Andrew Goodman backs Ireland to execute in attack amid November questions

Assistant coach Andrew Goodman poses for a portrait after an Ireland Rugby media conference at The Campus. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Whether Ireland’s attack can progress from the “clunky” execution of two months ago to smooth operators this weekend will be the key to success in their Guinness Six Nations opener at home to England but Andrew Goodman is confident his players have done all they can on the training field to make the necessary corrections.

The litmus test of that hard work after two weeks in camp together will come at Aviva Stadium on Saturday when Ireland’s bid for a record third Six Nations title in a row is given a stern opening challenge against the side which denied them back-to-back Grand Slams 11 months ago at Twickenham.

The evidence of November’s Autumn Nations Series, when the now-absent head coach Andy Farrell described aspects of his team’s performances as clunky, has seen questions asked from broadcast studios and the cheap seats alike about Ireland’s capacity to make it a championship hat-trick. 

They were well below their best in their opening defeat to New Zealand, and less than fluent for stretches in the victories that followed over Argentina, Fiji and Australia. 

It may have had newly introduced attack coach Goodman wondering what he had let himself in for to have left Leinster to succeed the outgoing Mike Catt following the drawn summer series with the Springboks in South Africa.

Yet on Tuesday, the New Zealander spoke of his excitement at the attacking opportunities that could potentially be unleashed over the coming campaign, despite being unable to tell whether the sloppy handling and poor discipline of the autumn has been eradicated until Ireland returned to competitive play this weekend.

“There's not enough to talk about until we get games under the belt but we've done everything we can in training in terms of touches on the ball and making sure we have really competitive sessions to put boys in game-like situations and putting their decision-making and skillset under pressure,” Goodman said following the penultimate training day of Ireland’s warm-weather camp on Portugal’s Algarve on Tuesday.

“The boys are training well. We've touched on November, we've looked at it extensively as a coaching group and passed the key things on to the group that we think can improve us during this period, like execution.” 

Accurate execution this Saturday would alleviate a lot of doubts and the messaging from interim head coach Simon Easterby and forwards coach Paul O’Connell last week was that their players are more battle-hardened and in much better form heading into the 2025 Six Nations than they were in November. If that is the case then Goodman’s hope is to see the implementation of added layers to Ireland’s attack.

“It's something that at levels of rugby presents exciting opportunities, the execution you need to have and it's always exciting seeing something from the training field transfer to a high-pressure situation.

“We've put time into that side of the ball but when you think of playing England, are they going to give us the lineouts or are they going to contest; it's an important balance to strike around the unstructured stuff. It's a part of the game we want to improve on, our transition speed and execution in unstructured parts of the game to finish off a couple of opportunities that we didn't in November because we still created a lot, it was just the last touch or last pass or decision that we need to tidy up for game one of the Six Nations.” 

As the newest addition to Ireland’s coaching ticket, Goodman has watched from afar as the national team has powered through gears to deliver dominant and highly effective multi-phase attack. They just need to return to doing it exceptionally well.

“We can (improve). I think we need to do things our way the best we can. I know I've come from an outside perspective and know how much other teams and countries look to Ireland's attack and love the way they do things.

“If they're showing best practice clips, Ireland are going to be up there. From my time with Crusaders, we'd always be looking at clips of Ireland how good they were at the line with the decisions and multiple options. Yes, defences are getting better but I still believe when we do our things the best we can we'll still stretch defences with the phase attack.” 

Goodman has appreciated the input received by former captain Johnny Sexton, who has been in camp at The Campus in Quinta do Lago this week, working chiefly with fly-halves Jack Crowley, Ciaran Frawley, Sam Prendergast.

"He's doing the coaching with the kicking and mental (skills) with the 10, like mentals - who could you ask better for a young Irish No 10 to have Johnny Sexton around, watching training with you and giving you live feedback in training and everything else?” 

Only one of that trio can wear the number 10 jersey this Saturday but Goodman is adamant they have all bought into the team-first mentality despite the intense competition to start.

"There's definitely a rivalry. You've got to get the balance right of coming in and competing, but ultimately when the team is named or the team, the bench and one is in the team, one's on the bench and one's not going to be playing... so when you get to that stage you've got to help those guys perform as best you can.

"That's what being a great team member and it's something I've learnt a lot about since coming into this Irish environment."