RUGBY ANALYST:Connacht's Mike McCarthy is the stand-out secondrow with his athleticism and impact in all aspects of the game
ONCE MORE unto the breach as another Ireland squad arrives to meet autumn’s demands. With the All Blacks fresh in our minds I’m reminded of life coach Cherie Carter-Scott’s words: “Ordinary people believe only in the possible. Extraordinary people visualise not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible. And by visualising the impossible, they begin to see it as possible.”
Shortly before he departed Stade de France last Saturday week the far-from-ordinary Paul O’Connell found himself on the near touchline visualising the impossible. Some say there is no change in Munster’s game plan but both he and Donncha O’Callaghan have found themselves out in the tram tracks on many more occasions this season than in the previous 10. What was the exhausted O’Connell attempting to achieve on his first start of the season in fatiguing, wet Paris?
Munster were in possession on the far side, deep in Racing Metro territory. The last thing in is often the first thing out and somewhere in his memory he remembered the “new game plan” and with barely the strength to raise his right arm he motioned to his outhalf Ian Keatley, who was a full 60 metres away, to send him a cross-field kick to chase. The ball arrived at its new destination long before O’Connell as Racing Metro fielded easily and regained advantageous field position.
Last Sunday in Thomond Park he was magnificent. Watching Munster over the weeks has brought the role of our secondrows into focus as coach Rob Penney is clearly asking more of them than at any previous time in their career. Clearly, O’Connell and O’Callaghan are still hungry for more, which is testament to their attitude. Last Sunday O’Connell was bristling and beside him O’Callaghan was trying his best to keep up.
Connacht’s performance against Harlequins the night before has posed more questions for me. Firstly, to witness last year’s semi-finalists Edinburgh reduced to a 33-0 defeat at the hands of Munster brings into focus the phenomenal performance from Connacht in losing by just eight points (while scoring 22) to the English Premier Champions and much-fancied Heineken Cup contenders.
These past few weeks my attention has been drawn to our props and secondrows. My point is this: Dennis Buckley, the Connacht loosehead, on his second start in the Heineken Cup at 22 years of age and weighing in (I’m told) at 100kg locked horns against James Johnston’s 138kg. It didn’t stop there as behind the Samoan behemoth was the 6ft 7ins, 138kg beast Olly Kohn. Behind Buckley was little man Michael Swift, a paltry 120kg!
On scrum impact there was a nine-stone differential coming through Buckley from the Harlequins. His performance must be examined forensically to ascertain how he fared. He acquitted himself excellently considering his youth and svelte figure, and not just in the scrum; but what should we expect? I’ve long since been fascinated by our different expectations concerning what an Ireland prop must achieve in any match compared to our secondrows.
In the main we expect our props to be freaks of nature like Cian Healy, lifting in the lineout, making tackles, stealing ball on the deck, rampaging all over the pitch, bursting defences before arriving to crucial scrums where all the expended energy must be immediately regathered and aligned to international standard scrummaging.
It seems Healy, or a version of him, is the benchmark. If this is the benchmark where does it leave Buckley or others where not long ago I heard Mike Ross being described as average?
Healy is brilliant around the park and Ross brilliant in the scrum. Which is more important? Ireland’s last visit to Twickenham would suggest Ross is clearly the more important as the scrum crumbled when he departed injured, with the Irish game plan to follow. Why our game plan fell away is still a mystery as the scrum is but one facet. It appeared the 15 on the pitch allowed a beaten scrum to influence their game, which became sloppy and inaccurate. Does the scrummaging prop have this influence? If so, we need to readjust our expectations of him or ask more of our secondrows.
How should we judge the performance of Buckley and the new addition to the national squad, David Kilcoyne? I was in Paris watching Kilcoyne with great interest. He opened up excellently at scrum time, appearing comfortable with French international Luc Ducalcon and but for the conditions, a slip or referee’s interpretation that crucial attacking scrum could have proved very different.
Not content with that he continued to contribute outside of the scrum. Where does that leave our secondrows and our ambition for their skill set? Is their job complete if they hit a million rucks?
Of the four secondrows selected for the autumn internationals I suggest you rewatch the Connacht-Harlequins match because Mike McCarthy was outstanding; firstly as a secondrow and then as a rugby player. What made him outstanding? According to the statistics, Ulster’s Dan Touhy made three tackles against Glasgow last Friday night, O’Connell made one with O’Callaghan making five; nine in total – McCarthy made 13. O’Callaghan made no clean break, neither did O’Connell, who ran with the ball for five metres with Touhy adding four metres. McCarthy beat two defenders making a clean break and totalled 29 metres carried. Only O’Connell joined him on the lineout steals, beating him by two.
Having been to the matches over the previous games McCarthy stands head and shoulders over the other three with his athleticism and impact in all aspects of the game; genuinely contesting the ball in the air and on the ground, accelerating in contact, breaking tackles and off-loading to better-placed support runners, not to mention the quality of his offensive tackles. His performance was further enhanced in that he was playing on a losing Connacht team.
This autumn series I hope our secondrows visualise the impossible and make it possible, with our props given space to simply prop.
