Schmidt’s battle plan works a treat

After just two championship outings Ireland find themselves with a Triple Crown on offer when the team travels to London in just under a fortnight.

Mon, 10 Feb, 2014 - 00:00

Donal Linehan

With England playing at their home in Twickenham for the first time in this season’s tournament, they will be warmly received by an expectant rugby public after performing well in their opening encounters against France and Scotland. They will be even better on their return to their spiritual home but on the evidence of Ireland’s comprehensive win over Wales, they will need to be.

Man of the match Peter O’Mahony summed up that performance succinctly when interviewed on the field immediately afterwards, describing it as “savage stuff”.

Savage indeed. There was a ruthlessness about everything Ireland did, a hunger in the contact area, in the tackle and at the breakdown that the visitors failed miserably to cope with.

Wales were left staring into an abyss, helpless in their attempts to stem the Irish onslaught.

For some time now we have been aware of the attributes this Welsh team bring to the table in terms of the way they play yet, on most occasions, Ireland had been incapable of dealing with it.

This time Joe Schmidt and his management team got everything spot on and suffocated the Welsh challenge.

The visitors’ game is predicated on getting over the gain line and putting big men into space. While they have struggled to achieve that against the equally powerful southern hemisphere sides, they have consistently ruled the roost when bullying their European neighbours. Not any more.

To beat Wales you must win the collisions and stop them from gaining momentum.

From the moment Paul O’Connell smashed Dan Lydiate and drove him back in the tackle, Ireland held the psychological advantage. They also had the street smarts to identify where Wales were most vulnerable and exact maximum return.

From the outset the Irish maul had Wales in a tailspin and despite the fact that Welsh defence coach Shaun Edwards had highlighted it during the week as an area that they had worked on in training, they could find no legal way of stopping it. That is three tests in succession — against New Zealand, Scotland and Wales — where Ireland have generated tries from their lineout maul.

While that set piece manoeuvre was responsible for generating countless penalties over the 80 minutes, the challenge is to force lineouts within 10 metres of the opposition line. With Johnny Sexton offering a masterclass in game management, that was never going to be an issue.

It has been a rough few months for the former Leinster out-half with his anguish visible to all who follow Racing Metro in the Top 14. His admission at the outset of this Six Nations that, at one stage, he gave serious thought to packing his bags and abandoning his Parisian adventure says everything about his state of mind over the last few months. The one thing we know about Sexton is that he is no quitter.

The hope was, once reunited with so many familiar faces in national camp, he would quickly rediscover his mojo and thankfully from an Irish perspective, that is what has happened. Tactically Sexton owned the game and knew instinctively when to pass, when to kick and when to carry. He had Wales in disarray.

This was the game when Ireland’s execution was precision personified. Their kicking game was unrecognisable from that delivered against Australia only four tests ago and every time a Welsh player fielded an up and under, it came with an Irish player attached.

One spectacular aerial contest between Lions full backs Leigh Halfpenny and Rob Kearney was contested with ferocious zeal with Kearney winning the battle for possession which ultimately set up the field position for Chris Henry to deliver a try from Ireland’s dominant maul, minutes before the break.

If you were being churlish, Ireland could be accused of kicking too much ball when overlaps were open out wide but as Schmidt explained afterwards, Ireland’s game plan was decided when a storm was forecast for Saturday. Having worked on that premise all week, Schmidt decided not to alter their plans.

The champagne rugby delivered by Leinster over the years can wait. This game was all about winning and Ireland executed their plan immaculately.

During the week Schmidt preached the need for discipline but even he must have been surprised at the fact that it took 55 minutes before Welsh points scoring machine, Halfpenny, was offered a shot at goal.

Of course he converted but the fact that it was the first points Wales managed to post on the board said everything about Ireland’s dominance for close to an hour.

In order to stop this Welsh juggernaut, it is imperative to stifle the speed of their recycle at the breakdown. Playing against a Welsh backrow that all featured prominently in the Lions test series win over the summer, Ireland made them their first point of attack. You could just imagine the thought process going through Peter O’Mahony’s head building up to that challenge.

He was bitterly disappointed to miss out on that Australian trip but kept his council and his head down when leading Ireland on their own tour to North America. He bided his time, seizing the opportunity with both hands, when completely outplaying all three Welsh back rowers. The visitors hardly aided their cause by picking Sam Warburton, who is clearly lacking match fitness, but either way O’Mahony was never going to be beaten. Some of his poaches were inspirational.

By controlling territory and possession, Ireland made sure that the key Welsh game breakers in Jamie Roberts, George North and Alex Cuthbert were starved of possession and as a consequence had no influence on the outcome. The other thing they managed perfectly was to get under the skin of Mike Phillips and ignite his famous short fuse. It was no surprise when referee Wayne Barnes flashed him a yellow card in the dying minutes of the game. Ireland had broken yet another key figure in the Welsh set up.

While I felt confident in advance that Ireland had the winning of this game, the biggest bonus was the margin of victory. A points differential of +45 after just two games with the 2013 champions already accounted for could yet prove priceless when it comes to deciding the destination of this years trophy.

And the final word.....well it just has to rest with Brian O’Driscoll. We could have lost him as early as the 11th minute when he took a ferocious hit from his opposite number Scott Williams. That he was hurting and slightly stunned was without question, but the great warrior rose unbowed, glanced at the young pretender as if to say you will have to do better than that. Williams never got the chance given that he was the one left scarred and forced to leave the field. By the final whistle, his teammates had suffered the same fate.

Ireland, O’Driscoll and Schmidt had all made their presence felt.

More of the same please.

Six Nations: Fixtures and results

JANUARY

31st: U20 Six Nations: Ireland 34 Scotland 7.

31st: Women’s Six Nations: Ireland 59 Scotland 0.

FEBRUARY

1st: RBS Six Nations: Wales 23 Italy 15, France 26 England 24, Ireland 28 Scotland 6.

7th: Club International: Ireland Clubs 28 Scotland Clubs 3.

7th: U20 Six Nations: Ireland 0 Wales 16.

7th: Women’s Six Nations: Ireland 14 Wales 6.

8th: RBS Six Nations: Ireland 26 Wales 3; Scotland 0 England 20.