While Ireland came away with a win against Georgia, there are no solid signs that the team has learned anything since the loss to England.
Andy Farrell made a raft of changes to the side so some unfamiliarity was expected. However, only scoring three points in the second half will no doubt count as a failure.
Check out the main talking points from a disjointed Ireland performance below.
Final score: Ireland 23-10 Georgia #ShoulderToShoulder #TeamofUs #AutumnNationsCup #IREvGEO pic.twitter.com/FE0Gclum3v
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) November 29, 2020
Painfully predictable attack
When Ireland get into the oppositions 22 they become far too conservative with the ball and seem afraid of doing anything other than making simple passes to one off runners.
They attempted to out-muscle the English last week and attempted the same thing again today, with only slightly more favourable results.
When the ball made it out to the backs, they tended to just shuffle it sideways before running out of space and reverting back to one out forward runners.
While Ireland get their hands on plenty of ball, their attack is far too predictable and will never work against sides who are able to deal with their physicality.
Disjointed team performance
While no one player put in an obviously poor performance the team seriously lacked cohesion and made a number of unforced errors.
The men in green played well enough in the first half but following a number of substitutions early on in the second half their shape just fell apart.
While the combinations on show today won’t have had much time together, there wasn’t any obvious gameplan as Ireland hoped they could just bludgeon the famously physical Georgian defence to submission.
More worries at the breakdown
England’s back-rowers had a field day against Ireland last time out and the Georgian poachers also found turnovers pleasantly easy to come by today.
Ireland seem to have a major issue in cleaning out the ruck at the moment, with the likes of Beka Saginadze and Tomike Jalagonia having far too much time to get their hands on the ball.
While the Georgian forwards are no pushovers, Ireland shouldn’t have conceded so many turnovers to a side who have struggled to win the ball so far in the Autumn Nations Cup.
Stockdale shows play-making ability
One of the few positives from the match was the performance of Jacob Stockdale, who showed plenty of attacking potential from fullback.
He made two lovely long-range passes in the game, with one leading to a try and the other harshly ruled to be a forward pass resulting in Stuart McCloskey’s try being disallowed.
He made a number of good runs and chip and chase from deep also, showing he is well able to create scoring chances and not just score them.
Ireland look increasingly blunt in attack with every passing game and Stockdale’s attacking ability may be well needed in a side struggling to break down defences.
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