Analysis: How Ireland used the All Blacks' own switch play against them
In the aftermath of Ireland’s heavyweight win over the All Blacks, head coach Joe Schmidt revealed that he gets inspiration for his play designs from watching other games, saying he ‘steals them’.
“I mostly steal them from other people,” he said.
“I’m always keeping my eye out. I watch Mitre 10 Cup, they’ve always got a couple of good ones.
“There was one the Highlanders played recently, I showed it to the coaches saying we could maybe do this. It’s hard to get patents on moves.”
An autopsy over Ireland’s game plan will show that Schmidt borrowed concepts from both England and even the All Blacks themselves in plotting the win over the world’s number one side.
England’s first try to Chris Ashton last week was a well-worked ‘fake’ 31 pattern, a starter play that uses three phases in one direction before switching one phase back with a planned strike.
With Owen Farrell feigning the switch and luring a couple of All Blacks back over, Ben Youngs scampers from the base of the ruck out to the blind side and fires a long ball to Ashton on a depleted short side.
Ireland’s first foray into All Blacks’ territory in the 8th minute borrowed the exact same 31 concept, faking the switch back, before attacking the exact same edge out towards Rieko Ioane.
After a receiving a penalty around halfway, Johnny Sexton kicks for touch for an attacking lineout just outside the All Blacks 22.
Ireland’s first phase is a midfield crash with Bundee Aki, before they play three more straight phases with forward runners around the corner the same way.
On the third phase, we see Garry Ringrose (13) lurking in behind the carry with Jonathan Sexton (10).
After three carries, Ireland has worked to the edge and is showing an open side setup back to the left, with one three-man pod and Ringrose attached on the side.
Just like England, they fake the open side switch and run a nice blind side pet play, with Ringrose breaking off and dropping under the halfback Kieran Marmion.
The initial pick and run by Marmion starts to pull Aaron Smith (9) and Jack Goodhue (13) over to the open side.
Goodhue has been caught folding, out of his position in the line, creating an opportunity for Ringrose to play the overlap. He draws Codie Taylor (2), leaving Josh van der Flier (7) and Keith Earls (14) with an opportunity.
Last week Rieko Ioane (11) was criticised for jamming in and giving Ashton an open look at the try line. This week, he played the overlap well, shadowing Earls and jockeying backward to allow time for Crotty to help on the inside.
This forced the play back inside, and although Ireland worked their way down to the five, the All Blacks prevented Ireland from scoring in the same fashion that England did on the planned play.
The Stockdale strike
With the game in the balance and either side struggling to gain ascendency, Ireland used a switch play that the All Blacks used only a few weeks ago.
Jacob Stockdale’s try was derived from the play the All Blacks used against the Wallabies in Yokohama, only with differences in personnel.
Aki plays the role Barrett played against the Wallabies, while two of Ireland’s loose forwards play the outside dummy lines.
This play also demonstrates how the smallest of margins can decide a high-stakes test.
From the high shot, Damian McKenzie’s setup is outside the last man, which costs him extra time in the need to track back. Ben Smith (14) in cover defence is tracking across in sweep coverage as Sexton receives the ball.
Smith reacts immediately to the switch pass to Aki, turning back whilst McKenzie’s reaction is to take three more steps forward and come to a complete stop.
With Smith rushing up to take the last man Rory Best, McKenzie’s delayed response creates vulnerability in the defence.
He doesn’t start his sprint back until a full two seconds after the switch occurs and after Smith identifies it. Stockdale already has the ball by the time McKenzie breaks into full stride.
The decision by Stockdale to chip over the line into the vacant space is a brilliantly calculated risk.
The bounce of the ball might not fall his way, but he backs his speed and isn’t afraid of trying the chip again, moments after being charged down by Kieran Read on a kick return.
McKenzie does his best but can’t stop Stockdale reaching out and scoring. The slightest hesitation in coverage by Damian McKenzie bought Stockdale an extra couple of seconds to regather the bounce and gave him an open look in the backfield.
It doesn’t mean that this try is McKenzie’s fault as he may have scored regardless. However, it shows the speed at which this game is played means the smallest of windows could open up an opportunity, which is what happened.
Even though he was on the opposite side of the field, McKenzie gave Ireland a small window, which Stockdale took full advantage of. The All Blacks failed to take their own windows of opportunities, of which Schmidt identified three key ones in the post-match as pivotal moments where last-ditch Irish defence held.
In a heavyweight battle between the two best sides in the world, in the end, a borrowed play by Ireland from the All Blacks proved to be the difference.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments