The true extent of England players' workload this season compared to Ireland's laid bare
Last weekend provided the latest compelling evidence that Ireland’s IRFU-contracted stars have it much easier than their club-contracted England counterparts.
Whereas 15 of the 23 players Eddie Jones used in England’s one-point defeat to New Zealand started Premiership matches for 10 different clubs, just three of the 23 Joe Schmidt used in Ireland’s historic win over the All Blacks started for two provinces, three more making appearances off the bench.
Admittedly, three other November 17 heroes were unavailable through injury. Kieran Marmion (ankle) and Jack McGrath (hip) won’t be seen again until 2019, while Jordan Larmour has had a minor procedure on a knee.
But those absences can’t muddy the open secret that Ireland’s leading players don’t have the same demands placed on them by their IRFU-run provinces compared to what private English club owners expect from their Test contingent.
Last Saturday summed up the disparity, Leinster sending a near shadow selection to Dragons. The European Cup/PRO14 double winners had 13 players involved against New Zealand, yet Leo Cullen chose just one for the trip to Wales.
Even that duty wasn’t exactly tiring, Andrew Porter only appearing off the bench for the closing half-hour of a contest already decided at that juncture.
Connacht used none of their New Zealand pair, Munster used two of their four, while Ulster used three of their four.
It’s the type of rotation typical of the historical take-it-or-leave-it Irish approach to the PRO14, a tournament that doesn’t have the Premiership’s horrifying pressures of relegation, and this leeway allows the IRFU’s teams to put greater emphasis on chasing European success.
In the Premiership, only 2017 champions Exeter, who face a European double-header with Gloucester in the coming weekends, tested the depth of their squad. All five players who took on the All Blacks at Twickenham were unavailable when Chiefs visited Harlequins at the Stoop.
Saracens also dipped into their back-up, using just two of four representatives from England’s biggest November match. But Bath, Sale, Harlequins, Leicester, Northampton, Newcastle and Wasps started all the players that were on English duty against the Kiwis.
Unlike the IRFU’s player welfare management system, which is aimed at not flogging its best players over the course of a season and instead seeks to have the stars peak and glitter at specific times, the club pressures which exist in England are evident in the disparity of some current appearances/minutes played statistics.
After duty last weekend, Mark Wilson, Jamie George and George Ford have each started nine club games, a respective 720, 628 and 698 minutes of action for Newcastle, Saracens and Leicester.
Their positional Ireland counterparts from the New Zealand fixture, CJ Stander, Sean Cronin and Joey Carbery have started just six, five and six matches. Stander has featured at Munster for 255 minutes less than Wilson, Cronin at Leinster for 300 minutes less than George and Munster’s Carbery has been less busy than Ford by 191 minutes.
There are other glaring examples. Saracens’ Maro Itoje, Leicester’s Jonny May and Wasps’ Elliot Daly have each started eight club matches, featuring a respective 602, 567 and 673 minutes.
Those figures easily eclipse the schedules of their Irish rivals. Devin Toner is 145 minutes and two starts behind Itoje, Ulster’s Jacob Stockdale 314 minutes and five starts behind May, and Leinster’s Kearney 335 minutes and three starts fewer than Daly.
Of the 23s that lined up against New Zealand, there are only five head-to-heads where the England player has been less busy at his club than his opposite Ireland number, suspension putting Sale’s Chris Aston ahead of Keith Earls while injury is the reason Worcester’s Ben Te’o, who is now on pre-Christmas leave from the club following three England appearances, is way behind Bundee Aki.
These numbers are likely to remain stacked in Ireland’s favour heading into the opening match of the 2019 Six Nations championship, which starts with England coming to Dublin.
Watch: Ireland’s Johnny Sexton admits he had doubts about his head coach Joe Schmidt.
It’s nothing new. Ten weeks after last season finished with Test series success in Australia, just two of the 23 for Schmidt’s Ireland in Sydney were on provincial duty on the opening weekend of the PRO14, Leinster’s Ross Byrne and Munster’s John Ryan. In sharp contrast, 10 weeks after England’s season-ending win in South Africa, 21 of the 23 Jones used in Cape Town were in Premiership action.
Freshening up his best players has never been a headache for Schmidt and the luxury it affords set the tone for his stellar year as World Rugby’s coach of the year with an Ireland team voted World Rugby team of the year.
Coming into the 2018 Six Nations, an assessment of how busy the 41 Lions who toured New Zealand had been since that drawn 2017 series laid bare how Ireland were hot title favourites.
Nine of Ireland’s 11 Lions – 81.8 percent – were available to Schmidt for their opener in France. Only the head-ached Jared Payne and the hip-stricken Sean O’Brien weren’t in his plans.
Meanwhile, five of England’s 15 Lions – a more debilitating 33 percent – weren’t in Jones’ Sunday service thoughts for Italy. Daly, Kyle Sinckler and Jack Nowell were all in casualty, with James Haskell and Joe Marler on the naughty step after on-pitch club misdemeanours.
That was an illustration of how Irish resources are given every opportunity to be at their best for the championship. No Irish player featured in the top 10 list of busiest Lions players heading into that Six Nations.
There were eight England names and two Welsh before you got to Stander sitting in 11th spot with 14 Ireland and Munster appearances and 1,058 minutes. In the top 20 there were just four Irish names compared to 11 England and five from Wales.
Curiously, neither of the two busiest Lions – Bath duo Anthony Watson (1,440 minutes) and Jonathan Joseph (1,401) minutes – saw out the season intact. Each picked up serious injury and they have yet to be seen in 2018/19.
Veteran Irish skipper Rory Best is glad to go with the IRFU flow, only playing for Ulster when it’s thought to be in his best interests.
‘The fact is we get a little bit more time off our feet… we know there’s certain expectations, that you’re not going to go over a certain amount of match minutes, or a certain number of games, whichever the combination is.
‘We know that. You get your head around that and you prepare accordingly. You look on at the other competitions (like the Premiership) to watch rugby, not necessarily to have sympathy for any player welfare issues for them.’
This always-on IRFU green light for resting personnel at provincial level will see Kearney, Johnny Sexton, Tadhg Furlong, Toner, James Ryan and Cronin arrive at The Rec this Saturday champing at the bit, as all are without a match in the 21 days since beating New Zealand.
That’s a rest-up very different from Leinster’s last trip to Bath. Ireland were coming off the back of a despairing 2015 World Cup exit when they went to England six days after a home loss to Wasps and lost again with Leo Cullen only newly in charge.
Now the tables are firmly turned. Cullen is a European champion coach and his rested front-liners, having destroyed Wasps in October before getting to grips with New Zealand for Ireland, are poised to emphasise how the way the IRFU caters for them is a winning formula England boss Jones must envy.
CONTRASTING PICTURE
How the 2018/19 club duties of the England and Ireland 23s who faced New Zealand in November compare:
ENGLAND
673 minutes – Elliot Daly (8 starts+1 sub Wasps)
160 – Chris Ashton (2 Sale)
497 – Henry Slade (6+1 Exeter)
29 – Ben Te’o (1 Worcester)
567 – Jonny May (8 Leicester)
560 – Owen Farrell (7 Saracens)
579 – Ben Youngs (8+1 Leicester)
309 – Ben Moon (5+1 Exeter)
445 – Dylan Hartley (6+2 Northampton)
414 – Kyle Sinckler (6 Harlequins)
602 – Maro Itoje (8 Saracens)
432 – George Kruis (5+1 Saracens)
265 – Brad Shields (4 Wasps)
425 – Sam Underhill (5+3 Bath)
720 – Mark Wilson (9 Newcastle)
628 – Jamie George (9 Saracens)
280 – Alec Hepburn (3+5 Exeter)
356 – Harry Williams (5+3 Exeter)
329 – Charlie Ewels (4+1 Bath)
533 – Courtney Lawes (7 Northampton)
531 – Danny Care (7+1 Harlequins)
698 – George Ford (9 Leicester)
400 – Jack Nowell (5 Exeter)
IRELAND
338 minutes – Rob Kearney (5 Leinster)
320 – Keith Earls (4 Munster)
400 – Garry Ringrose (5 Leinster)
430 – Bundee Aki (5+1 Connacht)
253 – Jacob Stockdale (3+1 Ulster)
352 – Johnny Sexton (5 Leinster)
302 – Kieran Marmion (6+1 Connacht)
309 – Cian Healy (5+1 Leinster)
276 – Rory Best (4+1 Ulster)
331 – Tadhg Furlong (5+2 Leinster)
457 – Devin Toner (6 Leinster)
400 – James Ryan (6 Leinster)
595 – Peter O’Mahony (8 Munster)
331 – Josh van der Flier (5+1 Leinster)
465 – CJ Stander (6 Munster)
328 – Sean Cronin (5+2 Leinster)
176 – Jack McGrath (2+3 Leinster)
277 – Andrew Porter (1+8 Leinster)
483 – Iain Henderson (7 Ulster)
362 – Jordi Murphy (5 Ulster)
360 – Luke McGrath (5+1 Leinster)
507 – Joey Carbery (6+2 Munster)
465 – Jordan Larmour (6 Leinster)
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Comments on RugbyPass
Some dumb selections there. Not Porecki Not Donaldson Not Gordon Not Lonegran - both Not Nic White - Fines instead Not Liam Wright Not Paisami Definitely not Vunivalu Other than that not bad.
1 Go to commentsI've never been convinced that Patty T is a test match all black. Otherwise I probably agree it's the best side available to beat the poms. Caveat that Codie Taylor is yet to be seen and could very likely warrant selection by June. I hope that Razor brings the young loosies, half backs and locks into the training squad and develops/ selects the best
7 Go to commentsYou doing the same thing I disliked about the example of Samisoni Taukei'aho, Nick. He’s great the way he is, you’re trying to do what modern-day coaches frustrate me doing, turning everyone into the perfect athlete. Next thing you’ll be telling me you’ll bench him until he’s hit that arbitrary marker, and can’t overtake the current guy who’s doing all his workons. He’s a young Kieran Read, through and through, plays wide and has threat, mainly (and evident in your clips) through his two hand carry and speed. Just let him work on that, or whatever he wants, and determine his own future. Play God and you risk the players going sideways, like Read did, instead of being a Toutai Kefu. I mean I was in the same camp for a while, wanting our tight five to have the size, and carry ability, as the teams they were getting beat by. Now I’m starting to believe those teams just have better skilled and practiced individuals, bigger by upwards of 5kg sometimes, sure, but more influentially they have those intrinsic skills of trust and awareness. Basically our guys just didn’t know wtf they were doing. Don’t think I’m trying to prove a point here but hasn’t Caleb Clarke been in much better form this year, or does he just ‘look’ better now that he’s not always trying to use his size?
43 Go to commentsThe pack lacks a little in height for the line out and I wouldn’t be completely convinced by some of the combinations till we see it in action.
7 Go to commentsThe side is good but lacks experience. International playing bona fides udually trumps super rugby form for good reason. And incumbents are usually stuck with. Codie Taylor should start or come off the bench. B Barrett will start at fullback. Blackadder has not earned the position, Finau has. TJs experience and competitiveness earns him a starting role, Christie or Ratima off the bench
7 Go to commentsPretty good side. Scott Barrett should be the captain. Ethan Blackadder a great choice at blindside. He is going to go from strength to strength having made a couple of starts for the Crusaders. Scott Robertson rates him highly. Perenara could start a no 9.
7 Go to commentsI question and with respect. Was enough done over the last few years to bring through new blood knowing the Whitelocks and co couldn’t last forever. There should have been more done to future proof the team. New squad new coach, he and they weren’t set up well. IMO
6 Go to commentsJacobsen will definitely be in the 23
7 Go to commentsLots of discussion points, Ben, but two glaring follies IMO: 1. Blackadder at 6. Has done nothing so far this season to justify his selection. Did you see him going backwards in contact at the weekend? Simply has not got the physical presence at 6: we need a Scott Barrett or a Finau (or wildcard Ah Kuoi), beasts who are big enough to play lock, like Frizzell. If Barret played at 6, Paddy could be joined at lock by Vai’i or one of the young giants we need to promote, like Darry or Lord (if he ever gets on the field). Blackadder best left to join the queue for 7. 2. Not even a mention for Christie? Ratima gets caught at crucial times at the back of the ruck when he hesitates on the pass. The only way he starts would be if Christie and TJ are injured.
7 Go to commentsWhat a dagg in more ways than one
6 Go to commentsRegroup come back next year but sack some of the coaching team and don't be like the ABs last minute sacking. If Crusaders don't do well ABs don't do well.
5 Go to commentsProctor Definitely inform again this year had a hell of a season last year and this year is looking even better. Still mixed feelings about Ioane tho.
4 Go to commentsDagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
6 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
5 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to comments