Incredible work-rate and commitment from the Irish forwards.
Success at the breakdown is 100% vital to Ireland’s World Cup cause.
They dominated on the ground against Canada and France and, in the process, won enough quick ball to do some real scoreboard damage.
Italy slowed them to a crawl and, as a result, almost shocked Joe Schmidt’s men. That blip was corrected on the training ground and Ireland horsed into the French at the Millennium Stadium.
Ireland’s speed at recycling breakdown ball was, as per ProZone Ireland, was an impressive 2.8 seconds from contact to the ball finding another green shirt. That was up almost a second on the Italian efforts.
Some excellent Green and Gold Rugby analysis of Ireland’s 24-9 victory has revealed just how effective Ireland were on the deck.
Out of the 23 Irish players that took some part of that French triumph, they hit a staggering 389 rucks.
It is 25% above the next highest in the tournament – Wales with 305 against Australia. The highest ruck involvements the All Blacks was 260, recorded against Argentina.
The individual stats point to three men who worked their rumps off for the cause.
In his 73 minutes on the pitch, Rory Best was involved in 53 rucks. 47 of those involvements were deemed to be “impact” – as in, Best was clearing a body, protecting the carrier, took the ball into contact or changing the shape of the ruck.
Jamie Heaslip lasted the entire 82 minutes the ball was in play.
Heaslip, who will captain Ireland for the remainder of the tournament, also hit 53 rucks. 45 of those were “impact”.
GAGR note that Heaslip and Best’s numbers are by far the highest Test players have hit in well over a year. Indeed, when the game was on the line [40-60th minutes] Heaslip and Best hit a combined 38 rucks.
Mike Ross [48 hit, 38 impact] and Sean O’Brien [47 hit, 40 impact] are next but, given the time that he was on the pitch, Paul O’Connell’s contribution deserves to be noted.
O’Connell hit 26 rucks in his 40-minute spell. 22 of them involved heavy physical contact.
One stat that Joe Schmidt will enjoy is the fact that the ruck involvement numbers were consistent over the match.
It is exactly the level and intensity of performance that Ireland will need to replicate if they are to turn Argentina over, this Sunday.
