Former Ireland captain Johnny Sexton had to think back to a match played against Scotland in March 2023 to find a sequence that approached the chaotic first half of Ireland’s Autumn Nations Series game against South Africa on Saturday.
With a red card given to James Ryan, a yellow shown to outhalf Sam Prendergast for offside, another to Jack Crowley for hands in a ruck and a third yellow to Andrew Porter, Ireland closed the half with 12 players on the pitch.
Two seasons ago in the Six Nations flanker Josh van der Flier was asked to throw into the lineout after Ireland lost both hookers to injury, while loosehead prop Cian Healy played hooker.
Dan Sheehan went off for an early head injury assessment, but failed to return to the field. Replacement Rónan Kelleher was an early casualty in the second half with a shoulder problem.
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The versatile Van der Flier, that year’s World Rugby’s player of the year, stepped up for lineout throwing, while Kelleher’s replacement, Healy, played in the middle of the frontrow to prevent the game from going to uncontested scrums.
“I think the game on Saturday was a standalone,” Sexton said, speaking at the announcement of the renamed Laya Arena at the RDS. “The closest we’ve ever got to it was in Scotland a couple of years ago where we lost both hookers and Cian ended up throwing in, or Josh did. Cian scrummed the hooker.
“That half-time was mental. This half-time was just trying to come up with a plan with 12 men, trying to come up with plays with 12 men. It’s not something I’ve ever been a part of before.”
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The reduced manpower forced the Irish coaches into blue-sky thinking at half-time about what to do with three fewer players than the world’s number one side. Entirely unscripted, for all of them it was new experience.
Normally a preset solution is at hand with tried-and-trusted tactical switches and tweaks, but playing a Test match with 12 players was in nobody’s playbook. Centre Bundee Aki was already appointed to play in the backrow for scrums.
“It was more coming up with a plan for kick-off,” Sexton said of the start of the second half. “How are we going to chase it? Who do we hold back? Coming up with plans for scrum. How many are we going to put on the scrum? How many do we put in the lineout?
“All those types of things. In terms of an actual tactic, it’s very hard. It’s not something we’ve ever done before. These are the messages you’re trying to give. A plan.”
The coaches also had to decide how many players to commit to rucks and at the breakdown. If three were contesting a ball then that left just nine to cover the rest of the field.
It was all new to Ireland, but not unprecedented for rugby.
In 2013 Fiji found themselves in a worse situation than Andy Farrell and his backroom team did on Saturday.
The Fijians were shown five yellow cards in a November series match against Italy in Cremona and were down to 11 men in the closing stages of the first half.
Four of the players were carded in a calamitous nine-minute period, following the departure of their captain Akapusi Qera for a dangerous tackle.
“You’re trying to say, ‘Lads, we need to make sure we keep bodies on our feet because if we’ve got two or three lads in a ruck, then we’ve only got nine’,” Sexton said.
“When you consider there could be two in the backfield marking space there, then you’ve only got seven. So you’re playing seven against 12, 13 of them on their feet.
“There were probably loads of messages flying around because it was so frantic. But the lads went out and they produced a real good 10 minutes to get all 15 back on the pitch.”
Consequential as the cards were to Ireland’s 13-24 defeat to South Africa, management are now looking at the players’ reaction to the challenge and the manner they were able to take the match to the Springboks.
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In the uptick for the performance of the second half, Ireland unintentionally found a source of inspiration and have something to draw on as they head into camp for the Six Nations in nine weeks.
“I think that is something that we can definitely take away from the game as a positive. The guts, the determination. That is the minimum you want to see from any Irish team and they produced it in spades,” Sexton said.
“That would be huge. It’s something that we’ve been referencing and something that the lads showed. Unbelievable fight, problem-solving, just guts. I was proud on Saturday after the game in terms of being associated with that group of men.”
A serendipitous end to a chaotic weekend.
