Ian Madigan

Prendergast misses a tackle, then makes a tackle.

Gibson Park's involved.

And there's just too much space there when you're dealing with speedsters like Ramos and Bialberi.

And then on the flip side of it, when we needed to compress our defense and get bodies in front, we didn't do that.

And the yards after contact, France were able to ascertain by taking on our defense.

That's what kept them on the front foot for the entirety of that first half.

Okay.

I think in the ideal world, you have a balance of the two.

Okay.

and you know that when a dominant tackle comes in now look we weren't we weren't it's not that this irish team can't counter up we weren't getting dominant tackles so that's usually the green light to get in and counter oak you know any player worth their salt will just pile in and they'll know that the referee is only really looking at the team in possession for infringements you can get away with a huge amount and the french did that and did that really well like there was

definitely ones that were right on the line you know is the the counter-rooking player putting his hands on the ground is he off his feet but if a dominant tackles come in the referee's not really looking at it um

So it does start with that.

But my point is, you want to have a balance of knowing when to be a counter-rooking team and when to be a poaching team.

The issue is, if you're poaching Joe and you're not coming up with turnovers regularly enough, what is that doing to your defensive width?

It's shortening your defensive line and it's giving the opposition that quick rook speed ball, which France just thrive on.

I think so.

And that's leadership.

The game plan is great until, back to the boxing analogy, you get boxed in the face and you've got to change it.

You've got to react.

And it was a wet night as well.