What Garry Ringrose learned at tackle school

Garry Ringrose is free to return to face Italy in Rome this Saturday having completed his reeducation

LESSONS LEARNED: Garry Ringrose said World Rugby were "happy with the work that was put in by myself and the coaches to try and right the wrong" of his red card tackle against Wales. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Garry Ringrose believes he has emerged from his red card against Wales and the tackle school that followed it much the wiser for the experience, not that it made watching the defeat to France last weekend any easier.

That Ringrose is free to return to face Italy in Rome this Saturday is still rankling with France fly-half Roman Ntamack. Both players received three-match bans, each time for a high hit on unfortunate Welshman Ben Thomas, yet Ringrose was allowed to use a Leinster match as part of his suspension whereas Ntamack was not permitted to include a Toulouse game in his ban and missed rounds two and three before returning against Ireland following his own tackle school.

"There is an injustice here, because I believe our case was also based round how one of the matches in my suspension I would play for Toulouse,” Ntamack said on Wednesday. “And when 10 days later the complete opposite (for Ringrose) is decided in contrast to what the commission told me, that is in every shape and form totally incomprehensible.

"I think we must start pounding our fist on the table because it is time these decisions going against us and costing us dearly stop."

Garry Ringrose of Ireland, left, is shown a yellow card by referee Christophe Ridley during the Guinness Six Nations Rugby Championship match between Wales and Ireland at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Not that French cries of injustice nor any of the relentless discussion of the topic affected Ringrose as he negotiated the disciplinary process and did what he had to do to get back on the pitch this week.

“It was a tough thing to go through but the learning curve, just from the whole process and the disciplinary hearing, and then the tackle school last week.

“I wouldn’t have been paying attention to the outside noise because I’d work to do to get myself back available this week which was all I was solely focused on, to be honest.” 

As for the process itself, whereby the 30-year-old centre avoided an extra week’s suspension by undertaking tackle school, formerly known as World Rugby’s Coaching Intervention Programme, Ringrose does not begrudge his time on the sideline. Having pleaded guilty to foul play at his disciplinary hearing in the week following his 20-minute red card in Cardiff he accepted the need for tackle lessons, describing his misdemeanour as “evident I clearly need to keep working on it”.

“The tackle school week was an interesting process to go through. So it’s an independent body in World Rugby that I touch base with, because it's separate to the disciplinary hearing or that panel. So you’re going back over the incident, what I believe as a player that I could have done differently in the situation. I would have naturally worked quite closely with Simon Easterby as the defence coach and worked closely with (attack coach) Andrew Goodman who was particularly helpful last week, his experience as a centre, understanding that element from the player perspective as well.

“So designing little drills to break down the incident a bit into segments and then that kind of evolved into re-enacting effectively what happened and being acutely aware of what I can do differently in that situation.

“All of that through the week was videoed and passed on to World Rugby who then reviewed it and then went from there. So they were happy with the work that was put in by myself and the coaches to try and right the wrong, I guess.

“Hopefully I’ll best endeavour to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

Ringrose, who is now set to earn his 67th Ireland cap in Italy on Saturday, said he was “motivated and excited to attack the week” but his time on the sidelines was an uncomfortable one, having to watch his team-mates go down to a rampant France on home soil.

“It’s tough because you know how much work goes into the week and everyone from the 23, especially with the whole wider group, trained as best we could and prepared as best we could.

“And I guess when a game doesn’t go your way, it is a tough thing to go through if you’re out there playing. Tough thing to watch if you’re part of the wider group. I was in on Sunday evening and because we work really hard and prepare as best we can, a lot of the guys would – coaches included – carry the weight of a defeat and be quite harsh on themselves and things that didn’t go right.

“There’s a bit of ripping that bandage off on Sunday evening, Monday morning in the reviews, being honest with ourselves and then getting out training, a highly competitive session (on Tuesday), getting it all out of the system. Flick the switch to attack the week. So we’ve gone through that process.” 

As for his own process, Ringrose insisted that while lessons had been learned in tackle school it would not temper the intensity with which he would continue to play the game.

“The training and drills you do away from the game is to try and insure it doesn’t happen so just try and work technically on stuff. You are trying to do whatever you can to try and get the ball back when you don’t have it so that would be the principle in any team I’ve ever played in.

“So still having that mindset but trying to do it in those split-second moments, trying to do it as technically right as possible. It’s something that will always be with me to make sure it doesn’t happen again. That would be my objective and plan.”