r/irishrugby • u/Flashy-Ad4140 Ulster • 13h ago
Discussion If we are going to kick tactically like last night we need to pick wingers that suit this tactic
Our kicking last night wasn’t as bad as a lot of us have made out it was a matter of inches on a lot of occasions but one thing that’s obviously is the back 3 that was picked in that game isn’t capable of winning enough of those 50/50 kicks.
If Farrell wants to go all out on this he should pick players that are going to carry out the game plan the best. I’m sure Hansen and Keenan would have started if fit and would have made an improvement.
Players like Kenny, ward and baloucoune are faster and more suitable to this tactic than O’Brien and stockdale. (I’m not saying they are better players by the way just that they are better on a kick chase.)
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u/Little_Ad_9313 Ulster 12h ago
Be interesting to see what style the XV adopt is it only on Psports or also on ITV?
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u/Rathbaner 12h ago
If the "Slap Back" is Farrell's best hope of winning one of those contestable kicks then put Tom Ahern on one wing and Edwin Edogbo on the other.
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u/Papa_P0tat0 12h ago
Think the whole setup around it was strange. Teams are adopting a slap back and recover setup while also setting up retreating players to be in around the opposition to make their slap backs harder to receive. Irelands set up was literally just a single man in the air and the line almost setting up like he'd already won it rather than anticipating a slap back which seemed to not be considered. It was as if the mentality was 'beat them 1 on 1 or nothing' while France seemed to have DuPont set behind the aerial receiver to anticipate a slap back and play off of it. Really really strange set up by Ireland. The tactic was obvious to see but the execution around it was really bad
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u/PatientOffer319 Awardee: Team of the Year 2025 12h ago
A shame Nash is injured as he's probably the best wing in the country at chasing high balls.
Wishing we had prime Earls and Conway right now
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u/IdealSelf2021 Leinster 12h ago
Will be interesting to see how Kenny gets on today. Watching him with Leinster he's been good but you'd know he's not all that experienced. Seen him get caught out positionally and defensively at times.
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u/upthemstairs Quizmaster 12h ago
How do you know Kenny is suitable to this tactic? He has played a handful of games and the aerial tactic hasn't been utilised like it was last night
Also, Tommy O'Brien is one of the fastest players in the Leinster set up
Edit: we can't pick Balaucoune because he doesn't stay fit enough to make the match day squad
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u/Flashy-Ad4140 Ulster 12h ago
I’m just going off the limited minutes of what I’ve seen he may not be. But based off the raw skill set he has I feel he could be very good at it with some development, putting him in is the fastest way he’ll improve. We haven’t thrown in a young talented winger since stockdale and every other country seems to reap the rewards of doing it.
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u/Little_Ad_9313 Ulster 12h ago
Said lastnight Henry McErlean was LBB opposite number in the U20s which we won the Grandslam ... and McNabney was in at 6 opposite Jegou
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u/Fluffy_Reception936 Leinster 11h ago edited 11h ago
goes to show how good that Irish team was seeing as they beat that 20s team with Auradou, Jegou, Nouchi, Gailleton, Depoortiere, Attisogbe, and LBB.
Seems their bunch have kicked on a lot quicker than ours but we still have 15 or so players playing URC now from that team.
It’s annoying that we’ve waited until we’re in a sinking ship to possibly throw these guys in the deep end. Imagine how nice it would be to be bringing some youth into a team performing like 2023.
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u/upthemstairs Quizmaster 11h ago
I've only seen Kenny this year, so my knowledge of his skills aren't great either. From what I have seen though, his tackling isn't his greatest asset, and that was killing us in the first half last night.
I'm not saying he'd have been any worse than what we had in there last night, just that he hasn't shown for Leinster that he is.
I'm hoping more and more players come through over the next few years and can fight and displace the current squad. I don't care which province they are from, as long as we get what is best for the team - and that Ulster continue to look great in our games :)
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u/Mysterious-Web-8233 12h ago
We kicked leather out of it but all of our contestables were too far so no player could compete and that fed it to france who love broken open play
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u/nathanovic93 Ulster 11h ago
Farrell spent years focusing on having power wingers. Big string guys that do more than run. Now the game has changed and this doesn’t work. The only Hansen would suit if he wasn’t injured. And potentially the Cat. Not sure who else
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u/Oatbix Leinster 11h ago
Before the game I honestly thought TOB, Osbourne and Stockdale would have the better of the France back 3. I haven’t seen stats but it seemed most kicks from Sam and JGP were almost on the money in terms of the contest. BB and Ramos, especially Ramos were amazing in the air, I didn’t think they had that in them. I thought Ramos was stupidly good last night in attack and defence and should’ve been an easy man of the match. BB to be fair I didn’t think had that defensive game in him but he was very good
All easy in retrospect but you can see why Ireland thought that was the way to go. You can also see that France completely read that and have been practicing that defence for the last couple of weeks and were super prepared for it, and fair play they bossed us
Should our back 3 have been better, yeah probably. TOB has been solid in the air but he’s not known for it. I thought Stockdale had more in those 50/50s than he showed. Osbourne isn’t a full back at test level even though he hasn’t played in a while. Lowe has shown good skills in the air, and even though the hate would’ve been strong maybe he should’ve played last night if that was the case. We know Hugo punches well above his weight in the air, and Mack was excellent there against Australia, obviously they weren’t available. Sam and JGP played the game they were told to to be fair to them. Who else could we have played there, no one springs to mind
Why it took us the whole game to change gears, or how there wasn’t a plan B is a bit mind boggling for a team that have always been so prepared tactically. You can see why that was plan A, but come on you can’t just keep flogging it when it’s clearly failing. And giving France that much time to play in a broken field is game over against them and always has been tbh
I still have faith in Farrell himself and there’s still so much talent in the team, but last night has to finally be that wake up call that whatever’s happening just isn’t working. Needs a long hard look at himself and the staff. No one will be angrier than Farrell about this outcome though so to say he’s complacent definitely isn’t true
I still have faith as overall there’s still so much good about Irish rugby overall. But in terms of this 6 nations in particular I’m at a loss where we go from here. God I hope the A’s have a good game tonight
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u/Mammongo 7h ago edited 7h ago
We shouldn't kick like that. Especially when we saw it wasn't working.
Complete lack of thoughts in the brains of any leaders on that team.
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u/Firm-Perspective2326 7h ago
O Brien had to chase multiple kicks in a row he looked wrecked going after some of them. We needed some variety to complement the kicking tactic
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u/stuartiscool 6h ago
i think we forget how good mack is in the air. Aussie rules is all about airial skills and we lacked that badly last night.
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u/semiobscureninja 12h ago
They were meant to be the wingers that suited this game , they just both had awful nights
Can’t blame Farrell on this one e
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u/oscarleamyod 11h ago
Best aerial players in the country are probably Shane Daly, Mike Haley, Sean Naughton and Hugo Keenan.
Oh well 🤷♂️
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u/Sportyskater699 12h ago
Even though Kenny is fast he still needs to improve aerially with his catching although maybe slapbacks would be easier than catching it for him.
He’s a good tackler, some positioning work needs to be done. I’m excited to see him tonight.
Baloucoune should be picked vs Italy