Analysis: How Rieko Ioane's lethal speed ripped apart Wales
Rieko Ioane saved his best performance of the year until last.
The World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year starred with a man-of-the-match performance in the All Blacks‘ 33-18 victory over Wales, with two tries, one try assist and four line breaks.
Of Ioane’s 10 test match tries this year, half have come from opposition mistakes and 80 per cent have come off just one phase. The 21-year-old is a strike weapon – with a knack of pouncing on a loose ball and knowing no one has the speed to catch him.
He often makes an impact against the run of play – striking in the moment of instability, which is what makes him so dangerous.
In the 61st minute of the Welsh test, Ioane picks off Dan Biggar for a morale-destroying intercept try which put the All Blacks ahead 26-10. The play was a heads-up read by Ioane, but on closer look, Ioane illustrates smart defensive awareness and teamwork with Anton Leinart-Brown.
Beauden Barrett (10) already has alignment with Dan Biggar (10) and outside reserve centre Anton Lienart-Brown (23) has no one to defend.
Leinart-Brown makes the decision to rush up on a ‘guns’ play – shooting outside-in to create pressure on Biggar. The Welshman will be forced to react in an instant and will only have Leinart-Brown in his peripheral vision.
Ioane reads that Lienart-Brown is running a blitz and stays connected – he rushes up in unison to shut down space. Ioane has the option to time a big hit on the opposite winger, or run the same angle as Lienart-Brown and cut-off the passing lane. He goes for the latter.
Biggar has to pass almost instantly – he feels Lienart-Brown coming and tries to pivot and release without looking. Ioane is already banking on the pass and cashes in – jumping the pass to score untouched at the other end.
Lienart-Brown created the opportunity and Ioane capitalised, working in unison to make a play.
Ioane the Centre-piece
Rieko Ioane has indicated his long-term goal is to grow into a test calibre centre, a position he often fills for the Blues in Super Rugby. The All Blacks are already finding ways for him to bust through the midfield, having Ioane sweep and pop-up as a midfield option as they did successfully against Wales.
The perfect example of this was the set-piece play used in the 73rd minute, which led to the game-sealing score by Ioane.
The All Blacks run a 9-10 wrap around with both midfielders as decoy screen runners.
TJ Perenara (21) wraps around Sopoaga (22) and becomes the back door option on the first screen behind Sonny Bill-Williams (12), while Ioane (11) sweeps and becomes the back door option on the second screen pass behind Lienart-Brown (23).
The Welsh backline set-piece defence had been out of sync at various points in the match, just as Lienart-Brown and Ioane rushed together to create the intercept, the Wales back line failed to work together numerous times which cost them.
Earlier in the match, Dan Biggar rushes out of the line and slides across to cover Williams. This leaves his inside defender, hooker Ken Owens, completely mismatched against Barrett – offering Barrett a running opportunity which he doesn’t take.
The midfielders also do not match the same line speed as Biggar, passively holding back which becomes the problem on the Ioane try below.
Here is the All Blacks set-piece defence in the exact same field position on the Ioane set-piece try where, unlike Wales, the outside defenders move up in sync.
Wales have reserve midfielder Jamie Roberts at 12, and their starting 12 Owen Williams defending at centre, who fails to stay aligned with his inside defenders.
Owen Williams’ lazy line speed is due in part to his anticipation of Sonny Bill Williams taking a crash ball. As Sonny Bill gets closer to the line, he pulls up expecting Roberts to make a tackle.
His decision to plant and switch off is the moment the All Blacks score. Owen Williams is circled is where he actually is, and superimposed is where he would be if he rushed up in line with Roberts – in a position to disrupt the play.
With Ioane coming around at full speed and Williams caught on the back of his heels, he has no chance of trying to catch him- in fact he fails to even get a finger on Ioane.
Rieko Ioane exposed the Welsh lack of application, landing two massive tries. It not only earned the All Blacks a win, but also showed why he was a very worthy selection of World Rugby’s Breakthrough Player of the Year.
Ioane the Ball Hawk
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 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
3 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 Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 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!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 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.
30 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.
30 Go to comments