By Bernard Jackman
Joe Schmidt: "We wouldn't be the biggest and it is difficult to physically dominate teams."
Ireland's head coach knows his team and his opponents inside out and approaches his rugby accordingly.
Someone like Warren Gatland builds his team and gameplan around an idea like dominating the contact zone regardless of the opposition.
In contrast, Joe plays his hand to suit the cards he has and the cards he thinks his opponent is holding. It is all about maximising Ireland’s chance of winning on a given day.
In terms of raw power, he is 100% correct. Ireland are not as big or powerful as many of the sides we face.
But as we look to win our ninth consecutive game Ireland have shown that rugby is still a game in which technique, intelligence and application can trump everything else. Size is important. In a lot of situations, a good big man is better equipped to succeed than a smaller opponent.
A former international (I forget which) said recently that, ‘rugby isn't a contact sport any more, dancing is a contact sport. Rugby is a collision sport’.
I agree, though if you look at the varied strategies Ireland use to make progress you can see that it is not as simple as brute force meeting brute force on the gain line.
Size is for sale on the transfer market
In the Top 14, big is beautiful. The clubs can buy size and power on the transfer market with lots of South Africans, Georgians and Pacific Islanders available. But size costs money and the biggest players generally cost the most.
For teams with smaller budgets like ourselves in Grenoble, the big power athletes are often too expensive to recruit.
But once you set up your team knowing that you will struggle to run over your opponents you can find ways to play to your strengths and expose their weaknesses.
I find that some players that who have won the ‘gene pool lottery’ can be sloppy in their detail around the basics. Their power can get them out of trouble and the odd flash of brilliance hides the little inaccuracies.
I am talking about really small details. Things like body height, footwork before contact, leg drive during contact, quality of ball presentation, consistency in tackle technique and speed to get in the optimum position on attack and defence.
If your team can be the best in these areas, you are well on the road to victory.
Teams that rely on power try and use it in different ways. They may look to dominate at the scrum or maul or carry around the fringes. France will use Mathieu Bastareaud to crash the gainline from set piece to generate front foot ball and then take it from there.
How do you set up to beat it?
My view is that the key to frustrating this type of team is to slow their speed of ball down. You need very fast and aggressive line speed and a low, leg-focussed tackle.
Offensively, you need to move them around. A smart and accurate kicking strategy and shifting the point of contact quickly are important.
Ball carriers need to get their details right. We use the ‘Three Fs’: Footwork, Fight and Finish. The structure around the carrier is important.
I think Ireland did not play with their usual good shape on the gain line and that will need to be better.
We need to have our men running at space instead of into tackles and to have more deception on the line – things like options to pass inside or out the back door. This forces defenders to respect the options and make it harder for them to make ‘gang’ tackles, which is something Italy were able to do against us.
My old Under-13s coach in Newbridge, Father Canice Murphy, used to tell us to see the tackler as a tree and to run at a branch rather than a trunk. It is an image that still works at Test level.
Ireland starting XV is stronger
The change in the Irish selection with Jonathan Sexton, Jamie Heaslip and Sean O’Brien is a huge boost. Sexton may have been off for 12 weeks but I know he has been able to do an incredible amount of fitness work. He is short of match practice but is the best out-half in the competition.
Iain Henderson might also have been an option and has been a revelation in recent weeks. I think he will replace Paul O’Connell as a focal point of the pack someday. But France have picked a bench with impact in mind and Henderson needs to match that for us.
In the starting XV Phillipe Saint-Andre made just one change and it was injury enforced (Eddy Ben Arous replaces Alexandre Menini at loosehead).
Saint-Andre has tended to change a lot from match to match, capping 80 players and trying 14 half-back combinations in just three seasons. Personally, I would have started two of the Frenchmen on the bench in exchange for two of the four foreign-born players in the current team with Scott Spedding and Rory Kockott out and Brice Dulin and Morgan Parra in.
Spedding is a good Top 14 player and very safe at full-back but with so much kicking, a better counter-attacker would be a huge plus. At scrum-half, Kockott is an explosive runner but is struggling in a poor Castres side right now. Parra may not have the same leg power but he is a quality player and makes others look good. He also plays with starting out-half Camile Lopez every week at Clermont.
Looking at how the match will play out, you have to say that France ended up putting in a very subdued and uninspiring performance last week. Their individuals can do damage but collectively they do not look crystal clear on their structures. When fatigue kicks in, that will hurt.
Ireland’s scrum was better until replacements came in and I think we can break even there. The French pack is heavier and their maul is an advantage. If we choose to contest in the air, getting to ground quickly is a key, along with body height and aggression.
Ireland kicking strategy is key
In attack, Conor Murray’s kicks to contest were key against South Africa and I think we will see plenty of that. Our back three are world class in the air and can get underneath the exceptional hang-time Murray gets.
Sexton can look to isolate and angle kicks in behind his Racing Metro club mate Teddy Thomas out on the wing. Thomas is a gifted attacker but has really struggled with defensive positioning.
If we can get our pace up I expect us to create mismatches as some of their forwards do not reposition well. If the likes of Jared Payne and Simon Zebo get one-on-one with a Pascal Pape or Yohann Maestri, Ireland are in business.
There is no confidence in the ability of this French management team to get the most out of their players among the public or, I suspect, the players.
Ireland are at the opposite end of the scale with momentum and belief both really high and I expect us to win by seven or more.
