Donal Lenihan: France team of the year but Andy Farrell's Ireland will get better and better

FEARLESS: Romain Ntamack opts not to take the easy option and makes a break from behind his own try line against the All Blacks on Saturday — a sign of France’s positive mindset, says Donal Lenihan. Picture: Inpho/James Crombie

When an experienced head like Peter O’Mahony proclaims that the last month in Irish camp has been “the most enjoyable in my career”, you have to take notice.

Given the quality produced by Andy Farrell’s men in three fascinating contests against Japan, New Zealand, and Argentina, O’Mahony wasn’t the only one to derive great satisfaction from Ireland’s exciting brand of attacking rugby.

In comparison to the dirge witnessed during the recent Lions test series in South Africa, the autumn series of competitive action across Europe has done the game a great service. Tries galore, teams attacking more with ball in hand, resulting in exhausting passages of play and great continuity.

I’ve always respected the fact that there are a number of different ways to play the game and how respective coaching teams have to maximise the strengths of the players at their disposal. You will find it hard to hear anyone in South Africa deriding the traditional reliance on physicality and set piece power that delivered the World Cup for the Springboks two years ago. It’s why I was never critical of the style of play adopted by Joe Schmidt when he was in charge here.

On his watch, Ireland played in a very scripted manner, perfected their work at the breakdown which enabled them retain possession for long periods and stress the opposition in their own 22. It led to unprecedented success for the national team until the opposition worked out how to negate that style.

South Africa play in a way that isn’t aesthetically pleasing but it plays to the strengths of their dominant scrum, clinical lineout, and punishing maul. You have to find a way to counter that when playing against them, not try and beat them at their own game, as the Lions attempted.

There has been an incredible amount of international rugby played since last June, yet the Springboks have retained their world number one ranking, despite the fact that they were beaten five times over the period.

The simple fact is that there’s very little separating the top six teams at the moment. On the evidence of all the test rugby I’ve watched this year, France have impressed me most. They continue to evolve. Their 40-25 win over New Zealand at the Stade de France last Saturday night was stunning in its execution, a brilliant game from start to finish There was always going to be a massive backlash from New Zealand after what happened in Dublin but the French, despite being short a few of their first-choice side, embraced that and continued to play when the pressure was greatest.

This was exemplified by the moment of the match when Romain Ntamack picked up possession, on the retreat, in his in-goal area with three All Blacks bearing down on him. He refused to take the easy option and touch the ball down, opting instead for a stunning break out and audacious offload to brilliant new full back Melvyn Jaminet.

Whether that decision was influenced by the new law that would have resulted in a goal-line drop out for France, thus handing possession back to New Zealand to launch one of their punishing counter attacks, only Ntamack knows. I’d like to think, in this positive French set up, he would have done it anyway.

His resulting break out swept the length and width of the pitch and culminated not only in a French penalty which Jaminet nailed but in a yellow card for Ardie Savea for infringing at the ruck. The score at the time of Ntamack’s spark of genius was 27-25. That penalty extended their lead to five points. New Zealand never scored again.

France haven’t won the Six Nations since 2010. That has to be their next target.

Given the positive attacking mindset being adopted by both sides at present, Ireland’s visit to Paris on the second weekend of Six Nations action promises to be a real cracker. And what of Eddie Jones’s revamped ‘new England’ as our media colleagues across the water refer to his much-tweaked side? Whether by accident — due to injuries — or design, Jones has introduced a plethora of exciting new talent in Adam Radwan, Marcus Smith, Freddie Stewart, Raffa Quirke, and Alex Dombrandt who have transformed the way they’re playing.

Given that Ireland have to travel to Twickenham as well as Paris, Farrell’s men will have to do things the hard way if they want to come out on top of what promises to be one of the most competitive tournaments in years.

At least Ireland open with a home game against Wales who, remember, are the reigning champions. They have rained on our party too many times of late and continue to defy the odds given the lame efforts of their domestic sides in the URC and in Europe.

Yet again, despite fielding an injury-ravaged side, Wayne Pivac’s men found a way to beat Australia, albeit with a Rhys Priestland penalty two minutes into added time to record a one-point win.

It’s a bit strange that Ireland start their Six Nations campaign against the same opposition faced in the opening two rounds last season, even if the venues are reversed. Farrell won’t need any reminding of the fact that Ireland lost their opening game to Wales in Cardiff and were also on the receiving end when the French came to Dublin the following week.

He will be buoyed by the fact that his charges haven’t been beaten since that narrow 13-15 defeat to France, recording eight wins on the trot. More important than that is the manner of those wins, coupled with the resilience shown at key moments.

Despite having to operate in a very restricted space due to the Covid situation, O’Mahony’s positive statement about the atmosphere and togetherness of the squad speaks volumes for the work the management are doing, in testing circumstances, behind the scenes.

You can have the greatest players in the world but if the environment isn’t right then you won’t get the maximum return from the sum of their talents. The beauty about the Irish set up at present is it feels like only the beginning of the journey. With so many young players emerging from the pack, there is huge scope for further improvement.

It has taken Farrell and attack coach Mike Catt a long time to finally get a full buy-in and understanding of the way they want to play. That will only get better now that everyone can see, not only does the system work, it showcases the skill set of the group and is exhilarating to play.

The challenge, now that the cat is out of the bag having registered 19 tries in the three November games, is that both Wales and France will already be working on strategies to deny Ireland the time and space to exploit their passing game.

Ireland put 222 passes together against Argentina to maintain an average of over 200 per game throughout the series. That forces the opposition into making more tackles and contributes towards wearing them down as the game progresses.

Without being a killjoy, last weekend’s results need to be taken into context across the board. There’s no doubt, after an exhausting year of travel and Covid bubbles for Argentina, New Zealand, and South Africa (remember the Rugby Championship was hosted almost exclusively in Australia), that Ireland’s last two opponents were out on their feet.

That doesn’t take anything away from the impact made by a cohort of the talented younger players in Hugo Keenan, Caelan Doris, Ronan Kelleher, Ryan Baird, Robert Baloucoune, Craig Casey, and Dan Sheehan. Gavin Coombes, who disappointingly failed to bag any game time in this November window, also fits into that category.

To his credit, Farrell exposed 52 players to international rugby in the 10 tests played this year with a number of those looking comfortable at that level. While the experimentation will be paused for the Six Nations, next summer’s three-test series against New Zealand offers another proving ground for players to put their hands up. Exciting times ahead.