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Former South Africa flanker Schalk Burger has highlighted the basis of Ireland’s comprehensive 38-17 win over France in the opening round of the Guinness Six Nations as their physicality, which he described as an “underrated” part of their game.
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Andy Farrell’s side rewrote the record books with their win in Marseille, registering their biggest-ever win over Les Bleus, with the 2007 World Cup winner saying they “physically bullied” the hosts.
Burger, who was no stranger to physicality on the rugby field himself, said on RugbyPass TV’s Boks Office recently that France are the one team that can match the Springboks in terms of physicality, but were made to look “lethargic”.
Physicality was not always the key feature of Ireland’s game until recently, but with the addition of player of the match Joe McCarthy, Burger, as well as Jean de Villiers and Hanyani Shimange, believes Ireland have a bright future.
De Villiers joked that this physicality is the South African influence of Jacques Nienaber, who became a Leinster coach after the World Cup, but this has been building for years.
“I think it’s often an underrated part of the Irish game when you think how physical their pack can be,” the 2004 World Rugby player of the year said.
“The French almost looked lethargic in their defence. If you think about the games we played against them, obviously they know what the Boks bring and how physical we are, they are the one team that could potentially match us. If you think about that quarter-final, they were absolutely outstanding.
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“I don’t think they quite had the same bite on Friday night.
“Their [France’s] biggest issue is that they were bossed around in the physicality. They got physically bullied at the weekend. They couldn’t stop the Irish maul.
“Yes, they had lost Paul Willemse and we know four locks have quite a big role to play in how effectively they could set those mauls. Willemse’s a big unit, he’s quite disruptive in that area.
“But the physicality was outstanding from Ireland, so I think that’s the basis of where the big victory came from.”
When questioned whether Ireland are on course for back-to-back Grand Slams, Burger said he felt England have one big performance in them, and that may well come in round four against the Irish at Twickenham.
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Ireland host Italy this Sunday at the Aviva Stadium, while France travel to Edinburgh the day before to face Scotland at Murrayfield.
Ireland are good enough to impose the type of phisical game that suites them: a mix between mobility and power. France were not able to impose a power only game against Ireland. A key to this was Ireland winning the kicking exchanges forcing either France to lose ground or keep the ball in play, tiring their very powerful but aerobically weak pack. Ireland forward’s also used quick ball and footwork to attacked spaces between defenders. The quick ball was secured by really excellent ruck work. France literally could not impose themselves physically on Ireland and even when they had possession Ireland really pressured Lucu behind the French ruck.
The first 30 mins were outstanding from Ireland and should have put them out of sight. Van Der Flier was just short when France were holding the ball in the ruck in what was a certain try and should have meant a yello and Irish penalty. The forward touch by a French hand to stop a certain try by Aki was also controversially as the player had absolutlely no possibility of doing anything but a forward knock by putting his hands out. The French TV director also played a blinder to get a penalty against Crowley when he clearly played the ball during a legitimate aerial battle with Fickou. This reversed field position from 10 metres from the French line to the Irish 22 and France scored a minute later (although this was the second half). I am not complaining just showing that Ireland’s performance particularly in first 30 could have resulted in 50+ on the scoreboard.
RSA boys saying it was all physicality is not newsworthy
It is hard to say anything else when your brain is pure muscle