Ronan O'Gara on how Ireland can beat Bok blitz
Former Ireland flyhalf Ronan O'Gara has given an insight into how Ireland might go about beating South Africa's renowned rush defence.
Andy Farrell's Ireland will take on Springboks in what is being billed as the Pool B decider at the Stade de France in Paris this weekend, with the winners likely avoiding France in the quarter-finals.
The La Rochelle head coach was speaking with Jim Hamilton on RugbyPass and the pair chatted through O'Gara's incredible tenure with the French European champions and breaks down the mouthwatering clash in Saint-Denis.
O'Gara, who has become the architect of Leinster's downfall over the last two seasons, gave his insight into how Ireland - who are largely made up of Leinster players - might go about beating the Springboks this weekend, and he thinks unlocking the Boks' blitz will be key.
"The key to beat a rush defence is you've got to go through it and after a lot of people try and go around it so there's a complete - I think - misunderstanding of what you're trying to achieve.
"For me the key on playing against the rush defence is you got to attack flailing arms and that's a skill in itself because if you run into bodies, you're tackled behind the gain line and the ball is going to be held up and ruck speed will be four of five seconds, but if you can identify opportunities for late footwork at the line into flailing arms, the capacity for high shots, which today is a red card or a yellow card on an average occasion.
"Footwork and fend at the line, short passes... if you try to play long pass, long pass, they [South Africa] will eat you up with salt. It's exactly what they are looking for.
"What you need to do is reduce the space between your nine and ten, or your first receiver. Reduce your space - do you get me, so your nine and ten might only take three defenders, then your ten to the next attacker might only take three defenders. They've probably got eight on the line, but you've got to know that if you can get accuracy on that second pass, say from nine to 10, and say 10 to Bundee Aki or [Garry] Ringrose, then there's a potential for what will happen there for their shooter to go for him, but he might have the capacity to tip [pass].
"Whose behind here [points behind imagined second receiver]? You've got James Lowe or Hansen... they're gone. Because we've tried to go through them here, we've taken maybe seven defenders. That's my theory on it.
"I'm biased but you see the excellence of Paul O'Connell, in terms of, whatever day it is, one to ten wins you a World Cup, I'm absolutely convinced. You don't need your a fifteen-man game, you need one to ten homme and then everything else is a bonus but what Ireland are doing extremely well at the minute is that you have for example Kelleher here, Porter here, Furlong here; all threats all capable playing the ball. James Ryan or McCarthy or Henderson, O'Mahony, van der Flier, Doris. Their skills are very unappreciated because if they were in an All Black jersey, we'd be all [over them], but that for me is something I think doesn't get the recognition it deserves.
"They're all good decision-makers and all as opposed to just having your ten and twelve as decision-makers. Ireland, as you see with their phase game, it is very rare that they score in the corner. We're going through teams now and it's impressive to watch."
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They also use a far more consistent scale.
Rugby pass seem to have a different scale for each player based on the authors expectations or how much he likes them.
Can't fathom how Moodie and Reece both were a 3.
Go to commentsYes for sure, thanks for sharing. I fully understand that both parties are better off, no one needs to lose, neither competition suffers, in fact both can be better as a result.
Too many true rugby fans (and analysts) don't understand that.
I wouldn't imagine there is a date aye. It was a long decline rugby in SA and Australia was going through, and was so bad it even effected NZ, caused them to argue to can a couple of teams. The nation of SA probably grew into it? I know I watch more of the NH now specifically because of the SR teams playing there. I actually had to mention to Nick Bishop (because of his stubborn perspective) the other day that I've never been a fan of Super Rugby, I don't think they chose the right way to go about professionalism back in 1995. Unfortunately, NZR was stuck between a rock and a hard place, because it had SA's and Australians that ran their unions by States, so we had to separate into "two or three" teams as a result. Our game is in the kak now because of it, they want to kill off the lifeblood of our National Provincial Championship. But now we might see a way out of it, so it's all good.
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