SINCE JACOB STOCKDALE’S breakthrough in 2017, Ireland’s first-choice back three has felt very much cut and dried.
If fit, the young Ulster tyro combined with the experience of Rob Kearney and Keith Earls made for a brilliantly balanced setup and the trio duly delivered a Grand Slam and the 2018 win over New Zealand.
With elder statesmen Earls and Kearney struggling with knocks early this week, it appeared as though Joe Schmidt was being forced into a contingency plan.
Yet speaking after this morning’s pivotal bonus-point win over Scotland in Pool A of the Rugby World Cup, Schmidt railed against the assertion that today’s starting back-field of Andrew Conway, Jordan Larmour and Stockdale was a back-up plan at all.
“We hadn’t made any decisions earlier in the week so they were first-choice selections and they played like that,” said the Kiwi, instinctively looking towards room for improvement.
“They made a few errors, but very difficult conditions out there. Even prior to the rain, there was a little bit of film on the ball. It was quite slippery, so it is going to be one of those challenges if the weather comes in like that.”
Conway proved a very effective weapon for Ireland in those slippery conditions, his aerial ability allowing him to contest the excellent high balls sent up by Conor Murray. The adopted Munster man played a part in the lead up to tries for James Ryan and Tadhg Furlong before his leap and subsequent finish delivered the bonus point score.
Larmour, a source of concern in the absence of Kearney’s experience, swept up the back-field with little fuss; reacting sharply to gather a Stuart Hogg chip early on and also beating the Exeter Chief in the air.
“He looked dangerous and opened them up one time and got in behind them,” added Schmidt.
“We probably made 10 line-breaks and Jordan and Andrew were the recipients of a couple of those, one for Andrew to score and one for Jordan to open people up.
“I thought he covered the space really well because they’re so dangerous on the edges Scotland and he closed those channels down really well, both those guys. But so did Jacob Stockdale.”
Schmidt naturally moved to highlight Stockdale’s shuddering hit on Hogg after he shot out of the line to kill a Scottish attack. The Ulster star, who was suddenly the senior man in Ireland’s back three with 22 caps – seemed to enjoy the moment as much as his international tries.
“My defence is something that has been talked about quite a bit,” said Stockdale, “and it was good to actually get a few good shots on Stuart Hogg. It was good to get a good, solid defensive performance in.”
Nailed 💪#RWC2019 #IREvSCO pic.twitter.com/PnRD5igyEG
— eir Sport (@eirSport) September 22, 2019
The 23-year-old also showed flashes of his ability in attack, most noticeably a trademark chip-and-regather that created an opening up the left flank before an excellent counter-ruck rescued the situation for Scotland.
“All the wingers in our setup would be practising those, wee grubbers ahead and kicks ahead because they are really dangerous kicks, as today showed.
“It’s something we are practising all the time. It isn’t always going to work out for you but sometimes it does.”
While the back three performed like a first-choice unit, the tone of the victory was undoubtedly set by Ireland’s pack. The tight five bullied and thwarted the Scots at every turn and Gregor Townsend’s men had no answer for the physicality.
“Whenever you’ve got a pack that’s going forward and you’ve got guys like Iain Henderson running over people, it makes it a lot easier because you’re always on the front foot.”
Stockdale wasn’t quite ready to claim this side is peaking at precisely the right time after a brilliantly clinical victory — “ah, it’s one game. It’s hard to tell… but we’re happy with the performance’ — but this Ireland squad are happy to embrace the sense that they are proving doubters wrong after the concern raised by their disappointing Six Nations and the August drubbing at Twickenham,
“The England game didn’t reflect what we are like as a team at all and that was really disappointing for us.
“We’ve turned around now and beaten Wales back-to-back and beaten Scotland in our first game. I’m not saying that we are world-beaters now but we are going in the right direction and going nicely.”
We hear everything, you know? We see everything. It’s just one of those things. If you have a bad defensive day then people say you can’t defend. You have a bad attacking game and people say you’re not ruthless in attack.
“That’s just part of sport. I kind of liked it whenever people slagged me off because then I get to prove them wrong.”
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When you can pretty much predict the 1/4 final pairings after one round of games it doesn’t really say much about the competition.
@Shimmy Shammy: think you’d have a pretty good go at doing the same at soccer World Cup to be fair! Look at England’s draw at soccer World Cup …utterly predictable
@BMJF: Not really true though. Far more competition in soccer. The group stages in the rugby world cup don’t particularly serve any purpose.
@Shimmy Shammy: The whole purpose of the group stages is the opportunity for these sides to play Tier 1 nations – the problem it isn’t happening enough between world cups, the answer is definitely not reduce the number of teams in the World Cup. There will be a upset or two before we are done, hopefully at Englands expense
Life is just simply better when the world cup is on !
@JillyBean: it desperately need a shock result. Naming the quarter finalists and quite possibly the semi finalists by this weekend isn’t great…..
Am I not right in saying that only 8/9 teams have won the Football World Cup and therefore it’s equally as predictable given its lengthy history?
Crazy to believe people still belittle the quality of the the teams in the RWC.
Germany beat Brazil 7-1 in a semi final not too long ago, so does that equate to to a 49-7 win in rugby?
@Geoff Speiran: You are clutching at straws there Geoff. Only 4 countries have won the Rugby World Cup and correct me if Im wrong, but only 9 teams have ever made the actual quarter finals. Thats a sensational statistic. In soccer you have had the likes of Senegal, Turkey, Ghana, Ireland, South Korea, Croatia, Bulgaria, Sweden etc. making the latter stages, would never happen in rugby
@Frank Scanlon: You have a point but it’s worth acknowledging that there has been 21 Soccer world cups. This is the 9th Rugby one. Hopefully, teams like Fiji, Japan, USA will start making these breakthroughs with greater regularity. Japan could beat Scotland which would be great for the development of the game.
@Frank Scanlon: But the game is only growing and from a much smaller playing pool, you don’t critique Cricket/Rugby League/Basketball in the same way, why is the football world cup the pinnacle of international sports? When you consider there’s 50 years between the beginning of the football World Cup and RWC it’s hard to draw direct comparisons and who knows whether the 2067 RWC will be exponential more competitive.
@Frank Scanlon: yes but soccer is the no.1 sport in pretty much all these countries. It’s also a bit easier to scrape out of a group stage in soccer, ala Ireland, by parking the bus for a draw or sneaking an odd goal from a setpiece. It’s nigh on impossible for the smaller, less well coached teams to fluke a draw in rugby, you have the width of the pitch to defend, not a smallish rectangle with a net.
@Cian Nolan: Thats neither here nor there as in the first 8 FIFA World Cups 25 different nations had finished in the top 8 of the tournament. I’m sorry but some people are just delusional about the international appeal of rugby. For example I was in Argentina during the last World Cup when they were in the semi final and you would hardly know the game was on, people didnt care, and they are one of the top 8 or 9 nations. Rugby is irrelevant in Italy and even in Australia its way behind Rugby League and AFL
@Geoff Speiran: I absolutely would critique those sports in the same way, Rugby League World Cup in particular is a joke. RWC will not be more competitive in 2067, maybe less so, as any developing nations will more than likely put more resources into sevens as its the Olympic format
@Cian Nolan: the thing is it’s rigged against African teams in football but rigged against Tier 2 teams in rugby .. Japans win against SA in 2015 , Fiji v Wales in 2007 and Samoa VS Wales in 91 are the only true surprise results . If it wasn’t for bonus points the Argentinians could wave goodbye already .
@Tim Magner: Fair point in one sense but the gulf between the top 8/9 in rugby and the next tier is absolutely huge, in general you still have to be somewhere close to the same level in any sport to get a result. Soccer’s lower scoring nature obviously lends to more surprise results, rugby is similar to hurling in the sense that skill differences are amplified on the scoreboard and again its 8/9 teans competing. But to me looking in it seems that rugby is making zero effort to get any other nations to the top table, and on top of that refereeing decisions always seem to favour the top sides just to make sure the natural order is not disrupted
@Frank Scanlon: what exactly does FIFA do for the smaller nations in soccer? All the poorer tier 2 nations in rugby get coaches payed for by the wru. Rugby is a far more physical & attritional sport than soccer, and a lot more technical with things like scrums, lineouts, rucks etc. Of course there’s only 8/9 teams really compete at top end, and they’re the ones with the player base, the squads that can cope with injuries. A soccer team can go a long way in any tournament with 10 solid journeymen & a star who can get the goals, see Portugal. Rugby a bit different
@Frank Scanlon: But given that 15 a side game is more lucrative surely the growth of 7’s will just allow more players a pathway into the 15’s game for other nations and therefore diversity the sport.
I agree there are massive challenges but how many World Cup sports do you tune in to? Granted Rugby is behind others but I implore you to find me a more competitive example in the men’s category.
@Frank Scanlon: 4 teams in 8 world cups as opposed to 9 teams in 21 football world cups…it’s actually 12 teams that have made quarters, Canada once, Western Samoa and Fiji have both made it twice each. Japan are on the cusp and the USA should feature in the future too. And I’d agree with another comment, you can be a terrible team in football and park the bus, but that’s almost impossible to do in rugby where the fatigue is far greater. I love both world cups, I just don’t get this bashing, there are terrible teams like Costa Rica and Iran in the football World Cup, it’s very predictable how their matches will go too!
@Padraig O’M: Iran were actually quite good in the last world cup and should have bet Portugal to go through. Poor example.
@Padraig O’M: Yeah poor example regards Iran and Costa Rica did quite well in previous World Cup. My mistake I didnt realise Canada, Samoa and Fiji had made the quarters but in a sense it only proves that rugby has actually regressed in terms of the number of teams capable of being competitive. Its hard to argue that the current tournament is not extremely predictable. Barring an unlikely upset win for Argentina or France over England, the only thing we are really left wondering is whether Australia or Wales will top their pool.
Sensational….yawn. Extremely predictable. Massively understrength competition and one sided matches that will still be pontificated on by the rugby media.
@Tom Bout: yawn is right! a few days in and the 9 potential quarter finalists have been filtered down to 8 and almost a month of meaningless matches to come.
Nothing so wrong with only having 9 competitive teams. In a high scoring sport it would be hard to get more than that but lobbing 20 of them in to a round robin competition is crazy. Imagine if hurling threw 20 teams in to the All Ireland series. No body would pay to see Kilkenny vs Meath in hurling, it would be a massacre. Serious marketing by World Rugby to sell this tournament and these kind of one-sided games!
@Kevin McMahon: so teams should never play against superior opposition? Seems like a great way to stifle the growth of smaller nations teams
It was mixed feelings seeing the Georgia coach celebrate their 2nd try in a near 30 point defeat so enthusiastically today. Entirely understandable considering the structural and experience disadvantages they have compared to tier 1 teams but really disappointing for the competition when the mid-level teams show no real belief in their ability to compete and are effectively happy if they manage to avoid humiliation.
Rugby won’t continue to grow with the same 10 teams playing each other endlessly, it needs new teams to emerge and they need the same player access and competitive fixtures as the tier 1 nations.
I really hope Japan or Fiji can cause an upset and make things interesting!
@Rochelle: the real thing that’s holding Georgia back is the lack of relegation and promotion in the six nations. They consistently dominate the second tier and rarely get the opportunity to play the tier 1 teams.
@Rochelle: Georgia and Fiji can play at tier 1 level if given the opportunity for test rugby on a regular basis. What about a 7 Nations? or adding Fiji to make southern hemi a 5mations?
@Dave O Keeffe: why can’t we have a 7 Nations? Who said it has to be six?? It used to be 5. Relegation would only destroy the team dropping down..left with no one to compete against & it they’d destroy EUROPEAN tier 2 or 3 teams which is pointless
@BMJF: well if Italy for example got relegated they’d have a year to regroup and rebuild, get a few wins and possibly come back up. Georgia would get a year playing against tier 1 teams and at the very least see the level they aspire to. Tier 2 teams would also benefit massively from playing against a relegated tier 1 team, testing themselves against that level, seeing the difference in quality or lack thereof. It let’s everyone see where they’re at. Right now the 5th ranked tier 2 European team are ahead against Samoa in the second half.
@BMJF: my issue with making it a 7 nations means that it’s always the same protected 7. There’s no growth for the 8th ranked team.
Sensational amount of RWC articles!!!
Rugby is over rated
What a predictable boring article , yawn yawn
@Frank Tennant: whereas your comment, Frank – what an absolute fücking zinger. Wow. What I’d give to be able to write like that.
I’m not sure when they hand out Pulitzers but you should keep that night free I’d say.
Glad to see you are enjoying Japan Sean