Wallabies v Ireland: Cohesion crucial, and Irish have it in bucketloads

Ireland have built their current 12 consecutive wins, in large part, through cohesion.

Former Wallaby prop Ben Darwin has built his consulting business on research contending that team performance in sport or ­business is directly linked to ­cohesion — a network of connected relationships.

It’s not a challenging theory to understand but its utility is not so straightforward within the rounds of tug of war of professional sport.

Undoubtedly, when cohesion is present, results can be exponential rather than linear. In sport, it doesn’t just translate to winning matches, it translates to winning eras. Think Farr-Jones/Lynagh, Gregan/Larkham, Tom Lawton and Steve Cutler or the front-row of Daly/Kearns/­McKenzie — combinations that celebrated, and indeed facilitated, famous rugby eras. Also, think ­Ireland.

Rugby’s second-ranked team have built their current 12 consecutive wins in large part through cohesion. With eight British and Irish Lions tourists and 17 members from this year’s Leinster Pro 14 and European Champions Cup-winning teams, they will be the most cohesive and formidable Irish squad to tour our country.

Cohesion in the northern hemisphere is easier to achieve than in the south. For a start, the north doesn’t have the same complexity of currency and relative market income discrepancies challenging the retention of players. Neither do two of rugby’s main competitors in Australia, rugby league and Aussie rules, as they equalise locally across the most ­lucrative competitions within their codes through salary caps and drafts.

But in the competition for professional players in rugby, as for soccer, there is no equivalent equalisation internationally. The result is that it is impossible to keep all our best players playing toge­ther for longer periods of time.

Offsetting this, for the first time since Ewen McKenzie coached the team in 2014, the Wallaby coaching staff have been able to primarily focus on the June series as well as the general development of coaches within the Super Rugby structure.

For in 2015, Michael Cheika coached the Waratahs before stepping in as full-time Wallaby mentor, and in both 2016 and 17, Nathan Grey and Stephen Lark­ham were working with the Waratahs and the Brumbies prior to Test duties.

On-field, our most cohesive ­cohort is the generative pairing of Will Genia and Bernard Foley, who have started 23 times toge­ther in Tests. If you add to this the familiarity of Kurtley Beale and ­Israel Folau with Foley at the Waratahs, hope beckons.

Somewhat surprisingly, the Wallabies have been spared the Conor Murray/Johnny Sexton pairing, which has had 45 Test starts. Expect little respite though, with the talented Joey Carbery taking Sexton’s 10 jersey.

The winner tonight will be ­decided by whoever adjusts to Test rugby the quickest, and if you ­believe former Irish Test lock Donal Lenihan, as quoted by Georgina Robinson in the Sydney Morning Herald this week, it won’t be Australia.

“To be honest with you, a lot of people don’t place huge stock in what’s happening in Super Rugby anymore,” Lenihan was quoted as saying. “There was a time when we’d all look down in awe at the quality of the rugby, but now there’s a feeling that it doesn’t prepare people for Test rugby. It’s a different type of game.”

It is different, and transition to Test match standards will demand attention to the deep technical arts, specifically at the breakdown and lineout where Ireland will employ tactics to retard Wallaby momentum before unleashing their designer aerial and running attack.

This is no secret as that is how they have topped the Wallabies in three of their past four encounters. For example, courtesy of Fox Sports analysis, in those four Tests, Ireland have effected 13 ruck and maul turnovers — 10 through holding up the ball-­carrier in the maul.

This unambiguously Irish tactic was first meaningfully em­ployed in the World Cup clash against the Wallabies in New Zealand in 2011.

It worked then and remains relevant now. Strength and footwork in contact combined with low body height and quick support is the only means of recourse.

The Irish also caused the highest turnovers, 13, in the Six ­Nations, with no one individual creating more than three.

So it is a team tactic and skillset more than it is individual. They likewise won most lineouts on ­opposition throws in the Six ­Nations.

Ireland may not have the brute force of the All Blacks but they ­employ artisans of their own and they do so as a team as much as brilliant individuals.

That’s not to say they are not individually brilliant but the ­moments that define them are team moments, built by the ­patient amalgamation of skill on skill on skill.

And that is the most daunting challenge for the Wallabies. How, in such a short space of time, can Cheika develop the cohesion that Darwin knows drives success?

Hopefully the new cohesion in his coaching staff can shortcut this process for his squad.