Originally published in the Irish Examiner on Tuesday, March 18th 2014 http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/rugby/an-impressive-and-successful-beginning-but-coaches-have-plenty-to-work-on-262325.html

Ireland, 2014 Six Nations champions, and a Parisian win borne of ruthless scoring efficiency. Last week Ireland didn’t allow Italy to touch the ball before scoring their first try; in Paris Ireland didn’t even have their hands on the ball in the French half until the 12th minute of the match. Irish visits to the French 22 were even rarer, but when Ireland got there they made it count.

Ireland ventured just four times into the French 22 compared to France’s nine into Ireland’s, but Ireland trotted back to the half way line with tries three times compared to France’s two. Ireland’s fourth was not so much a venture as a footstep as Jamie Heaslip drove in, then was immediately driven out of the French 22, only for Ireland to be given a penalty and Jonathan Sexton to miss the ensuring kick just before half time.

Sexton took a long time standing over that penalty, just as he had done with an earlier missed conversion and an effort from a similar position against New Zealand in November. For a penalty, kickers are permitted 60 seconds from when the referee is informed of the intention to kick for goal; Sexton took 67 seconds over that kick in Paris and against New Zealand it was even longer. The penalty Sexton converted in the second half? Just 51 seconds. Notable, perhaps.

For the tournament as a whole it was a tale of an efficient Irish team controlling some key areas of the game – set piece and breakdown. The Irish lineout has gone from worst in 2013 (80%) to best in 2014 (93%), with the scrum improving from 78% to 89%, again a tournament best in 2014. Away from the set piece Ireland were both the best team at retaining ruck possession (96%) as well as being best at forcing opponents into errors at ruck time (Ireland’s opponents retained 92% of their ruck ball).

Peter O’Mahony led the competition in turnovers won with seven despite playing just 277 minutes of the possible 400. Chris Henry was one of four players who forced six, along with Joe Launchbury, Mathieu Bastareaud and Dave Denton, while Jamie Heaslip and Rory Best forced five apiece. Ireland’s discipline was generally superb with no Irishman receiving a yellow card in the competition (there were five Irish yellow cards in 2013). A penalty concession rate of under eight penalties per match (7.6) was excellent, five fewer per match than last season.

The beginning of the Joe Schmidt era has been excellent, but not perfect. Things to work on? Ireland’s place kicking was an unremarkable 75%, following on from 71% in 2013. And for all the offensive fireworks of the Italian match, against both England and France Ireland didn’t score a point in the last thirty minutes.

With fourteen or so tests until the 2015 World Cup, the former headmaster will still have plenty of learning material for his Ireland classroom. But that can wait. For now, a nation celebrates an all too rare Six Nations title and the departing of a favourite sporting son. Happy trails, Mr. O’Driscoll. We’ll always have Paris.

Credit: playing stats courtesy of Opta