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The systemic weakness in Ireland's watertight defence the All Blacks must target

(Photos by Phil Walter/Getty Images and Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)

Ireland’s watertight defence has been a hallmark of their game under Andy Farrell, conceding just four tries in this year’s Six Nations. While on the other side, the 24 they scored themselves gave them the best net differential in the tournament by far.

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Their high possession attacking game does aid their defence, holding the ball for long periods certainly helps reduce the chances for the opposition, but their discipline and resolve without the ball has completely smothered sides.

Wales would have been nilled if not for a chance intercept try by Taine Basham when Ireland were pushing the pass inside their own 22 with less than five minutes remaining.

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England, who were down to 14 men, could only manage penalties along with Italy. Scotland crafted 14 phases for a barge-over try from close range for their lone score in their 26-5 defeat.

France managed to score two of those four tries against the stingy Irish defence. The All Blacks, who also scored two tries in November, will have to work hard to break down what is a very strong system when at full strength.

There are few systemic weaknesses but there is one, and that is when Kiwi halfback Jamison Gibson-Park defends on the backside edge following a lineout.

The smaller, shifty halfback is left out there to defend large territory without the help of speed athletes at times which leaves Ireland vulnerable to mismatches.

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When France scored inside the first two minutes in Paris, they were running a launch pattern to target Gibson-Park’s edge.

They took a quick lineout and worked all the way to the left-hand touchline, before orchestrating play back right towards the lineout formation where Gibson-Park was defending.

They deliberately left Uini Antonio (3) out wide to use as crash runner to use on the way back to crater Ireland’s line. Ntamack (10) found his runner Antonio with the perfect target lined up, smallish wing Mack Hansen (11).

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The force of the monstrous French prop punctures through Hansen and indents the Irish defence, sucking in multiple defenders and leaving Gibson-Park (9) isolated on the outside.

France ended up with a situation where Hansen and Gibson-Park, two smaller backs, were manned on the thin short side against the entire French backline.

This is what France wanted to manufacture and they proceed to exploit two of Ireland’s smallest defenders with a numbers advantage. Hansen and Gibson-Park slid out which allowed Ntamack to take on the line. He flung a fortuitous pass back inside to Antoine Dupont which was gathered for a try.

Later in the half, they target Gibson-Park again from a multi-phase set-piece launch, this time isolating his halves partner Joey Carberry on the short side with him.

Communication from wing Damian Penaud to Antoine Dupont identified the space outside the Irish halfback and the French No 9 whipped an incredible long ball over the top into the space.

The pass to Penaud led to a line break which resulted in three more points for France.

From two set-piece launches hitting Ireland where Gibson-Park was defending, they found two line breaks and 10 total points.

England and Scotland found success targeting the same defensive set-up through a blindside raid directly off the maul.

Scotland had Gibson-Park isolated with a two-on-one against Ali Price (9) and Duhan van der Merwe (11). The Irish halfback did a great job of shading both players and forcing Price inside, but Scotland still peel off a massive line break.

England spent a lot off first-phase ball on kicking, so did not attack often from set-piece, but in the second half they created the same blindside setup by mauling infield.

Harry Randall (9) broke away down the blind before he linked with Marcus Smith (10). England weren’t able to manufacture a clean break but did march a long way upfield before winning a penalty a few phases later.

The All Blacks have used a similar maul play borrowed from the Crusaders’ playbook in the past that involves deliberately pushing the maul infield to create more space on the short side.

Halfback Aaron Smith (9) breaks to the open side before playing Richie Mo’unga (10) underneath on a switch line back to the short side. The Crusaders used this play against the Blues in the Super Rugby Pacific final.

First phase switch plays from the maul can be a way to get wingers Caleb Clarke, Leicester Fainga’anuku, Sevu Reece or Will Jordan matched up on Gibson-Park.

The multi-phase patterns that track back down the short side are a perfect tool to find that mismatch where Gibson-Park can be isolated against powerful ball runners like Akira Ioane or Ardie Savea floating out wide.

Either way, the All Blacks must find this match-up and make the most of it because the Irish defence is otherwise very strong and has not offered much else to opposition sides.

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Ben 881 days ago

Hope we see the innovation and attacking flair that is customary for the All Blacks, return in this series.

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JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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