Growing Irish depth in evidence against Georgia

By half-time, Ireland had forced twice as many tackles from Georgia than they themselves made. In making 78, Georgia missed 10 but the score stood at 9-0: misleading? Yes there were Irish line breaks but Georgia's defensive systems remained surprisingly solid and Ireland struggled to get around or through them.

The Georgia pre-match warm up was telling in employing the old-school ‘duck drill’, without the duck. Five shield holders with five defenders in the press up position; up and smash. And that is what they did for the opening 40 minutes. I especially enjoyed monster number five Giorgi Nemsadze’s successfully hunting down Graig Gilroy’s angled line break right on half-time.

Scrum contest

The scrum was also a fascinating contest which proved damaging to Ireland’s momentum and pride. The first Irish scrum collapsed and the reset 37 seconds later resulted in a penalty for Georgia. Just 13 minutes later Ireland’s second scrum resulted in another penalty, this time to Ireland. Georgia’s second and third scrums resulted in two more penalties; to Georgia.

That's four in one half added to last week's struggle against the Springboks and there is a pattern developing which will be high on the Irish agenda this week. In the middle of all that Mike Ross gained more pitch time and David Kilcoyne had an 80 minute belter, equally comfortable in heavy traffic and wide open spaces. He was almost Campese-like toying with Georgia's defence, ball tucked under his right arm.

There’s clearly a broadening of international standard players available to Ireland but it’s the broadening of knowledge that’s most impressive in the variation of selection from one week to the next. But variations come at a slight cost where match time is the only way to iron out new combinations. Changes bring the inaccuracies evident throughout the match, such as the first Georgian kick-off which was missed by the Irish pod but from there on all were caught.

Lineout variation

The lineout managed by first-capper and man of the match Dave Foley had massive variation. Twenty Irish lineouts with only one loss, hitting multiple targets and a variety of starter plays was impressive. Tail-gunners peeling backwards with Eoin Reddan firing in front, to Gordon D’Arcy or Tommy O’Donnell slotting into scrumhalf to get mauls going were but two. In all this Ireland didn’t shirk the physical confrontation which was most notable in the lineout maul. On 35 minutes Ireland went down the line from a Georgia penaltywith five points on their mind.

Foley selected a tough lineout option with a middle target and immediate transfer back the tail to a waiting pod. Internal transfer of the ball in a lineout makes sense and is currently in vogue in Ireland but with such a new lineout it's tough to get it done. But get it done they did and they stole some yards towards the try line with Dominic Ryan in control at the back.

Georgia to their credit managed to circle the wagons and plug the gap. Ireland kept mauling opportunities where having sucked in Georgia they crossed the line twice 15 yards or so off the maul; firstly with O’Donnell getting close but two minutes into the second half Kilcoyne powered over.

Foley did well but so too did others where club combinations proved extremely fruitful. Once again Ian Madigan stepped up to the plate displaying an endless variety of skills. Inside him Eoin Reddan was especially good. All the usual stuff but he added real value to the ball that his team-mates were alive to. On 24 minutes he went blindside to find Darren Cave who sucked in defenders before offloading inside to a hunting Reddan.

Ryan's corporate knowledge (from Leinster training sessions) of Reddan's style made him alive to the opportunity which Reddan kindly provided through a beautiful left-hand blind pass inside. But his impact for Zebo's try was even better. An eight man Irish scrum took on seven in the right hand corner. Blindside winger Gilroy circled infield with Reddan timing the offload perfectly. The next pass was hardly perfect but it achieved exactly that; minimal delay at the breakdown with maximum time for Zebo to stroll over.

Targeting blindside

Tactically Ireland made very obvious changes at half time. Still engaging Georgia upfront but Reddan was clearly targeting the blindside with slightly narrower midfield targets and Reddan heading off on rewinds in an attempt to keep Georgia shifting laterally. He even put Simon Zebo away deep inside the Irish 22 with the mercurial winger slipping outside second row Konstantin Mikautadze down the touchline. I’m sure the left heel flick attempt to regain the ball was admired by many but

Joe Schmidt

would not be one.

In truth having missed 10 tackles in the first half and a total of 26 in all Georgia still deserved more from the fixture but were cruelly exposed when down to 13 men. Had referee JP Doyle been less patient in the first half, Georgia would have suffered even more.

The breakdown was a fascinating affair and outside of Doyle’s interpretation of same, Schmidt will be furious with the two turnover penalties Georgia earned in the second quarter. Robbie Diack and Zebo carried through traffic and both were left isolated and vulnerable. These turnovers were costly to Ireland’s momentum and gave Georgia energy and purpose keeping them in the game for far too long.

liamtoland@yahoo.com