Billy Burns led Ulster to a monumental win against Leinster yesterday evening, to stop the league leaders from mustering their tenth win on the trot.
Burns used his kicking skills to manufacture a win for Ulster, in what has been a stop-start season for the northern province. This win means they're two from two in inter-provincial derbies, heading back in to Europe, after beating Racing 92 the last time out.
While all the talk has been around Jack Crowley and which of the Leinster out-halves could challenge his starting spot for Ireland, Burns flew in under the radar to orchestrate the perfect kicking game to justify Dan McFarland’s trust in him, with Jake Flannery breathing down his neck for his place in the team.
Leinster have always been an aggressive defensive team but they’ve taken that to another level with the recent coaching evolution. The Nienaber-led defensive structure almost dares teams to take the aerial route to breaking down their defence because there are many factors that can go wrong along the way.
Although the task of defending kicks is mainly covered by wingers and the full-back, Leinster’s system puts serious stress on those players to cover the amount of ground needed when their midfield are as aggressive in the front line.
It means that wingers often end up defending as far in as the first or second post, leaving an acre of grass for an opposition player to kick into.
That’s exactly what happened for Ulster’s second try after a break through the middle by Sean Reffell and Stuart McCloskey condensed Leinster’s defence.
Tommy O’ Brien had to push up and 'close the gate’ as it is described now. This means his aim is to read out the back of the forward players and stop the ball getting to the back with any time or space.
In this instance, he made the read to get to Burns, but the out-half was able to step and get his diagonal grubber kick away for Stockdale to comfortably pick up in the greasy conditions and canter to the try line.
SECOND TRY FOR ULSTER - Billy Burns with another deft kick through for Jacob Stockdale to touch down
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The first Ulster try came after just four minutes from a well-worked set piece move and a perfectly weighted Burns chip kick. A five-man lineout meant there was plenty of traffic in midfield for the Leinster defence to make reads on. Usually, a five-man lineout should allow the defensive centres to hold off slightly and make a read on the out-half's body language as to whether there’s a kick on the way.
Leinster defend, like most teams, with their scrum-half at the front of the lineout. Their hooker then closes the seam from the back of the lineout to the two forwards that defend in midfield from a short lineout. The out-half is outside this, with both centres and their winger aggressively closing outside.
This is important because the full-back is then further across when closing to the end of the line, meaning Frawley in this instance wouldn’t be expected to cover a central kick over the top.
The blind side winger, Rob Russell in this case, has a lot of work to do from behind the lineout and pushing across the field to allow his full-back to close hard in an aggressive defence.
Russell was slightly deep in this instance, his feet were inside his 22 meter area when covering across, and the Burns kick was strong enough to beat the onrushing defence, but delicate enough to not play into Russell closing in behind.
Timoney beat Russell attempted and used the drenched surface at the RDS to slide his way over the try line for the opening score.
Burns finished his trio of kick assists at the end of the first half when a 22 meter attack became static, Tom O’ Toole pivoted to find Burns who kicked across the pitch, landing the ball in Timoney’s path for his second try of the half.
Burns had other crafty touches from the boot, one being a beautifully weighted and skidding goal line drop out, which was unfortunately knocked on by Luke Marshall before he could exit properly.
While Burns exposed an area of Leinster's defence that other teams will note, his execution in the first half was outstanding, yet his influence on the game dwindled in the second half.
Cooney pulled the strings a bit more, linking with Stockdale for Ulster’s kicking exits and taking the shots at goal as well.
Burns was subbed off at 75 minutes in place of the influential Doak.
Doak also kicked well into the corner before Stockdale bundled Frawley into touch. It was a well-placed kick into the corner from a scrum, a scrum that occurred because of the slightest error from Harry Byrne in his attempted 50:22, which could have gone a long way to winning the game for Leinster had it not steered away from the touch line and over the dead ball line.
If Burns wants to get back into the Irish jersey, you feel that his influence needs to last longer in the game, long enough that his coach is comfortable substituting him with five minutes to go when holding onto a lead away from home.
Small margins win these games but Ulster’s tactical kicking was a masterclass in how to put Leinster under pressure, something that the league leaders will need to deal with before other teams get the notion to copy Burns and McFarland.
Despite the atrocious weather conditions, the inter-provincial rivalries gave us some scintillatingly close encounters and have prepared the Irish provinces as well as possible for the upcoming rounds of European rugby.
Ulster will now go into their home tie with European giants, Toulouse, with a bit more spring in their step, but a bigger challenge awaits.
