Former hooker Bernard Jackman believes that Ireland have so far failed to adapt to World Rugby’s law changes and the current trends in the game.
The Irishmen went into the Six Nations with a chance of making history, becoming the first team to claim a three-peat after title successes in 2023 and 2024.
They appeared on course to achieve that when they defeated England, Scotland and Wales to lift the Triple Crown, but a heavy defeat to France put pay to their hopes.
Ireland then followed that loss up with a disappointing performance in the victory over Italy to complete an ultimately subpar Six Nations campaign.
World Rugby’s law changes
Jackman partly attributes their inability to go three in a row to the governing body’s law changes, with Simon Easterby’s side being left slightly behind as a result.
“World Rugby has never been so ambitious or radical when it comes to tinkering with the laws. The motivation is very clear: make the game faster, more exciting and safer — and all at the same time,” he wrote in his Irish Independent column.
The respected pundit firstly looked at the aerial contest, an area he states Ireland has been lacking in over the past couple of international windows.
“The level of kicking has stayed the same, but the type of kick has changed dramatically,” Jackman wrote.
“The aerial contest is back and the scrutiny match officials are putting on the support or ‘escort’ lines from the retreating players to the point where the ball is due to land is a brilliant initiative.
“From an Irish point of view, we seem to be less comfortable in the air than we once were, which has given our opponents entry points into games.
“We are not the most instinctive team nor the most dangerous in broken play, so this is an area that will focus Andy Farrell’s mind when he comes back from his Lions sabbatical.”
Jackman also addressed the ‘Bomb Squad’, where the 6-2 split has started to be regularly used by Six Nations sides.
Ireland have tried it on occasion but it has not tended to be as effective for them, so they have generally stuck with the traditional 5-3.
France’s 7-1 bench
However, their bench was brutally exposed by the French, who followed the Springboks’ example and went with a 7-1 split in their final three matches of the tournament.
“For all the talk about the morality of a 7-1 split on the bench since the Springboks used it in the World Cup, not many teams have taken the risk associated with it,” Jackman wrote.
“Scotland went 6-2 against Ireland and an early head clash between Darcy Graham and Finn Russell resulted in them losing any cohesion that they would have got from a more standard 5-3 bench.
“Certain countries are more suited to a 7-1 or a 6-2 bench. We saw France and England make them their norm. Both have more impact forwards than us.”
Jackman therefore believes that it is up to Ireland and its governing body – the IRFU – to act and ultimately adapt so that they are able to compete while the game continues to change.
“We should be able to get back among the best in the world at aerial contests. We haven’t any obvious hybrid players or the strength in depth in the forwards to go 6-2 or 7-1 yet, but that can and will be developed,” he added.
“We have two years to get our squad ready for the next RWC and if we are to be successful, we will have to follow the trends of the game.”
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/bernard-jackman-urges-irfu-to-act-after-ireland-fail-to-adapt-to-world-rugbys-radical-changes
