Ryan Baird’s development reflects Ireland's recent set-piece revival

Ryan Baird after the Italy game.

If the lineout was Ireland’s achilles heel during last autumn’s World Cup campaign, it has been restored as a strength during the current Guinness Six Nations and Ryan Baird’s development as a Test forward reflects the team’s recent set-piece revival.

Whether at lock or more latterly as a blindside flanker, the 6ft 4ins 24-year-old is finding his groove in an Ireland jersey. Last Sunday’s start at number six against Italy in place of the injured captain Peter O’Mahony was arguably his most effective performance in a Test match in the Leinster player’s 17th Test and his acclimatisation to international rugby has earned the praise of last weekend’s stand-in skipper Caelan Doris.

Switching from No.8 to openside flanker, Doris led his country for the first time as Italy were trounced 36-0 at Aviva Stadium to make it two bonus-point wins from two for maximum points in the 2024 championship so far.

The next challenge comes back in Dublin next Saturday when Wales come to the Aviva and such is Ireland’s good form, continued despite numerous changes in personnel, since the World Cup and over the opening two rounds that selection for the first of three Triple Crown matches looks set to be the cause of some serious headaches for Andy Farrell and his assistant coaches.

After an impactful appearance off the bench in the record 38-17 win over France in Marseille on February 2 and a similarly impressive start in place of O’Mahony last Sunday, Baird has certainly earned a place in conversation ahead of next Thursday’s team announcement and provincial team-mate Doris has been impressed in particular by the work he has put in on his lineout performance.

“What an athlete he is,” Doris said this week as he was announced as a Lucozade Sport ambassador. “He’s made quite a few line breaks recently and you can see the pace he takes off with. It’s something like you see in the NFL.

“I think he’s got a very good attitude, a great mindset and works very hard and puts a ton of time into lineout attack and defence in particular and he’s probably a key reason that our defence in Leinster and Ireland has been doing so well.

“He’s obviously very athletic, very springy so that is conducive to getting up in the air and disrupting but the analysis he does and the plan he puts in place along with the other second rows has been great. He’s developed in that area a lot over the last probably five or six months.” As has the Ireland lineout. With a 100 per cent return from the two opening Six Nations rounds, forwards coach Paul O’Connell suggested the improvement from the World Cup campaign, when both South Africa and New Zealand pressure exposed some concerning flaws, has not been structural, merely the same elements better executed.

O’Connell also suggested less aggressive lineout defence from the French and Italians for one reason or another.

“Well, France having a red card for one of their second row (Paul Willemse after eight minutes) helped, certainly,” the Ireland assistant said on Thursday.

“Willemse probably isn't a big jumper for them but he's certainly a big lifter and it would have upset how they would have defended. Italy haven't challenged as much in the air in recent years as other teams. So, that's part of it.

“We haven't changed a massive amount. I'd say we're doing what we do a little bit better, across the board. How we lift, how we jump, how we call, how we throw. And all those things contribute.

“In the World Cup, certainly in that South Africa game, they threw something different at us. We got our drill a little bit wrong and it led to a poor start to the game. Once we got over that, we were pretty much fine for the rest of the game.

“New Zealand got three lineouts off us in that game; two we got back straight away, one we unfortunately high-tackled from and we ended up in our corner.

“They're two very good defensive lineouts, those two teams that we played in the World Cup. And we learned a lot from those games. One of the things was being able to manage a little bit of trouble and trying to get out of it. And the other thing we learned (about the lineout) from the World Cup is it's like every part of your game: it's never just one thing.

“There's drill in it, there's the call in it, there's the thrower in it, there's the selections you put on the menu first day -- and I would say we've kind of improved a little bit in all of those regards without working on one particular thing.” As for selection, with O’Mahony training again following a calf injury which forced him out of the Italy game, and both Baird and Jack Conan taking their opportunities in the starting back-row last weekend, the Ireland management have some hard thinking to do.

“It will be tough for sure. It’s something we’ve struggled on in previous games when we’ve made lots of changes, we haven’t really hit our straps and we’ve been sloppy at times. “That’s not to say we weren’t sloppy last weekend at times. We certainly were, but to keep them to nil, to score 36 points and have a few tries disallowed.

“It’s a good indication of where we are, the selection meeting will be tough but it will only be good for us, I think the guys that get picked will be over the moon to get picked and eager to stay in there and the guys that don’t get picked will push hard. So it’s a great place for us to be in.”