RUGBY ANALYST:As Ulster learned last Saturday, no amount of football will mask a deficient scrum. And for Ireland's sake, we need Irish scrummaging tightheads in our provinces
TWO CORE skills have been bugging me all week and they centre around two ball placements and two scrums in Twickenham last Saturday. Although referred to last Monday, I wish to revisit them again today. The Irish squad announcement has been fuelling my thoughts on those two scrums, not to mention Ireland’s scrum at the very same Twickenham, but we’ll get to that as the ball placements executed by Ulster men had a significant influence in the Heineken Cup’s destination.
Get your videos out to that first and crucial ball placement on three minutes and 21 seconds. Darren Cave did brilliantly slipping inside Leo Cullen as did Tom Court in supporting Cave’s break. But Cullen did extraordinarily well to track back and cover his miss by smashing Court, man and ball.
The relentless Cian Healy gets back and around the tackle and enters through the gate where Ulster captain Johann Muller meets him. Once these two connect over the tackle the ruck is formed and all bets are off. At this level phases evolve concurrently such as Court’s placement of the ball on the deck.
Now Cullen, being the tackler, must release Court immediately and Court must release the ball by placing it on the deck. Both kind of do this with Court placing the ball into Cullen’s lap. As it is a ruck, the tackler Cullen can’t interfere with the ball especially while on the ground. But right under Nigel Owens’s nose he accepts the ball and scuttles from Ulster’s side of the ruck and the turnover is complete.
The fairest interpretation of this play could have been accidental offside and a scrum to Ulster affording them another attacking platform to build on the brilliant Cave run. A stricter interpretation could have concluded it was an illegal play by Cullen with a penalty to Ulster and a possible card. Ulster were most unlucky to get nothing and against the best team in Europe these minute chances are crucial. An interesting call from Owens.
There were many man-of-the-match performances on both sides especially Healy and John Afoa – Afoa was at times the best back on the pitch. What concerned me all week was the perceived primary role of the prop? Specifically the tighthead. In what order, scrummaging or football, do they prioritise their duties? With slightly less pressure at scrum time a loosehead can be a rugby-playing scrummager. But the number three must be a scrummager first and foremost. Anything else is a bonus.
Why is this of relevance to Ireland and Ireland’s tour in New Zealand?
Well due to some quirk of fate an anomaly has arisen whereby three of our four provinces have a non-Irish qualified tighthead as their potential starter next season. This anomaly was exacerbated with the very talented Nathan White departing from Leinster west to Connacht in a few weeks leaving him in Connacht, BJ Botha in Munster and Afoa in Ulster. Quirk of fate is, of course, a carefully selected euphemism but the issue should be of major concern to Declan Kidney and someone has taken their eye off the ball.
There were 10 scrums last Saturday but in Ulster’s entire history there will be few as important as the ones in the 11th and 30th minutes. All the more so as they earned them through unforced Leinster errors – the first from a spill at the tail of a Leinster lineout and a poor pass from a ruck. The result should have been an opportunity each time to maintain possession and dictate tempo. But that did not happen on either occasion.
The first scrum was in Ulster’s 22. The score stood at 3-0. Both Mike Ross and Tom Court competed favourably and pinned each other as Ruan Pienaar fed the ball into the scrum. Almost immediately, Ulster’s right-hand side was completely demolished and number eight Pedrie Wannenburg witnessed his front five spinning around Court leaving him with no option but damage limitation. Generally this means going with the wheel and carrying forward. He went against the wheel into heavy traffic.
Ulster of old would have piled numbers in to secure possession but Wannenburg was somewhat isolated. That said, the ball placement was appalling, giving his team-mates no target. It ended up behind his bottom and on the Leinster side, a side very hungry and open to opportunities. That placement compounded the earlier one from Court on Cullen; a terrible scrum followed by a terrible ball placement, both very, very costly.
By the way if Owens’s interpretation of Cullen on the deck above was different he may not have been on the pitch for that scrum; advantage Ulster?
Interestingly it was prop Healy who fired out the ball beautifully to Jonny Sexton who found Gordon D’Arcy. It was also Healy who sprinted in to secure and clear out. There were five ruthless Leinster phases from that terrible Wannenburg ball placement to O’Brien’s try and tighthead Ross carried in two of them. Ross, primarily a scrummager, has become a big contributor to Leinster’s footballing game.
The second Ulster put-in occurred on their 10-metre line. As Court engaged with Ross, his Ulster secondrows Muller and Dan Tuohy were so far apart that their number eight Wannenburg could barely bind on their backsides. But Court and Ross lost their bind with Ross dropping to the ground. Owens called a reset but could have called a penalty. On the reset scrum Muller (behind Court), Tuohy (behind Afoa) and Wannenburg were very tight. This time Court and Ross were square and scrummaged on contact but, with Healy appearing to get outside Afoa, the Ulster tighthead’s bottom quickly slipped out and Tuohy had nowhere to go and more importantly Ulster had no base to scrummage off. The ball slipped into Leinster’s side and off they went for their second try.
Given a choice of world rugby players, Brad Thorn would be very high on my list but given 10 scrums in a Heineken Cup final like last Saturday he would be top of my list. The combination of Ross with Thorn behind him proved extremely powerful; that of Afoa and Tuohy less so.
Declan Fitzpatrick’s selection on the Irish squad to New Zealand brings the above issue into focus. Clearly he is no Afoa around the park (who is?) but against Edinburgh he managed the very accomplished Scottish international loose head Allan Jacobsen very comfortably. For all of Afoa’s brilliance what Ulster would have given for two solid scrums when they really required them? Could Fitzpatrick have provided them?
Many years have been invested in props who are brilliant ball players but don’t manage to find the level in the scrum. Is it easier (wiser) to start with a true scrummager and teach him football than the other way around?
Interestingly Leinster’s first two tries were scored by forwards resulting from two massive scrums. In both scrums Healy was immense. But Ross got on the ball twice in the subsequent move for O’Brien’s try. Neither were Afoa-type runs but he provided the scrum turnover and then contributed perfectly twice to afford O’Brien his try. Some seasons back he would not have achieved both. For the second try, Healy, not content with his scrum demolition, spin-passed then cleared out D’Arcy’s run for Ross to get going.
Loosehead can afford to be a footballer but tighthead must be a scrummager first and foremost. No amount of football will mask a poor scrum. For this we need Irish scrummaging tightheads in our provinces.
PS. For those planning their break from rugby this summer I notice The Colm Tucker Memorial Golf Classic in Kilkee Golf Club on July 6th-7th with all proceeds to National Heart Lung Transplant Unit, Mater Hospital.
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