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Beating us at our own game.
A childhood playing Gaelic Football has often been cited as the reason for the impeccable handling ability of Ireland’s rugby players under the high ball.
The likes of Rob Kearney and Robbie Henshaw have spoken about how their game was honed on the GAA pitches of Cooley Peninsula and Athlone.
But one of the features of England’s victory against Ireland on Saturday was their aerial dominance, and full-back Mike Brown revealed after the game how studying techniques from other sports helped improve their fielding skills.
Brown was impeccable under the high ball at Twickenham, while Anthony Watson soared above Simon Zebo to claim a cross-field kick for England’s second score, a stark reversal of Ireland’s success in the air when the sides met in Dublin in the Six Nations, when Henshaw picked the ball out of the sky to score that game’s only try.
The GAA’s influence on the Ireland team has been discussed at length in the UK press and now Brown says England have also been honing their skills by learning from other sports.
They have focused on Israel Folau, Australia’s full-back who has a past in Australian Rules, and NFL wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.
“There has been massive emphasis on the aerial game in training and in my one-to-one with Stuart, he told me to look at how someone like Folau makes the high ball his own,” Brown said. “I have seen the standards he has set and I want to be up there alongside him. He is one of the best.
“Folau’s ability to take the overhead catch sets the standard and that is something I have worked on. It comes down to lots of hard work, a continuous catching of high balls in training, from all angles, overhead, you have to be prepared for everything. Every single high ball you can think of we practise.”
Watson is more of a Beckham fan, though.
“That [his try] is something we have been working on in training and Anthony likes to be called Odell [Beckham Jnr],” Brown said. “It is great that he is emulating him with catches like that.”
It certainly seemed to work at Twickenham on Saturday, but while Joe Schmidt will no doubt be disappointed by the performance and result at Twickenham he will surely take some comfort in the knowledge that once the real business starts on Saturday week Ireland’s handling, and the rest of their game, will surely be back at its best.
