Behemoth Manu Tuilagi’s doesn’t make England’s squad for the Welsh visit to Twickenham this Sunday so he may well tog out in Italy’s Stadio Olimpico next week. That’ll certainly open the doors for a serious scoreboard in England’s favour. In the meantime Ireland will be back in Paris where France can be awful and still beat anyone.
Remember in the glorious 2000 fixture over France: Brian O’Driscoll scored three sensational tries and yet Ireland only won 25-27.
Ireland are 21 points ahead of England, which will most likely shift to 36 points this weekend. England and Tuilagi could reasonably make this up over Italy. So with the Championship in mind, tomorrow is a must win, ideally by 30ish points. So, do Ireland bring a canon to the gunfight or rely on pace and precision?
Ignoring the previous brilliance of Italian legend Sergio Parisse to focus on his Scottish match and indeed Italy’s performance is the answer. Parisse and others are rested tomorrow, which may be no bad thing for Italy as both he and young outhalf Tommaso Allan were underwhelming in many facets last week. And the Italian team have technical issues which must be exposed through precision and pace.
Ireland’s offensive hits, especially from second phase onwards, should keep the Italian ball-carrier behind the gain line and his immobile support out of influence.
It’s the next wave of Irish defence, the line speed, and crucially the hit that’ll completely stunt Italian flow and push Luciano Orquera into a kicking game; our back three have no issues there.
Multiphase plays
In attack, Italy lean on one-out multiphase plays, limiting error levels and aiming to get at weak shoulders. Their centres, especially Gonzalo Garcia, are very comfortable in traffic.
However the Italians are very exposed at their own breakdown, where there is little evidence the support runners arrive with a coordinated method of securing the ball on their terms. Peter O’Mahony would have loved this.
They are also disappointing at the breakdown when defending, where only the most obvious steal option is hunted.
They are either unable or unaware of methods we take for granted. It’s possibly a team tactic to disengage from the evolving ruck (Parisse especially keen to stay off) but dangerous against precise teams.
Scotland were unable to consistently punish Italy; Ireland will have less difficulty, with more space for Conor Murray and Eoin Reddan; ditto England.
Scotland’s John Beattie, having secured a poor Italian clearance kick, was meekly double-teamed by prop Martin Castrogiovanni and secondrow Josh Furno. Parisse stood supervising, accepting Beattie’s success, before slipping away into the open pillar position for the next phase. Jamie Heaslip and co would simply choke-tackle Beattie in a three-man coordinated play; creating a turnover.
Article source: http://www1.skysports.com/rugby-union/news/12504/9134089/england-saxons-freddie-burns-display-defended-by-jon-callard
Ireland need to rack up points against Italy
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