Ruckedtobits wrote: ↑November 23rd, 2020, 4:35 pm
Some thoughts before consigning this thread to the archive.
As France have discovered you must take every point on offer against England. At 28 mins, they had 12 points and we could have had 9 pts, from three penalties on our left side within 45 yds.
We must use line-outs to re-win possession and play the ball to areas they don't expect. Best done by varying line-out numbers, throwing hard, flat throws & ball off the top with a SH or Flanker taking tap ball and finding a support runner
where our players know where the ball's going and what's next.
At breakdowns, if an English player is on our side from the tackle, our scrum half must trip over him. Any late arriving Irish forward must collide with him. If the Englishman has his hands on the ground near the ball, stand on them.
There is absolutely nothing accidental about how the English players slow up the ball at the breakdown. It is both intentional and practised. It is so well practised that Refs give them the benefit of the doubt.
Attacking the English mid-field requires at least two players who can grubber kick, both short and long. This should be almost the initial choice of attack. From scrums, the No 8 or SH should pass to the side with only one or, at worst, two defenders. The receiver should chip or grubber kick the defender(s).
Until the English defence has been turned at least twice, no Irish ball carrier should run at their line without at least two support runners to clear out the breakdown.
When we get into their 22m area, the primary objective should be to set up a drop goal. (Conceding points without a line break or an infringement demoralises any team).
Beating England is going to become a worldwide crusade in rugby over the next three years. We can research the old play books of the Aussies or Japanese teams against the best SA teams over the past decade for ideas.
We can score more points than them over 80 mins. It is very unlikely that before or at RWC2023 we can beat them as comprehensively as we did in 2018. So guerilla tactics whenever we meet them and consider each of those games as a once-off encounter i.e. don't try to build our normal game plan around the tactics needed to beat a unique opponent. Exposing such tactics to regular scutiny will nullify their usefulness.
I firmly believe that unless we adopt a mindset & outlook to playing England, we will not be able to focus on developing our Squad or how we can best play. If we spend the next three seasons trying to develop our players to beat England at their game, that will be three seasons lost. we must focus on determining how we can best play with the players available. IMO, it's probably fairly close to what Leinster are playing at present.
If Coaches and senior players can agree what patterns & strategies will give us the best chance of playing as well as we can, treating the English games as one-off encounters will provide a great motivation for those games and ensure that even a defeat will not derail over progress in our development.
