THE IRISH TIMES.
Gordon D’Arcy: Surviving at centre not easy – just ask Kriel "Centre as an art form begins with
defence. Not tackling, defending. Japan’s Ayumu Goromaru running through the
Springbok defence unharmed was a replica of Brian’s try against Cardiff in 2012
that I mentioned last week. Exact same move. If nothing else Eddie Jones and
Joe Schmidt are eternal students of the game.
Jesse Kriel, the young South
Africa 13, made two of the worst reads a centre can make during that sequence
and for the winning Japanese try.
Both times Kriel broke a golden
rule of defending in midfield: stay relevant.
Rob Kearney scores against the All Blacks:
“It’s very hard to find a weakness but they are beatable. Ireland players know
this now.” Photograph: Dan Sheridan/InphoGordon D’Arcy: When offload doesn’t
come naturally, don’t use it
It’s no fun having to tackle
someone like Mathieu Bastareaud if he gets a 10-yard run on you. Photograph:
Billy Stickland/InphoGordon D’Arcy: New breed will define World Cup
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A centre must develop spacial
awareness to survive in Test rugby. If you get too close to an attacker, you
end up following him into the space and it’s almost impossible to get back out.
It’s about hovering two or three yards outside the tackle area so if he doesn’t
get the ball you push off to the next guy.
If you dive into that hole and
don’t make a clean tackle you disappear from view and it looks like someone
else has missed a tackle. Your team-mates know who is to blame. So does your
coach.
So, probably, did Eddie Jones.
Kriel is 21 and a genuine talent who has played a lot of rugby at fullback or
wing. It showed.
Japan flooded the space Kriel
should have been holding and he took the bait. Then he emptied their outhalf
late to leave a gaping hole for their blindside winger to run into. That might
look like a worthwhile exercise to the untrained eye but rugby players know
what he did.
For Japan’s winning try he was
handed off by Al Mafi as punishment for invading the space too early. That
forced the covering Springbok defender to go towards Mafi and leave JP
Pieterson with a two-on-one scenario.
High stakes
High pressure, high stakes, two
bad decisions by a young outside centre and South Africa lose the game.
Some people are good tacklers.
You can pick them out in a sea of eight-year-olds on a Saturday morning. They
know when to drop, when to power in, how to instinctively generate that surge
through their second foot. Most players tackle and plant their foot without
taking another crucial step in. Those players almost always lose the contact.
I was a decent tackler but had to
become an international standard defender. Usually it’s a prerequisite for a
good defender to be a good tackler but the great one’s might only make three or
four primary hits in a game. It’s about being in the right place at the right
time.
Jared Payne instinctively gets
this. Conrad Smith and Brian are the masters of outside centre play – it’s
their longevity and brilliance in defence that made them great players as much
as the magic they conjured up passing out of contact or breaching defences.
Smith’s body shape in the
defensive line is fantastic. His ability to move when crouched really, really
low, laterally, forward or backwards means he rarely misses a tackle.
Now, there are times when the
space around an attacker must be filled at all cost. See Luke Fitzgerald’s
attempted intercept last Saturday that ensured Canada’s try just before
half-time was disallowed.
Jamie and Johnny stopped Aaron
Carpenter inches shy of the line but scrumhalf Gordon McRorie spotted the
overlap and flung it wide. Luke made a brilliant decision going for the ball
and not the man as he forced Nathan Hirayama’s forward pass. If Luke had sat
off, it would have been catch, pass, try.
His performance in general showed
how much he has grown as a rugby player. He’s older now and more attuned to
rugby so it’s not just about getting the ball and trusting his natural talent.
He looked really sharp, his decision-making with ball-in-hand and, more
importantly, his accurate execution was quality.
It was probably his best game in
a green shirt and it was at inside centre. Does that change things for Italy
and France? Probably not.
Dave Kearney did enough to keep
14 so it’s between Luke or Keith Earls for the left wing but Robbie must
perform now against Romania or Italy.
It’s the ideal situation really.
I also think Payne has become the
second most important player in Ireland’s backline, possibly even the team. A
fullback by nature, he has become a reliable Test centre and that’s down to
fundamental skills.
He does the right thing at the
right time. Even the two kicks that didn’t work out, one off Johnny’s brilliant
cross-field laser and chipping that ball into DTH van der Merwe’s hands for
Canada’s try, were the right plays; it’s just his timing was off.
The outside centre channel gives
you a split-second more than inside centre to decide to attack or pass. If you
back yourself, the rewards are there if you execute well. At 12, it’s more a
case of carrying in strong traffic without much time to react.
I know both roles well. I was
coasting along as a winger until Gary Ella asked me to train at outside centre
one morning in January 2004. It went well, so my first game wearing 13 was
later that weekend against Sale at Edgeley Park in the European Cup.
Slow motion
Brian was injured. They had Jason
Robinson attacking from their back field and I remember putting him down twice.
They had beaten us the previous week at Lansdowne Road but we won 23-16 and I
just loved it.
It felt like everything was
happening in slow-motion. Off our first attacks I saw their winger Mark Cueto
was sitting off a fraction so I demanded the ball and galloped into the space.
I created Brendan Burke’s try and cut up the Sale midfield a few times. It was
a particularly special night and Eddie O’Sullivan was watching.
I stayed there against Cardiff
the next week and in Biarritz before Eddie picked me alongside Kevin Maggs for
the Six Nations opener in Paris. Up against Yannick Jauzion and Damien Traille.
A huge and brilliant centre pairing, my intent as soon as the team was
announced was to force Jauzion into marking me and not the other way round.
Eddie was a believer by then.
Having left me out of the World Cup squad six months previously, his words of
advice were simple: if it’s on, go for it.
He was very protective of me back
then, so no media. He probably still saw me as a potential liability but he
backed me, aged 23. Better late than never.
It was my sixth cap, five years
after the first against Romania at the 1999 World Cup. It was also my Six
Nations debut. Traille and Jauzion combined for a nice try. So did myself and
Tyrone Howe; a rare offload in a 17-year career but we were 18 points down. I
used to look at Jauzion and think if I was his size I’d have so much fun
playing rugby. He was all class, made it look so easy. I always enjoyed going
up against him. Ma’a Nonu was like tackling a rhinoceros but Yannick was like
trying to grab a deer. He was as graceful as he was powerful.
The toughest centres to defend?
Mathieu Bastareaud and Nonu. There wasn’t a game I played against Bastareaud
when he didn’t swat me aside. Nobody remembers the six clean hits I made. You
just can’t be left alone on him. In Paris in 2013 I chopped him perfectly in
the first minute. The second charge was not so great but we survived.
Holds the space
Bastareaud is actually a good
defender. Many teams have targeted him but he holds the space so well that they
end up running into him. And there is a lot of him.
I was always excited about
testing myself against these players. I refused to let myself be outclassed by
my peers, They were the best so I knew if I could deliver against them I could
call myself a rugby player. I held my own about 90 percent of the time.
My career at 13 was shortlived.
Two weeks after Paris, Brian was fit for Wales in Dublin. I presumed I would be
gone but Eddie dropped Maggsy. And that’s how I became a 12 for the first time
in my life.
Inside and outside centre are
vastly different positions. Twelve is a slot with tighter space and less time
on the ball, plus you invariably running into a seven. At 13, you have more
space and can run at the outside shoulder.
Two different jobs that make up
the one whole, but only if the partnership does their individual jobs
correctly. Both players must be selfless, especially in defence.
A lot the time I had to fight to
get into a good defensive position to help Brian. The easiest thing is to drop
under and head for the corner but if you actually fight to get up field and
stay attached to your 13, it makes his job so much easier. It makes for a solid
shape too. If the attacker does step back inside, you can accelerate into
contact.
I’ve mentioned all the monstrous
modern centres bashing over the gainline but Matt Giteau outshines them all.
Smaller and lighter than me, he’s
not only highly skilled but at 32 still possesses genuine, darting pace. A
ballsy defender, great distributor and boasting a world-class kicking game, he
is the definition of what the southern hemisphere rugby people term a
second-five-eight.
Robbie Henshaw is getting there.
The Irish gameplan is very clean.
Extracting information
Other teams go through the phases
before seeking their game-breakers, their power men. We combine in twos and
threes to create opportunities. For Connacht, Robbie is one of those power men,
so his role for Ireland is almost the opposite. But he gets it. He was
constantly extracting information from myself and Brian these past two years.
The Canadian defence was soft
last Saturday. Hence the multitude of loop plays. I can’t see us doing that
against Italy or France – it was a fit-for-purpose tactic to beat Canada. Van
der Merwe shot up a few times but the rest of them stood off.
Johnny’s try came after running
six or seven loop plays before Seán O’Brien got the ball. The defence sat off
so Seánie went back inside to Johnny, who headed for the corner. The move was
to play another loop but two good rugby players saw what was on.
The warm-ups weren’t about the
opposition – it was about preparation for the World Cup. But in this first game
I could see the intent and work that has been done. Dave Kearney’s try was
straight off the training ground.
My only concern was on turnover
ball when we didn’t really take full advantage. That was down to execution but it’s
a work in progress.
What I liked most were the late
tries. A real foot-on-the-throat attitude. It’s hard not to switch off, but
Seán Cronin and Ian Madigan were never going to let that happen. The fact that
Luke and Jared combined seamlessly together was important. Now we have that
option. We also know Luke or Keith can play 13. Darren Cave will get his chance
against Romania.
I do feel for Jesse Kriel. The
ramifications of missing your read at outside centre are more punishing than
anywhere else on the field. He now knows just how unforgiving life as an
international centre can be."
