Donal Lenihan: Ireland's Six Nations high leaves us wanting more

A Six Nations championship that keeps on giving, at a time when distractions of any sort are so welcome, has even reserved one last sting in the tail

Wed, 24 Mar, 2021 - 07:00

Donal Lenihan

All’s well that ends well. Ireland’s stuttering Six Nations campaign reached a crescendo with their best display since the 2019 World Cup opener against Scotland in Yokohama.

A Six Nations championship that keeps on giving, at a time when distractions of any sort are so welcome, has even reserved one last sting in the tail.

To say this campaign has gone down to the wire is an understatement. Friday night’s rescheduled clash in Paris between France and Scotland is guaranteed to be another belter. Scotland have nothing to lose and can play without fear. If Finn Russell recovers from injury in time to start, then the entertainment value could ratchet up another level.

To win the championship for the first time since 2010, France have no option but to come out and play. Then again, that’s what they’ve been doing all championship. At a bare minimum, they need to score four tries to secure the necessary bonus point to draw level on 20 points with Wales. On top of that, France need to win by a margin of 21 points.

While the Munster and Leinster contingent in the Irish squad will have their sights set on another enticing clash with the Guinness PRO14 title up for grabs Saturday at the RDS, Andy Farrell and his Irish coaching team have the luxury of sitting back and taking in events at the Stade de France, content with a job well done against England.

We were treated to glimpses of what Ireland are capable of at various times throughout this campaign but the manner of Saturday’s complete performance in dismantling an England side, who looked to have rediscovered their swagger against the French, offered the perfect way to finish the tournament.

Farrell can take a lot of positives from this demanding Six Nations and has cause to ponder what might have been had the campaign started with the win that still looked on the cards, despite playing with 14 men for so long.

Rugby is going through a bit of a crisis at present as the lawmakers strive to make the game safer around the tackle and contact areas. The number of yellow and red cards issued in this tournament is unprecedented. Players are slowly coming to terms with having to lower their body height in the tackle but with so many shapes and sizes on the field, it’s not easy.

While the correct decision, I had sympathy for Bundee Aki with his red card after his tackle on Billy Vunipola. Both are extremely powerful men. Both dropped their knees and lowered their body height in that collision but with Aki’s shoulder making contact with Vunipola’s face, the officials had no option but to issues a red card.

Those red card decisions do impact the outcomes of games massively, especially when they occur early in the match, but are necessary in order to protect players. Things will settle down eventually but there will be more pain on the journey.

The problem with the game at the moment is there are so many incidents requiring input from the TMO — if Wayne Barnes was paid by the minute for his contributions in that capacity last Saturday night, he’d have made a fortune — that it is impacting on the flow of the game. That said, if it leads to the right outcome, as Joy Neville’s clarification of the fact that Maro Itoje did ground the ball to score the key try for England against France, contrary to referee Andrew Brace’s initial impression, then it’s worth the wait.

Andy Farrell deserved the performance Ireland delivered last weekend. There were so many elements of the Irish game that were functioning well, week in week out, that once Ireland stopped making individual defensive errors and brought a bit more imagination to their attack, a return like that delivered against England was always within the team’s capacity.

What stood out most for me throughout the tournament is the character and resilience of the group. Caelan Doris was one of Ireland’s best performers in the Autumn Nations Cup but he played no part in the campaign due to complications surrounding concussion. Yet both CJ Stander and Jack Conan, who was a revelation against England, filled that void at No 8 jersey magnificently.

In the build-up to the French game, with the pain of the disappointing defeat to Wales lingering large in the background, losing their captain Johnny Sexton and James Ryan to injury and Peter O’Mahony to suspension left a gaping hole in the leadership stakes.

Once again, the players dusted themselves down and ran the highly-rated French to within two points. Iain Henderson, recalled to the side in place of Ryan and installed as captain for the first time, thrived on the additional responsibility and went on to have a brilliant tournament.

Having Henderson, Ryan, and the irrepressible Tadhg Beirne — a certainty now to make the Lions squad — starting in the same pack has made Ireland a much more complete package up front. With Ryan Baird also offering something different off the bench in his three caps to date, Ireland now have a great mix of big, athletic, forwards.

The return to arms of Tadhg Furlong after a year out of the game offered another timely boost. In his absence, Andrew Porter has come on in leaps and bounds given all the game time he accumulated for Leinster and Ireland in the absence of the Wexford great. In fact, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if Ireland have two tight head props in Warren Gatland’s squad.

The thing that resonated most last Saturday was the way Ireland negotiated the anticipated early English onslaught to prevent them building any semblance of a lead. Robbie Henshaw led the way, especially during a fraught opening quarter, with his physicality and work rate immense and, most especially, his defensive reads and employment of the choke tackle which stymied England time and again.

Of even more importance was Ireland’s ability to contest the collisions on their terms. Early on Furlong, Stander, and Henderson were all stopped in their tracks on the gain line by big double hits coming in from England. That is exactly where Ireland fell down in the recent clashes between the sides.

Thereafter, through good footwork, better running lines and, by targeting soft shoulders, Ireland managed to make metres beyond the tackle and get their hands free to keep the momentum alive. That made a huge difference.

The movement and interplay throughout the 23 phases leading up to Conan’s try, coupled with the build up to the disallowed Keith Earls try, was the best broken-field running Ireland have produced for some time. The knock-on from Henderson just prior to Sexton’s majestic cross-field kick for Earls was marginal.

It would have been a sublime try with Earls again showing his class with an audacious finish. Thankfully, in the end, it wasn’t required. Unfortunately, after such a quality showing, it’s very unlikely Ireland will play again, at least with a full deck, until November next. That’s why it was so important for Ireland to finish on a high.

Perhaps the biggest gain for Farrell in the long run is the fact that 27 players started a game in the championship with five more accumulating game time off the bench. That is a massive investment for the future.

Before that, international relations will have to be put on hold as two tribes go to war once again as Munster and Leinster meet for the fourth time since last August.

Chances are Leinster will have to rest a number of their front line internationals who’ve had so much game time of late, with the Heineken Champions Cup game against Toulon coming up the following Friday night a priority.

If anything that puts more pressure on Munster, who will try and accommodate most of their returning internationals, to not only reverse a long losing sequence against great rivals but to break a decade of hurt and anxiety in the quest for overdue silverware.