Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is an Irish Independent Podcast. Now, welcome everybody. So this incredibly enjoyable, absorbing, topsy-turvy Six Nations Championship is reaching a crescendo on Saturday. And if it's in keeping with the rest of the tournament, there will be surprises. And realistically, Ireland and Scotland need surprises to happen.
In Paris in particular, Ireland and Scotland kick things off at ten past two. Wales, Italy, in Cardiff, super interesting as well. The Welsh...
Chapter 2: What are the latest developments in the Six Nations Championship?
three years without a win kind of unthinkable in Welsh rugby and the Italians looking for their best ever six nations with a third win which would be quite something and then France looking to make amends for Murrayfield have England who are looking to make amends for a whole heap that's a 10 past 8 so 10 past 2 4.40 10 past 8 there's your schedule for Saturday happy to say
We have Keane Tracy with us. Keane, hello. Hey, Joel. How are you? I am very well. And Ian Madigan, also on the line. Ian, you're very welcome.
Hey, Joe. Hey, Cian. Yep, delighted to be on.
No, great to have you both. Our rugby coverage as ever with thanks to Energia. They sponsor rugby in Ireland at all levels at grassroots with the AIL. They are official energy partner to Leinster, Connacht and the Irish men's and women's teams. And their Rugby for All initiative welcomes everyone of all abilities to participate in the game.
If you want to learn more about Energia's exclusive home energy offer, then you can visit energia.ie forward slash rugby. So Ireland have named their team. I'm sure if you're listening beyond Thursday afternoon, you've seen it at this stage. So very quickly, Osborne continues at full back. He's been seamless there. Balacoon, man of the moment, is on the wing.
Tommy O'Brien gets the nod on the other wing ahead of Jacob Stockdale. It's Ringrose and McCluskey. Jack Crowley continues alongside Jameson Gibson Park. And then in the pack, Dan Sheehan comes back in from the stands. Tom O'Toole, who did very well the last day at Loosehead, continues. And Tyke Furlong is there. Big grumpy head on Tyke Furlong against Wales is one of the main memories.
Joe McCarthy back in as well. I suppose the news I hadn't heard was that James Ryan is injured. So he is out with a calf injury, which is a blow. So Tyke Byrne
continues in the second row and it means no awkward conversation with Jack Conan player of the match the last day he was at six Vander Fleer comes back in after his fine performance at Twickenham seven and Caelan Dorris captains at eight thoughts on the team Ian?
Yeah it's a good team I think you touched on it there James Ryan is a loss he does a lot of unseen work and kind of nitty-gritty work, especially in the tackle, the breakdown, his carries. While they aren't as explosive as some of the other forwards, they're really important for Ireland's multi-phase attack.
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Chapter 3: How does Ireland's team selection impact their chances against Scotland?
I think that's worth stressing. To come into the tournament without your first three in terms of Andrew Porter, Paddy McCarthy and Jack Boyle, and then Jeremy Lachman goes down injured and Tom O'Toole is slotted in there. Andy Farrell called him Ireland's double adapter last week after the game, which I really liked because I think when it comes to the World Cup selection next year,
I think having a prop who can play both sides of the scrum is going to be very, very useful. And it looks like that's going to be Tom O'Toole now. So, yeah, I agree with your point, Joe. I mean, at the end of the game this weekend, at the end of the Six Nations, Varel will have used 34 players. Darren Murray, I think we have to call him Murray or else our Roscommon listeners will be given out.
Sorry, are they from Roscommon or the south of France? It's Murray. Yeah. Yeah, well, I don't think they like that. Having spoken to them, I think they like to call it Maree. Okay, I'll go with it. Pronounce it Maree. But he'll become the 34th player to have featured in the Six Nations, the 11th player to have made a Six Nations debut as well.
Like, that's an awful lot of inexperience that you've kind of brought in throughout the team. And like you said, Joe, to still be in with a chance of winning a Triple Crown, to still potentially be within a chance to win the Six Nations title, I think it's to Farrell's absolute immense credit. And it goes back to...
A couple of years ago, like you think back to when Jamie Osborne was picked to play at fullback down in South Africa and no one saw that coming. So I think Farrell has had the long game in mind here and it's certainly paying off and you would hope that it will pay off more importantly next year as well.
Yeah, obviously Scotland concerns of their own with second rows and injuries. Williamson and Gilchrist in replacing Brown and Cummings. That is a big blow in their engine room to lose both teams. second rose. Ian, I suspect the answer to this may be different depending on what type of personality type we're talking about.
I'm talking about Darcy Graham here and that line, Ireland are there for the taking. So I suspect Peter O'Mahony, to use kind of the extreme example, would take that and use that and dwell on that and get himself fired up. You don't strike me as someone, and I could be wrong about this, who would have really honed in on that comment. But obviously, Ian, It's a talking point.
Like, I don't think the message of what Darcy Graham said was overly wrong. In effect, we're in a good place and, you know, we'll go there with confidence. That's fine. But just that line, Ireland are there for the taking, that is a bit derogatory. If someone said Ian Madigan's there for the taking, to what extent do you think that is going to be used by the Irish team?
To what extent is that a factor in this at all?
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Chapter 4: What is Jack Crowley's kicking technique and its significance?
So he is within his rights to say that. The key thing for Scotland is they're going to be going into this game with the sole focus on themselves. And they have the belief that if they play to their best ability, they will win. And I don't think that that genuine belief has been there in previous seasons. Right. They're also not going to change how they're playing.
I think they've set their stall out and they do it really well. Like their with-to-with game, their ability to get their... their backs and their forwards realigned, play flat, come all the way back, play deep, the efficiency that they move the opposition around.
And it's become much harder to do this as an attacking team to tire out the opposition because it's nearly easier defending now, but not if you do it the way Scotland do it because they're really... forcing the defensive team to move from edge to edge. They utilize the short side really efficiently and they don't tire themselves out when they're attacking.
And as a result of that, they're not leaving themselves exposed if they do turn the ball over, if they do kick the ball. And that's how they really frustrated the French. The French thrive on attacking on kind of unstructured or counter-attack play. And full credit to Gregor, he had a game plan there where they just simply didn't give them those opportunities.
And for the French to break the Scots down, they had to break them down with a high phase count. And that's not how the French attacked in the first three rounds of the competition. So I think going into this Irish game, we know what the Scots are going to do. And we will be concerned. Our defense has been exposed in the wide channels. The Scots are going to go there.
So Easterby and the other coaches and the defensive leaders, they're going to have to make some tweaks there. And that's really respect for the opposition. I don't think they're going to be having... those comments up on the wall and using that as motivation. I think there's enough there outside of it.
Okay. And when you say tweaks, not least to prevent themselves being exposed in the wide channels, are you anticipating like massive line speed and get up and almost out to in and stop Scotland trying to go wide?
I think with this Irish team and how they defend, it's not like a blanket South Africa, Leinster, high-press, rush defence. We're not going to see that at the weekend, and that's not how they're defending. They are trying to get off the line, but they're deciding when to do it. The big area of growth I would see from the Welsh game, and you look at Carey's try, we've been exposed there...
And there's multiple ways to fix that. You can obviously look at the direct missed tackle with Balakun, but it's resulted in a two-on-one with Balakun, with Osborne closing on the edge to make it a kind of 2v1 plus one situation. But what disappointed me with that is you need to have your best defenders in the wider channels. And that's just not wingers and centers. That's also your back rowers.
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Chapter 5: How is Scotland preparing for their match against Ireland?
Now, you could say that that's slightly offset by James Ryan's loss. And again, I agree with Ian. I think he is a massive loss because I think all things being equal, I think James Ryan would have started the game this weekend and you would have seen Tygburn at number six. So Ireland were planning, as far as I'm aware, to pick three locks to target Scotland's line-out.
Ireland have the joint best line-out in the Six Nations League this year, which is kind of gone unnoticed. Paul O'Connell was under pressure last year, but it's kind of gone unnoticed how much improvements have been made there. And conversely, Scotland have the worst line-out record in the Six Nations. Now, I don't think Jack Conan weakens the line-out by any means whatsoever.
I think he's an excellent line-out forward, and if anything, he deserves to keep his place in the team last week. But I would still have question marks over Scotland's ability to live with the Ireland pack, particularly without their first-choice locks. You look at how well Jack Dempsey played last weekend. Can he go again this weekend?
He was expected to be ruled out of the remainder of the tournament. And I think, in general, that's going to be such a massive challenge for Scotland because... They hit such heights last weekend, and we saw it in terms of Ireland post-Twickenham going into the Wales game.
It's very difficult to get back up there, particularly in the space of a week, whereas Ireland had, you know, a good win over Wales. But what I felt like they didn't really show their full hand in that game either, so... I think that plays into Ireland's favour as well.
The fact Ireland are at home, Scotland's record at home in Murrayfield is generally pretty good, not quite as hot away from home. So I think all those reasons are stacked in Ireland's favour, I reckon.
Yeah, it's funny, as we kind of just found ourselves in the midst of a preview, we're talking a lot about the Scottish attack and how Irish counter it. Irish Defence counters it. And I was speaking to somebody relatively close to the camp who had a good feel for things over the years.
And they were saying that actually that does mirror how the team have approached Scotland in recent times, that there's a sense within the Irish camp listen, we'll get our opportunities against Scotland somewhere in attack. Like we'll break them here and there and we'll score points.
Actually, the huge focus, and it's a mark of respect going into Scotland games is often how are we defending is kind of the Irish mindset. So maybe it's only right that we preview the game that way. Nonetheless, on the Irish attack fronting, you on Saturday when we were on the TV, you had a package which is worth a mention again.
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Chapter 6: What are the challenges faced by Scotland's team ahead of the game?
And there was definitely an element of Ireland thinking it was going to be a bit easier than it actually was. And you could see that in particular in the first half when Ireland are going to width, when they hadn't really earned the right to go to width. They hadn't
got over the game line they hadn't created quick rook ball they hadn't shortened the welsh defense yet they were still going there thinking that the space would be there but it wasn't and that's why you saw the ball on the on the ground uh on numerous occasions in particular in that first half
I'd love to get your thoughts on this, Ian, because that was definitely my sense watching the game, having been there live and then absolutely watching it back. Is there any credibility to the notion that Ireland were holding something back? I saw a very interesting stat on Opta during the week that...
of Ireland's 177 carries 84 of them were one out runners so almost half of their carries were one out runners that isn't really Ireland's game plan in general just wondering like you having been an out half like would you go into certain games before a potential bigger game next week and maybe not show your full hand keep something back
You can definitely go in with a more simplified game plan, but my view was always that you want to show as many strings to your bow of your attack because you want to put as much seed of doubt into the opposition going, I wonder what they're going to do this week.
If you go out with kind of blunt force, yes, you're not necessarily showing your hand, but you're not exactly filling the opposition with fear either. I think that the reason why we saw the one-off carries, I think they thought that they'd get over the gain line with those one-off carries. And I don't think they expected the Welsh defence to be as good as it was.
They did get over it earlier on, like early on, didn't they? And if Jack Coleman's try was allowed, it could be very different. So maybe their game plan was actually spot on.
And you score that second, you know, the try that was disallowed, you score that, the game starts to free up because, you know, Wales have to start chasing it at that point. They can't play that kind of rope-a-dope defence. And that's where we were dangerous against England when we got those opportunities.
But no, I don't see us playing that same game plan, but I also don't think it was a setup either.
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Chapter 7: How do injuries affect Ireland's performance in the Six Nations?
Like you look at the way they exit, particularly when James Lowe isn't playing as well. It's Gibson Park who's taken that responsibility on himself. So I think if we're going to credit Gibson Park one week for how well he played in Twickenham, I think it's fair to say he didn't quite manage the game that well against Wales either. So I absolutely wouldn't pin it at all.
I'm not saying either of you guys are at all, but I wouldn't be pinning all the blame on Jack Crowley whatsoever. Okay.
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Think of the possibilities. Welcome back. One thing which and it's the cruelty of the positioning is firmly on Crowley's shoulders and nobody else's is his place kicking. So this has been ongoing for a while. There are his stats, which probably aren't where they need to be for, you know, if you're aspiring to Thomas Ramos levels.
And then equally, the nature of the misses, these kind of very memorable, almost hacks, where it's nowhere near. They tend to stick in the memory even more so than a close miss. He has been working with Dave Allred. I guess he has Sexton there as well. It's interesting they're bringing in Alred and Sexton. You know, you've got two, albeit I think you can explain to us better.
They're both of the same hymn sheet. Sexton would have worked with Alred his entire career. So he's got two very significant voices in his ear. Crowley and his place kicking. Talk to us.
Yeah, look, I think everyone has their opinion on this. So, you know, I want to be careful. Like the milkman was telling me what he thinks Crowley's doing wrong. You know, that's just the nature of it. And what did the milkman say? I think he's coming around the outside. You know, but it's...
even my manager on work was like, could he use his time more efficiently to give himself more time to kick? Could he do his breathing at the end as opposed to the start? They're all valid points. What I'd say on it, look, I've been speaking about his kicking style for probably two or three years, and same with Prendergast, who is equally as unreliable, but The analogy I'd use as a golfer, right?
You can either use cavity backs, which are very forgiving, or you can use blades, right? Blades are typically for low handicap golfers who are really accurate, can find the back of the ball easily. 18 handicapper, you're better off using cavity backs. It's easier.
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Chapter 8: What insights can we gain from the analysis of game management?
Whereas if your misses are only marginal and you're able to correct them there and then, as in you know why you've missed and how to correct it, that fills you with confidence in itself. But as a goal kicker, you can't be missing left, can't be missing the next one you miss right, or it's a snap hook.
And so look, there's a body of work there for Jack to do because he's a quality kicker out of hand and he can kick really well off the tee, but it's a lack of consistency. And what it looks like to me is there's probably lots of technical points going on up top. You know, he's thinking of maybe four, five, six, seven, eight different things throughout the week.
But then when he's getting to a game, he's probably struggling to focus on, you know,
two and ideally just one technical point that you're just laser focused on and you know in the heart of hearts if you do that one technical point well the likelihood of the kick going over is really high whereas he's thinking of three four five six different things he forgets to do one of those but it ends up being crucial and that could be as simple as your plant foot being too shallow and
And you end up coming around the back of the ball, like the milkman says, and that's a snap hook. And he's right. But there's times when the plant foot is in a perfectly good position. So it's just the lack of consistency.
That's so interesting. And I spoke to Andy Dunn years ago who had an experience with Dave Alvord and felt it was very technical as well and funny. I'm 99% sure he talked about Richie Murphy really helping him as well, that it was like just a more natural kicking action. That's not to say Dave Alvord's bad at his job.
Could you then, because the way you've explained it, everybody will be thinking, well, then it's just bone obvious you should go with the telescopic T and you should make it easier on yourself. What is the payoff of the Dave Alra, Johnny Sexton method? Why are they going the way they're going?
Being honest, Joe, that's more for them to answer because I know what I use and I knew my cues and technique inside out to be talking about. Because there's more than one way to skin a cat and Johnny's kicking percentages through his career were really high. So it worked for him, but it required more work at the same time. George Ford... Yeah, George Ford's a quality kicker.
He uses a similar technique. But a lot of work has gone into that to be able to be accurate consistently.
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