England have received plenty of praise for their kick-heavy gameplan following Saturday’s tight semi-final defeat in the Rugby World Cup. In wet conditions, the decision to kick 93 per cent of their possession away was seen as an astute ploy to pressurise South Africa in the air and capitalise on mistakes in advantageous territorial positions.
Alex Mitchell’s box-kicks were by and large excellent, but it could be argued, in the second half in particular, the handling errors they forced played into South Africa’s hands given their scrum dominance. Other data points also suggest that, despite examples of good individual kicks, the gameplan did not work.
One major goal of kicking is to win the territorial battle. South Africa marginally came out on top with 51 per cent of the territory. England only had four 22 entries in the match, while only four teams in the whole tournament spent less time in the opposition 22 than England’s one minute and 13 seconds on Saturday.
The flip side of that is England actually kicked more in their pool win over Argentina (96 per cent) and had even less territory (47 per cent). Then, Argentinian ill-discipline was the final piece of the jigsaw that was missing on Saturday.
South Africa’s Siya Kolisi said post-match that his side’s discipline was poor. Yet they only conceded eight penalties. In the pool stages against England, Argentina doubled that figure. England could not convert South African handling mistakes and Freddie Steward’s dominance in the air into enough shots at goal for Owen Farrell to win the match.
Put simply, England did not play enough of the match in areas where they could earn kickable penalties, while also proving unable to force such ill-discipline in the first place.
As for South Africa’s kicking game, Handre Pollard played 30 minutes fewer than Farrell, kicked four times less but still made more metres from the boot than his opposite number. As well as his match-winning penalty, the above numbers are vindication of the coaching staff’s decision to sub him on early.
Ulster go from first to worst
In last season’s United Rugby Championship, Ulster’s lineout maul was the most potent in the competition, leading to more scores than any other team (16) while making an impressive 473 metres. Their defence was among the tournament’s best, too, conceding a miserly 49 tries all year.
In Saturday’s season opener away to Zebre, you would be forgiven for wondering what had changed.
So dominant was Zebre’s maul that penalty after penalty led to a first half yellow card for Kieran Treadwell. As for the defence, an inability to organise quickly on turnover ball, combined with some soft last-ditch tackle attempts on the line, represented a disappointing effort from a side that impressed previously on that side of the ball.
Add to that a creaking scrum that had a success rate of just 67 per cent, not to mention replacement tighthead James French earning another yellow for repeated infringements, and there were enough concerns to suggest Ulster got away with one in a narrow 36-40 victory. Luckily for Ulster, Zebre’s defence was even worse than their own.
The issue is largely one of personnel. Regular maul proponents Iain Henderson, Alan O’Connor and the now-departed Duane Vermeulen were all missing. Matty Rea, a backrow normally, started at lock. A wave of second-half replacements in the pack did at least go some way to stemming the tide at the maul, Ulster eventually scoring a set-piece try of their own.
In the scrum, props Eric O’Sullivan and Marty Moore are injured, while Tom O’Toole and Steven Kitshoff will eventually return from World Cup duty. Reassurance for Ulster fans, but based on Saturday, the early weeks of the season may be a case of clinging on until the World Cup cavalry returns.
A new AIL challenger?
Blackrock succumbed to their first women’s AIL defeat in 14 matches, a run stretching back to last season’s title-winning campaign, as UL Bohs saw off the champions 29-10 on Saturday. Chisom Ugwueru led the way for the Limerick side with a staggering four tries as Bohs outscored their visitors by six tries to two.
The bonus-point victory sees Bohs move five points clear at the top of the table with Railway behind them, albeit with a game in hand. Blackrock find themselves in fourth, 10 points behind the league leaders with a game in hand of their own.
Railway had a comfortable victory at home on Saturday, powering past Ballincollig 46-10 at Park Avenue. Eight tries were shared around by the Sandymount side with Keelin Brady leading the way with a double.
Elsewhere, Old Belvedere moved up to third with a 19-33 victory away to Galwegians as the Galway side’s wait for a first victory of the campaign goes on. Cooke also are yet to get off the mark this year after a 0-44 defeat to Suttonians at Clement Wilson Park. The visitors crossed the whitewash seven times in total, twice thanks to Lauren Farrell McCabe as they kept their own line intact.
The next round of fixtures comes on November 4th after a week off.
Number: 28.8
England’s expected points on Saturday, according to Opta. South Africa’s was marginally lower at 27.5. The final score of 16-15 to the ‘Boks suggests both sides’ scoring efficiency was poor based on their performance.
Quote
“I signed about 14, 15 months ago, it’s been a long time coming but I’m just glad we got the win and repaid the trust from the coaches.”
New Connacht signing Joe Joyce after being named player of the match in his debut for the province.
