looks like possible contenders. The Boks will be as usual a huge threat to defend their title. Things are looking up for the South, so the North should rightfully beware of the Southern Hemisphere threat.


With the French looking dangerous, the English with their close runs (mostly a mindset problem) and the Scottish seems to be the NH main contenders. The Irish is good, but not excellent anymore. They are more overbearing and with their glory days mostly gone with old players hanging on by a thread, by 2027 if they don't start adding in the younger players, they won't make it past yet another WC Quarter final. The problem is that their youngsters, while good is nothing special.


That is just 8 teams without the Irish that can become real WC contenders. Lots of hickups to be sorted still for these teams, excluding the Boks to become a threat. Make no mistake, the top Tier is much closer than people realise and the 2027 WC will be a really great WC, possibly the best contended WC ever.

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