Pienaar: Jackson will be the real deal
With his pearly white teeth, shorts and hoodie he could quite easily pass as an American tourist just back in from a yomp around the drumhills that surround this exclusive piece of real estate. Or maybe even one of the countless cast or crew shooting the latest Colin Farrell movie, Miss Julie, which will be filming around these parts for six weeks and is already making some of the locals somewhat giddy.
There is a Zen-like calm about the South African that must be a sight to behold in the crunch and confusion of a top-class rugby match. It is the sort of serenity that few men can muster in the heat of battle, whether that be sport’s artificial variety or those more life-threatening fields of combat.
And it is a demeanour borne of pedigree.
His dad, Gysie, is a former Springbok full-back and when Pienaar Jnr emerged blinking into the searing light of the professional game in South Africa he wasn’t long being compared to the great Stephen Larkham, the quicksilver and magical ten who is regarded as among the best to wear that cherished number for the Wallabies.
Like Larkham, Pienaar is the full package. Kicking, passing, vision, game control: the man from Bloemfontein can, and has, done it all — both as a scrum-half and an out-half — and it has been Paddy Jackson, Ulster and Ireland’s good fortune that the younger man has had the 29-year-old on which to lean this past 12 months or so.
The plot has moved on significantly since the young Irishman was parachuted into Brian McLaughlin’s first XV in the handful of weeks that separated the province’s standout Heineken Cup quarter-final defeat of Munster in Limerick and their last four meeting with Edinburgh in Dublin.
Ulster are under new management for a start and Jackson is obviously a year older but, as a newly-fledged Irish international, he is probably much more than a year wiser for, as Pienaar says, he was “thrown into the deep end” during the Six Nations just passed.
Some players take a career to learn so many lessons.
Pienaar was more than interested onlooker when his colleague was given the nod instead of Ronan O’Gara for the start against Scotland in Edinburgh and he tuned in to his follow-up experiences against France in Dublin and the demoralising defeat against the Italians in Rome.
“I thought he improved every game so I am sure we will see him in the green of Ireland many more times,” says the former Sharks half-back who has partnered Jackson in roughly half of his provincial starts.
“He has taken all the criticism and all the pressure and I think he has done really well. Any player will meet that at some stage of his career and people forget how young he is. He is only going to get better the more he plays and the more he gets put in situations like [the Heineken Cup final] last May. He has got a wise head on his shoulders, he is a confident player and I think he will do very well.”
Jackson returns to Twickenham today for the first time since that encounter with Leinster that went so horribly wrong for the individual — who lasted just 46 minutes before being replaced by Ian Humphreys — and the collective. Far more will be expected of both, against Saracens, at the RFU’s HQ this time.
Pienaar extends that radiant smile when that is put to him. His mind races backwards and homewards. He was 20 once too, he points out. He remembers well the times when, in his impetuousness, he attempted the unlikely and the impossible and was thankful for the presence of the brilliant Butch James alongside him.
“That helps a lot, to have guys like that outside you and to keep you calm because you can get a bit erratic and try some stupid stuff,” he laughs. “But Paddy has got a wise head on his shoulders and I have got a lot of respect for him as a player. He’s exciting and clever. He’ll be okay.”
The Saracens versus Ulster match at Twickenham is unlikely to be a wide-open affair, if the pool stages were anything to go by.
Saracens played a very tight game in their pool games, beating just 7.2 defenders per game and making just five offloads. Both were competition lows.
Ulster’s tackle rate was a Heineken Cup high 92% while Saracens players were coincidentally also tackled at a 92% rate; that’s also a competition high. Chris Henry had a super first round series of games, making 74 tackles and missing just one.
Ulster had a rough time of it from the kicking tee in the pool stages, knocking over just 57% of kicks. Frankly, that’s awful. While some of this comes down to Ruan Pienaar being asked to take some extravagantly long attempts (his longest miss was a massive 63.2 metres), missing 18 kicks in six games isn’t good. Only Castres (53%) and Edinburgh (47%) had worse kicking rates than the Jackson/Pienaar combo.
While Ulster’s kicking was poor, Saracens’ return from the tee was a quite acceptable 78%. The surprising thing from the Londoners’ point of view was that, even with Owen Farrell’s remarkable 11 from 11 kicking performance away against Racing Metro, he was not quite metronomic in the pool stages making 74% of his attempts. Charlie Hodgson was actually the better performer, knocking over 14 goals while missing just two for an 88% success rate.
The Twickenham contest will see the best and worst lineout units from the pool stages going up against each other. Ulster lost one in four of their own throws, their 75% rate pipping Zebre’s 76% for worst in the competition. The Saracens lineout was particularly strong, winning 94% of their own ball and also stealing two opposition throws per game.
While Ulster were able to pilfer just one opposition lineout throw every two games, they made up for this in other ways. Ulster might have allowed their opponents to have the ball for very long stretches but they turned that ball over extremely well. Ulster players forced almost 10 turnovers per game, best in the pool stages, compared to Saracens’ four. Making up for his part in Ulster’s lineout losses Rory Best was their chief thief, winning 14 turnovers while getting penalised just once, easily the best by any player in the pool stages. Such was the rate of Ulster thievery that three of the top four turnover winners were based in Ravenhill.
Ulster are an outfit capable of winning anywhere, provided they’ve got their team fit and firing. If they can improve their lineout and place kicking while disrupting Saracens tight game they’ve certainly got a good chance of progressing.
The set-piece is Saracens’ bread and butter and with two excellent front rows at their disposal it’s easy to see why. Whether they go with John Smit or Schalk Brits at hooker, Mako Vunipola or Rhys Gill at loosehead or toss a coin at tighthead between Italian Carlos Nieto and Petrus du Plessis and then choose which side to throw in Matt Stevens, they’re a real handful.
The return of All Blacks prop John Afoa at tighthead prop after a trip home to New Zealand to his third child born gives Ulster an all-Test front row alongside loosehead Tom Court and hooker Rory Best and a world-class counter to England’s promising powerhouse Mako Vunipola. It’s an all powerhouse match-up and Ulster will benefit from a challenging hit out against Leinster last week.
Saracens have had their wobbles at lineout time, not least against Munster in the pool stages at Thomond Park last December but in former England captain Steve Borthwick they have a lineout leader to rival any and Mouritz Botha is a reliable foil to provide Sarries with another decent platform.
Hooker Rory Best threw to a struggling lineout in the Six Nations but he is a dependable delivery man for captain Johann Muller and his second row partner Dan Tuohy, while there’s another lock in Iain Henderson as a back-row target, as well as Chris Henry.
Plenty of power and pace, grunt and grimace from Sarries’ back row, which should include Will Fraser, Kelly Brown and Ernst Joubert and there is hunger for work at ruck time throughout this Premiership team to give the half-backs quick, clean ball.
Chris Henry’s return from injury to openside flanker is a bonus and in Nick Williams they have a real physical presence at No.8, as well as Iain Henderson and captain Muller. There was some excellent intensity at the RDS against Leinster last weekend but so, too, were there some potentially costly penalties and Ulster need to be more accurate with Owen Farrell standing ready to kick from any distance.
Mark McCall can call upon fly-half Charlie Hodgson for place-kicking but understandably his go-to guy is Owen Farrell. Farrell has become a world-class place kicker in an England shirt and with Hodgson as well as full-back Alex Goode there is great variety with the boot tactically.
If Saracens have options, then so do Ulster with scrum-half Ruan Pienaar and out-half Paddy Jackson an either/or combination in terms of place-kicking for head coach Mark Anscombe. Pienaar, though, is a prodigious kicker, off the tee and out of hand while Luke Marshall at inside centre is another viable tactical option with the boot.
The great conundrum for director of rugby McCall. Saracens have the firepower out wide and have the capability to carve teams open with Chris Ashton in particular emerging from a slump in form last week with an excellent performance against Wasps. When they decide to go for it, Sarries can be electric, as they proved in the pool stages against Racing Metro and Edinburgh. They just don’t often go down that route.
Tommy Bowe returns to the bench after a long road back from knee surgery undergone before Christmas while most teams would be happy with his replacement during that time, Craig Gilroy. With Andrew Trimble on the other wing and Jared Payne at full-back, Ulster have power and pace to burn, either on the end of Pienaar and Jackson’s boot or Luke Marshall and Darren Cave’s midfield creativity.
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