ANALYSIS: Omar Mouneimne looks at the changes Andy Farrell has made at Ireland

February 06, 2020
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Ultimate Rugby

Ahead of Round One of the 2020 Six Nations, we spoke with Professional Omar Mouneimne to get his views on how the new coaches could approach the Six Nations as well as what Eddie Jones and Gregor Townsend could do.

Omar pointed out that the likes of Wayne Pivac and Andy Farrell they had two options in how they approached their tenures:

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1. An adaptive approach - There were a number of strengths in the side from the former coach and we build on this and improve the weaknesses.

2. Pacesetting - A coach comes in and says its my team now, I'm bringing in a new method and run with it.

Ahead of the opening round of the competition, Omar predicted that Andy Farrell would shake things up a bit and change a few things on attack.

In part one of his review of the opening round, he has a look at some of the changes Andy Farrell made in the first game against Scotland while also looking at Gregor Townsend's side.

WATCH: His review of the Ireland v Scotland game below:

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So let's see what the cat let out of the bag in the opening round as Andy Farrell and Gregor Townsend showed their hands with how they attack.

Before we get stuck into Ireland, let's have a look at Scotland's attack, which Townsend has tweaked since the World Cup.

First up we have a look at Scotland's edge attack, edge attack is when the attack has a middle ruck with options on the left and right of the pitch.

Scotland punch down the flank in the first clip and then set up in this 3-2-1-1 shape (the positioning of the groups forwards from one side of the pitch to other)

From here the forward have two options: first you can front and carry to to the defensive line or play out the back to your support. In both the GIFS above Ireland's defensive line forces Scotland to punch it up.

Normally the one attacker is in front to interest the defence and in this case, Ireland are square so if Scotland played it behind the back, Ireland would flatten the Scottish attack and drive them backwards.

So Hastings does well to control this before spreading it wide. As they comeback the otherway, Ireland are square once again and a forward crashes it up.

On the next phase, they do what is called a dummy switch tunnel. Watch how the lock and prop move below drawing in a few defenders before Hastings goes out the back to his speeder men.

The reason they go out the back there is because the Irish defence was turned in this time.

Scotland get into the 22 but Ireland get them under control by slowing the ball down at the ruck.

So what's the cat that's been let out the bag for Ireland?

Farrell is thought to be conservative and more concentrated on his kicking game and defence but he was clever enough to adapt to that.

We see this from the kick-off following Jonathan Sexton's try. He has instructed the players to run a kick off as no one would expect it from one of his sides.

They secure the kick off and Murray plays it to CJ Stander and from here you'd expect Murry to kick or pass to Sexton to clear.

But no he was clever enough to say let's run it from here and Sexton receives the ball as Herring runs a dummy line.

Scotland are square at this stage and Sexton plays the shoulder ball to Ringrose who makes metres.

Unfortunately, they do knock it on but it does show that Ireland could be more unpredictable under Farrell's guidance.

Here is another example where Farrell is bucking some of the trends of the Joe Schmidt era.

From a box kick, Larmour has a run at the defence - as he normally would. But Ireland used to put boot to ball if you get tackled back one or twice.

However, Ireland decide to hold onto the ball despite Scotland dominating for three or four phases.

They continue to hold onto the ball and do a dummy switch tunnel ball much like Scotland did in an earlier clip with Aki taking it to the defence before Larmour runs a shoulder ball off Sexton and goes through a gap.

They mix this up well as the next sequence they return the box kick.

Ireland may have mixed things up a bit against Scotland but Farrell hasn't moved away from Ireland's strengths as Ireland flex their power game in the Scotland 22.

Two or three quick pick and goes with latchers then a clever but basic sweep swivel ball from the backs as Healy pops it out the back.