The glitches in Ireland’s 23-13 defeat to New Zealand had “many fathers” to tweak a proverb, among them an occasionally errant lineout, breakdown turnovers and poor handling but a recurring issue throughout the game and arguably the most debilitating in terms of the outcome was ill-discipline.
Damian McKenzie kicked six from seven penalty attempts at goal – he hit an upright with the other – from 10 that the home side coughed up in their half of the pitch and the New Zealand outhalf could have added to that tally but for a couple of decisions to kick to the corner when handily placed rather than take a shot at the posts.
The spotlight has dwelled on the number of Irish transgressions over the 80 minutes, 13 in total, seven of which occurred in the first half. It’s the context rather than the bald figure that provides a more revealing insight.
In 2024 to date Ireland conceded 82 penalties in eight Test matches, at an average of 10.25 per match, winning five and losing three games in Twickenham, Loftus Versfeld and now the Aviva Stadium. Three times they have conceded 13 penalties, against New Zealand last Friday night and France and Wales in the Six Nations.
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Andy Farrell’s side won two of those three matches, in Marseilles (38-17) and Cardiff (31-7), and four of five when they have had a higher penalty concession tally than their opponents in the current calendar year.
When they managed fewer penalties in a game, Ireland lost to England at Twickenham (10-8 penalty count in their favour) but beat Scotland (13-4) at the Aviva Stadium. The penalty count was 9-9 when they lost 27-20 to South Africa in the first Test in Pretoria during the summer. In five of eight Tests in 2024 Ireland have racked up double digits in penalties conceded.
Last Friday night Ireland were pinged for ruck offences on eight occasions by referee Nic Berry, a combination of not releasing in the tackle, not releasing the player after making a tackle and then trying to grab a turnover and not rolling away following a tackle.
The others were for blocking, offside, a high tackle/no arms tackle (two offences in the same sequence of play, the second of which the Kiwis chose to enforce), a neck roll and a scrum infringement. To provide further context New Zealand were penalised five times in 80 minutes; that’s gold star discipline.
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Ireland tighthead prop Finlay Bealham conceded four penalties, although he’d have a pretty good case in arguing against two of them. Scrumhalf Jamison-Gibson Park was pinged twice, while Garry Ringrose, Tadhg Beirne, James Ryan, James Lowe, Joe McCarthy, Iain Henderson and Rob Herring were whistled up once apiece.
Andy Farrell’s side had 41 per cent possession and made 151 tackles (30 missed) so they were under pressure for large swathes of the game. The principal question in review is, were the penalties avoidable? The short answer is that in the majority but not all cases, yes.
Bealham conceded the first penalty on nine minutes for not rolling away. The referee said he was affecting the clearout. He wasn’t, nor did he impede or obstruct any New Zealand player. The Irish tighthead prop was also injured in the tackle. It was a harsh call and if the same rule of thumb had been applied consistently at every ruck there would have been 30-plus further penalties in the match.
Ireland can have no complaints for five of the next six times that Berry whistled against them with a little occasional input from his assistants, Karl Dickson and Andrea Piardi.
Gibson-Park did deviate marginally from a straight line in blocking off New Zealand wing Mark Tele’a, Ringrose held on as Wallace Sititi lifted the ball, Gibson-Park was offside, Tadhg Beirne (high tackle) and Bealham (no arms tackle) were guilty in the same sequence of play, while Ryan emerged in a north/south rather than east/west direction at a ruck, his only escape route.
The only other one that’s debatable from an Irish perspective in the first half is that Beirne did release after a tackle on All Blacks secondrow Tupou Vaa’i, but the referee didn’t see it before the Munster flanker attempted to latch back on, in chasing a poach.
Post interval five of the six penalties that Ireland gave up were reasonable calls. Assistant referee Dickson communicated a neck roll on New Zealand wing Caleb Clarke, Andrew Porter initially singled out, before Berry apologised to the Irish prop and said it was Lowe.
New Zealand hooker Asafo Aumua had every right to the ball over McCarthy at a ruck, Bealham didn’t roll away at a breakdown, Iain Henderson may have released for a nanosecond after a tackle, before scooping up the ball but Berry didn’t see it while Ardie Savea beat the Irish cleaners to the ball over a prone Rob Herring. Bealham was harshly treated for that scrum penalty.
Two penalties were direct results of an Irish set piece malfunction, a freekick at a scrum – it was never stable and therefore should not have been awarded – and after losing a lineout. Ireland’s post-game review will underline the need for better breakdown behaviour and accuracy on both sides of the ball.
New Zealand offered Argentina a template to destabilise Ireland and a key for Farrell’s side is to address those issues and rediscover a playing rhythm as they have done impressively following rare defeats.
Irrespective of changes in personnel, winning is about rebooting team cohesion in all aspects of the game and limiting the number of times that Argentina gets to call for the kicking tee.
Ireland’s 13 penalties
- 8 Ruck offences
- 1 Blocking
- 1 Offside
- 1 High tackle
- 1 Neck Roll
- 1 Scrum
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