Analysis: How the World Cup-winning Wallabies' sides of the 90s have inspired Ireland's modern game under Joe Schmidt
Joe Schmidt’s approach will linger in Ireland long after he has left the green hilled shores. His game plan and his methods have proven so successful that they are embodied in the ethos of the Irish team for the long haul.
Whilst most Irish teams of the past were born of passion, fire and brimstone, the Schmidt Irish team is born of intelligence, discipline, accuracy and detail, detail, detail, and more detail.
This approach netted them well deserved wins against the All Blacks, an all-time high World Rugby ranking and silverware. This came not by fault, but by design.
In this article, we will look at the on-field approach of Schmidt, how certain elements mirror a World Cup-winning coach who boasted a 70 per cent-plus win record against the All Blacks, and the moves passed down to the Irish team.
(Continue reading below…)
Ireland and the Rod MacQueen Wallabies
There are significant similarities between Schmidt and MacQueen, head coach of the 1999 World Cup-winning Wallabies. Under his tutelage, Australia went from whipping boys in 1997 to World Cup winners, Lions tour series victors and the best team in the world.
These accolades and achievements, however, were merely the tip of the iceberg. When MacQueen inherited the Wallabies in 1997, he set in place lessons learnt and honed from his successful business ventures, principles of Sun Tzu, his Surfboat days at Colloroy, and the style of his Super Rugby team, the Brumbies. The 90 per cent underwater caused 10 per cent of success you see at the very tip.
While Schmidt and MacQueen’s off-field approaches are near identical, we instead focus on the similarities between their on-field approaches so we can see the practical elements in play.
The Brumbies were the Super Rugby team coached by MacQueen in their first two seasons. Wildly expected to be the poor cousin of the Reds and Waratahs, Australia’s long-established teams, MacQueen prepared and modelled them on the philosophies of Kaizen, Sun Tzu, and developed a style of play based on possession, speed, and relentless attack.
The result made the Brumbies the premier rugby team in the Australian conference, making the final in their second year of inception. Their style of play was designed to repeatedly target the fringes, recycling and attacking with speed to put fringe defenders to the ground.
They would then hit this thinning area with rapid pick and go, switches and inside passes around the ruck through gaps created from prior phases. Only then would they move the ball out wide. The constant improvement and innovation MacQueen preached led to a series of plays targeting this area.
The Irish style of play isn’t exclusively based on the Brumbies, but there were very strong similarities, especially in the early days of Schmidt’s tenure. Some of these plays are identical to the ones used all those years ago.
Ahead of the ball work
Schmidt is a perfectionist in his own right. The reason that Schmidt has taken bits and pieces of MacQueen’s philosophy is explained in the on-field work.
MacQueen and Schmidt were and are both champions of obstruction with their decoy runners. Rather than stop, their decoys run into the line to hit the defender, advertently creating space for their penetrators.
Ireland are masters at this. Their decoy runners will continue running into the line to stop drifts and targeting individual inside shoulders. A concept taken from rugby league, it has become common practice in today’s game. With Schmidt’s detail, however, Ireland’s decoy runners have dedicated ‘off-ball’ roles in the interference of the defensive line close to NFL style plays.
Australia were also very guilty of this in their rumble plays while picking and going rapidly and X runs as we will see later. Their cleaners would play through the ruck, allowing the ball to be picked up and ran into space as long as they were quick enough.
Shielding
Using their body as a shield while passing was a key development in the Wallabies under MacQueen. As the Wallaby game plan involved flooding the channel by having multiple receivers running short off the carrier, the defence could not clearly see whom the pass was intended for until the last second. This gave the penetrator the best chance of getting through.
We can see it here, how many times the Wallabies pass behind their bodies and how many times they turn into contact. This would draw men going into contact, meaning the off-load behind would be to runners moving into potential space which drew the defence in from the outside.
The use of shielding in today’s game is very rare. Most passes happen in front of the body and since the mid-2000s there have been only two teams doing it as an established principle, Ireland and Australia.
Ireland’s use of shielding in their set-piece play is one of their best innovations and a perfect example of why it was originally developed.
This move, termed by Tadhg Furlong as “Joe’s move” doesn’t work without Furlong’s shield pass. If the pass is made in front, Bundee Aki is caught. We can see CJ Stander, as the first decoy, remaining behind the line. This is for two reasons.
- To restrict the movement of the lineout tail-gunners closely and prevent Aki being caught;
- To remain the support option for Aki.
In this move, we see Jack Clifford drift out by the running option of Jonathan Sexton. Furlong’s shield pass is made very early in his turn, so he isn’t hit before it is made. On top of this, his pass is so flat that not only can Clifford not see it, he can’t get back in time.
Australia also incorporated the shield into their style of play between 2013 and 2014.
Whilst this demonstrates its set-piece usage, the Wallabies of 2014 used exactly the same style of passing demonstrated by the MacQueen Wallabies, with body angles pointing backwards and the passes being a mixture of back and reverse passes to hard runners off the carrier.
Why was this? Their then coach Ewen McKenzie was as a player coached by and then coached alongside MacQueen. He was only given a year in charge, but towards the end, as his philosophies were becoming embedded, the Wallabies played some incredibly impressive rugby.
The On-Field Moves
Fringe Plays
Commonly used in the MacQueen Wallaby sequence play, these plays are classic Schmidt strike plays having been used before in the Leinster colours. Yet, they were seen before in the early days of the MacQueen Wallabies being an attacking move to target the fringes of opposition defences.
Variation One
Variation Two
These plays are near identical to one another and, before Schmidt arrived on the scene, had for the most part been forgotten. The effectiveness of Schmidt’s teams at executing them means this is no longer the case.
X Runs
X Runs were a key Wallaby play of the MacQueen era that utilised ‘ahead of the ball’ work mentioned in the prior section. They were very effective, so much so that Graham Henry called the referees’ attention to them during the 2001 Lions tour for their subtle usage of obstruction. This worked as a key try to Toutai Kefu from this very move was brought back.
Their use in the modern game is incredibly rare but in the past, X Runs were especially effective against what is now structured as the ‘Rush 10’ defence. This defence is composed of the three defenders closest to the ruck rushing up, with the fourth defender sitting back, causing the formation of a dog-leg or triangle. This defence is currently employed as default with New Zealand and England and in moments by many other teams.
By running plays to split the point man and his inside/outside defender, breaks can be made here. The X Run is one such play. We see the move here, performed against France in the 1999 World Cup final.
Australia did their homework and used this move against this target. It was done very flat to the line attacking on an individual rather than zonal level, allowing the Wallabies to use clear shepherding without attracting much attention. Ireland have brought these moves back, in this case aiming to target the same triangle as the Aussies do.
Here we see Robbie Henshaw coming in on the hard angle to target the tailgunner prop. Henshaw’s pass is made to Keith Earls too early, having not committed the prop’s shoulder. On top of this, the outside options have not been close enough to the play to interest the outside defensive line, resulting in Jonathan Davies turning in.
The result is Earls was confronted by both the defenders who should have been taken out with this play by the marked attackers. A year later, we see another variation of the play.
It is not done well, Henshaw in this has to force Dan Biggar to bite on him. A run at Biggar’s inside shoulder followed by a back pass could have provided Simon Zebo with the space he needed.
The lines with which the Wallaby version were run were timed to perfection. This move has the potential to be incredibly effective with a little fine-tuning. Schmidt has developed the X Run variations because of this insight. All can find their origins in the Wallaby X move and they have been used very intelligently.
Greganisms
George Gregan, along with Stephen Larkham was the attacking catalyst for much of Australia’s attack play. The scrum-half ran the base of the ruck brilliantly, scooting to the line to commit players before combining with forward and back three runners with inside passes and switches.
The amount of deception found in these plays was extraordinary. Off the ball work by the outside men to encourage drift defenders and weak shoulders, late changes in angle and clever lines and switches, players obstructing the fold of players from one side of the ruck to the other, not to mention the innovative use of the back three to strike at these points for the greatest effect.
Ireland have shown moments very similar to this.
The back passes and the inside switches are very similar to Gregan, especially when Ireland’s first example is from a maul off a set-piece. Australia’s use from set-piece netted the try that put the 1999 World Cup final beyond doubt.
Schmidt has revolutionised the intelligence and decision making of the Irish nines. When to pass, when and how to obstruct, when to scoot, when to kick, when to dummy, when and why to run laterally and most importantly, how these things add up to improve the effect.
While Schmidt is his own man – and a sensational rugby coach – we can see subtle signs that suggest MacQueen may have had an influence on the maestro New Zealander.
The greatest similarities can be found in their off-field approach, both being advocates of Kaizen, Sun Tzu and the implementation of cultures that consistently strive for excellence.
The approach has worked and while Ireland are in a bit of a dip now, the intelligence behind this team is truly remarkable and should pave way for the future.
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Comments on RugbyPass
Bulls by 5. Plus another 50.
3 Go to commentsJohan Goosen avatar. Cute. Surely someone at RP knows how to do a google image search?
3 Go to commentsCan’t these games play a little earlier? Asking for a friend.
3 Go to commentsIt’s impressive that we can see huge stadiums with attendance in the 40 000 to 50 000 region. It shows how popular this competition is becoming. What is even more impressive is the massive growth in broadcast viewership. The URC is one of the two best leagues in the World, the other being the Top14.
7 Go to commentsChristie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
45 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
7 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
45 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
45 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to commentsThis is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?
35 Go to commentsWow, didn’t realise there was such apathy to URC in SA, or by Champions Cup teams. Just read Nick’s article on Crusaders, are Sharks a similar circumstance? I think SA rugby has been far more balanced than NZs, no?
4 Go to comments