As Usain Bolt cantered across the 200m line yesterday I couldn't help but notice how the great Jamaican transformed a struggling season, spent largely in the shadow of the Justin Gatlin Gun, into something history will correctly savour as he vanquished the American once more. Rugby World Cups can be similar, especially with New Zealand away from home.
Having continually dominated between World Cups, they have ultimately failed in five World Cups. Yes, they have won twice but both of those victories came on home soil. Thankfully they are on the road again.
Timing, therefore, is everything and as we face a much-changed and vastly stronger Welsh side tomorrow, I wonder are Wales on a different preparation curve to us given that their pool games are cruelly challenging and require a different peaking time. We play France on Sunday October 11th in a bid to win the group and avoid the All Blacks.
So Ireland must peak for France in six weeks’ time. Wales must peak twice in Pool A, firstly against England in Twickenham September 26th and again two weeks later against Australia. Their World Cup could be over before we even play France.
In terms of what we can expect in the tournament, we are likely to see more tomorrow from Gatland than Schmidt, who will continue his cloak-and-dagger approach until much closer to the French game. That said, there are areas that can’t be hidden, including our poor defensive lines against Scotland and our evolving setpiece and breakdown plans.
Last week I wrote about the breakdown, outlining the tactical options available to teams that fully understand the nuances that exist in the laws and the referee interpretations. Will we see northern hemisphere teams making the tackle and refusing to send in a defensive man, thereby avoiding the creation of the ruck in favour of suspending the offside law?
I inquired further into the specifics of Jim Hamilton’s penalty concession over Gordon D’Arcy as it leads to team basing their on a variety of aspects, notably the laws, the referee interpretations and the options exercised by defensive teams.
On four minutes, Scottish openside Hugh Blake received a pass from his scrumhalf Henry Pygros, all going right. Not a second passed before Devin Toner swallowed Blake up and brought him down. With 16 metres on the blind side, Scotland had options both ways.
Crucial skill
But D’Arcy read the play very well (especially the evolving Toner tackle) and at 5ft 9ins and a wide feet placement he was able to get his hips very low with a horizontal back over the ball. This is a crucial skill which requires a certain picture from the ball carrier – one which Schmidt demands.
This picture was aided by the poor body position Toner left Blake in. Where the ball terminates is all D'Arcy has on his mind. At this point, there is nothing but a tackle area and no offside (bar the one- metre law). However, almost immediately Scottish secondrow Grant Gilchrist targets D'Arcy, as he has lost the battle to the ball. Again this is a sacking offence in Schmidt's eyes. However, at 6ft 7in, and crucially narrow feet placement, Gilchrist can't get his hips lower than D'Arcy's and in an effort to compensate drops his shoulders in an inverted 'V'.
This is a poor position, compounding the poor placement from Blake. Hence Gilchrist has but one option to shift D’Arcy, as even with a 4.5 stone advantage there is no way he can drive D’Arcy backwards. To do this he drives his left arm in under D’Arcy’s chest and with a long right arm he rolls D’Arcy anticlockwise out of the ruck (which evolved on contact with D’Arcy – offside laws apply!).
Gilchrist also pulls D’Arcy onto the Scottish side and ultimately away from the ball, affording Blake an opportunity to place it at his feet, which he does. Now, let’s consult the World Rugby laws of the game. Where does it state this is a legal or illegal act? Is this open to French referee Pascal Gaüzère’s interpretation? Because Gaüzère wasn’t overly bothered by this act which has evolved over recent seasons to combat such body positions as D’Arcy’s. Is it legal? Since when can a player tackle another player out of a ruck?
Two seconds after Toner’s tackle, Hamilton enters the scene. Like his secondrow partner, Hamilton is massive at 6ft 8in and a seasoned campaigner is fully aware of D’Arcy.
Coming from the left-hand side, he made particular effort to get his feet through the gate, but D’Arcy was even lower by now from Gilchrist in the process of the ‘roll’ so Hamilton dropped his hips to target D’Arcy only to miss him slightly and plough his forearms onto the deck.
Ball was nowhere
Crucially the ball was nowhere near Hamilton and so his actions (although in my eyes legal) were immaterial to the ball and hence irrelevant.
Trawling the World Rugby laws it’s hard to explain the above.I have huge sympathy for referees at this level as everything described above took but two seconds. Even Usain Bolt would struggle. PS: That Scotland left Gilchrist to cover Blake is a key difference from Ireland. It’ll be a rare sight that an Irish ball carrier is left so vulnerable.
liamtoland@yahoo.com
