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Pocock's herculean performance and the scariest Wallaby back row for Ireland

By Ben Smith
David Pocock

The Wallabies desire to play two of their best players who both play the same position manifested again in the latest edition of ‘Pooper’, this time with Pocock wearing the six jersey instead of the eight.

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He responded with another standout performance, a game-changing force at the breakdown that the Irish couldn’t stop from influencing their flow. Joe Schmidt conceded post-match that having him back made a big difference for the Wallabies.

“Pocock put a lot of pressure on the ruck. He always makes a big difference to the team,” he said.

His first contest on the ball resulted in a nine-second recycle for Ireland, yes that’s nine seconds. A three-man cleanout could not effectively wipe him off the ball on that occasion. His next jackal attempt took a four-man cleanout to arrest his grasp on the tackled player and it still took five seconds for Murray to get his pass away.

Here in lies the effectiveness of having the greatest fetcher ever on the field. The player numbers required to secure the ball when Pocock is around starts to influence Ireland’s attacking structure. Like a black hole, he sucks in surrounding players that would otherwise be lining up for the next carry, putting the opposition out of sync for the next phase. The extra time Pocock creates also allows the defensive line to get set and turn up the dial on line speed, which we saw the Wallabies use to pull off some huge hits.

With this double-headed snake, the Wallabies openside duo is able to just focus in on what they each do best. It seems that by not playing Openside, Pocock is actually competing at breakdown more and the Wallabies want it that way. With Michael Hooper taking on a large load of frontline contact work, Pocock is able to spend more time roaming and striking at isolated victims.

“We talked a lot this week of how we wanted that to work (back row combination),” captain Michael Hooper said.

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“I’ve played with Dave a lot now, it was no surprise to me some of the stuff he was doing out there.

His early form in Super Rugby at the Brumbies showed a preference to strike the breakdown on first phase, averaging around 7.5 attempts to jackal the ball per match. Against Ireland, he had eight in the first half alone and 13 in total, with most coming after the first phase.

There were two reasons for fewer attempts on the first phase – at scrum time Hooper is still latching as the openside, so he has the fastest line of travel to the first ruck and will compete instead. Pocock will set up at number eight and follow in behind, but often stays out of it. In full 7-man lineout packages, Pocock is jumping at ‘two’ towards the front, which takes him out of play if the ball is moved to the middle of the field. As a result, Pocock tracks wider and looks for opportunities later on.

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Positioning on the edges has two benefits. The first is matchup advantages against backs. They are often spreading the ball wide after two phases of forward pods in the 1-3-3-1 pattern which provides ruck contests against weaker wingers and fullbacks, and possibly only 1-man or 2-man cleanouts. The second benefit is, Conor Murray often runs switch plays back to the short side, which plays right back into Pocock’s hands by potentially giving him another crack at the ball. One more than one occasion he had two ruck contests in less than a minute. With Hooper and Timu adequate defenders in close ruck channels, he can spend less time in the trenches and more time wider.

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He won four clean steals (two were nullified by penalties conceded) and won one further penalty for a player not releasing. In all of those situations, Ireland was only able to get two or fewer cleaners to the ruck. In order to keep the ball more, they are going to have to be much more aware of where he is and play away from him as much as possible, especially in areas where points are on offer. Two of his turnovers probably took points away from Ireland in the first test.

Another reason the Wallabies want Pocock attacking the breakdown as much as possible is this – when he does eventually win a turnover it creates a transition phase to attack from which Ireland struggled to defend against.

The Wallabies created two tries from turnover ball, the first was from loose possession on a box kick which was secured by none other than Pocock. The Wallabies spread it wide to expose the scrambling defence and Foley scored in the corner two phases after. The disallowed ‘Folau’ try was created by flooding a ruck with defenders and winning turnover ball, with Beale catching Ireland scrambling again.

Michael Cheika will know now after the first test that Ireland simply cannot stop Pocock, only attempt to minimise him. However, Cheika holds one trick up his sleeve he can play to really cause havoc for Ireland – double down and start Pete Samu at Number 8.

The Crusaders loose forward came on as a blood/HIA replacement and immediately made an impact – winning a ruck penalty for not releasing on his first jackal attempt. When he did finally come on as a substitution, he constantly found good contests and made a nuisance of himself.

A back-row of Pocock, Hooper, and Samu would be a nightmare for Ireland with three superb ball pilfers.

Ireland was not far off in the first test, and both sides will make adjustments for the second. If Cheika stays ahead of the game, the Wallabies will go along way towards a two nil lead.

In other news:

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Trevor 1 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

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Bull Shark 5 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

Of the rugby I’ve born witness to in my lifetime - 1990 to date - I recognize great players throughout those years. But I have no doubt the game and the players are on average better today. So I doubt going back further is going to prove me wrong. The technical components of the game, set pieces, scrums, kicks, kicks at goal. And in general tactics employed are far more efficient, accurate and polished. Professional athletes that have invested countless hours on being accurate. There is one nation though that may be fairly competitive in any era - and that for me is the all blacks. And New Zealand players in general. NZ produces startling athletes who have fantastic ball skills. And then the odd phenomenon like Brooke. Lomu. Mcaw. Carter. Better than comparing players and teams across eras - I’ve often had this thought - that it would be very interesting to have a version of the game that is closer to its original form. What would the game look like today if the rules were rolled back. Not rules that promote safety obviously - but rules like: - a try being worth 1 point and conversion 2 points. Hence the term “try”. Earning a try at goals. Would we see more attacking play? - no lifting in the lineouts. - rucks and break down laws in general. They looked like wrestling matches in bygone eras. I wonder what a game applying 1995 rules would look like with modern players. It may be a daft exercise, but it would make for an interesting spectacle celebrating “purer” forms of the game that roll back the rules dramatically by a few versions. Would we come to learn that some of the rules/combinations of the rules we see today have actually made the game less attractive? I’d love to see an exhibition match like that.

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