Ex-Ireland star Gordon D\u2019Arcy has delivered a damming assessment of the Leinster-dominated Irish attack that Andy Farrell started with last Thursday in Paris.<\/p>\n
The under-pressure double Six Nations<\/a> champions of 2023 and 2024 ran out with a XV containing 10 Leinster players in the hope that they had the attacking nous to ask serious questions of the French in the 2026 championship opener.<\/p>\n Those hopes never came to fruition. Instead, Ireland<\/a> were \u2018nilled\u2019 in the opening half, trooping off at the break trailing 0-22. That margin extended to 0-29 and while there was then a mini-Irish revival, the result at the finish was 14-36<\/a>.<\/p>\n There has been a massive inquest into what unfolded<\/a>, but D\u2019Arcy has now come to the inquest six days after it began with a troubling reflection that doesn\u2019t read well for his former club team, Leinster.<\/p>\n Frustratingly patchy<\/p>\n The four-time European champions navigated the winter with an 11-match winning run, but there wasn\u2019t a queue of people lined up to congratulate attack coach Tyler Bleyendaal for the calibre of their play.<\/p>\n Instead, there was regular criticism that the Leinster attack was frustratingly patchy compared to how it used to purr, especially when Stuart Lancaster was responsible.<\/p>\n This fuelled the consensus that too many of the players Andy Farrell took with him on the British and Irish Lions tour were struggling to pick up the thread and find their form since returning from Australia.<\/p>\n This was a bone of contention across the Autumn Nations Series where Ireland failed to fire in the losses to New Zealand and South Africa, and it\u2019s a topic that has now been reheated following their Stade de France mishap.<\/p>\n The Ireland attack coach is Andrew Goodman, who stepped up from the Leinster fold to succeed Mike Catt, who exited in the summer of 2024, and his promptings have yet to properly click.<\/p>\n Ireland v Italy latest: MAJOR update on Andy Farrell\u2019s front row as Azzurri lose one but gain another superstar<\/a><\/p>\n Bernard Jackman predicts \u2018shake up\u2019 after pinpointing where Ireland are \u2018very poor\u2019 compared to England and France<\/a><\/p>\n Ireland\u2019s attack only began to construct in Paris when reinforcements arrived from the bench and it left D\u2019Arcy, the retired 84-cap midfielder who toured twice with the British and Irish Lions, making an eye-catching observation.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Ulster lads looked more comfortable keeping the ball alive,\u201d he suggested in his latest Irish Times column<\/a>. \u201cAnd when Jack Crowley (of Munster) came on, it seemed to give Sam Prendergast a bit of a kick-start to play with more freedom. That tells me the players can do it; just not often enough.\u201d<\/p>\n Explaining this alleged lack of freedom, he singled out a first-half incident. \u201cThere was one passage in the first half from a (Caelan) Doris offload where players froze. They\u2019re looking at each other, going what now? That\u2019s a problem right there.<\/p>\n \u201cThe talk about playing what\u2019s in front of you was completely absent. You can\u2019t just switch that on like a tap. You can\u2019t drill a rigid structure into players for weeks and then expect them to suddenly improvise when it matters.\u201d<\/p>\n D\u2019Arcy\u2019s summary read: \u201cThe Irish attack lacked confidence. Our kicking game was desperately poor, or at least the decision-making on when to kick and when to run. At times we were kicking off positive gain line ball, the exact moments when defences are less organised, when mismatches are available if you\u2019re willing to take them.<\/p>\n \u201cOur launch attacks from the lineout were poorly executed, save for a few bright carries around the tail. We got hit behind the starting point, and had to kick off slow, static ball. What\u2019s the plan here? We\u2019re kicking off the back foot; we\u2019re kicking off the front foot. There\u2019s no coherent strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n Brian Moore: The factors ex-Ireland internationals have \u2018missed\u2019 in France disappointment after blaming Jacques Nienaber<\/a><\/p>\n Who\u2019s hot and who\u2019s not: Italy \u2018get the pulse racing\u2019, Ireland\u2019s \u2018kick in the goolies\u2019 and the latest \u2018damaging\u2019 Scott Robertson stories<\/a><\/p>\n So what went wrong? D\u2019Arcy called out the lack of form that had too many players playing without instinct. \u201cForm is a double-edged sword,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re picked on form, you arrive in camp knowing the coaches believe in you because of what you\u2019ve been doing. You come in confident and that creates momentum.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re selected despite being out of form, or worse, when the game plan doesn\u2019t use or include what you\u2019re good at, the opposite happens. You second-guess everything. You look for the safe option, freeze and ignore your instinct to play in those moments.<\/p>\n \u201cStu McCloskey got the ball with proper momentum once. Jacob Stockdale got one pass and beat three players. Why pick them if you\u2019re going to largely ignore their attributes?<\/p>\n \u201cConsidering the amount of time Ireland put boot to ball, I was disappointed by how disjointed the kick chase was, how we reacted. France got to our kicks before we did, turned defence into attack, hurt us. We couldn\u2019t do the same. That\u2019s the basics \u2013 work-rate, awareness and reading the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Ireland\u2019s defeat in France prompted talk of a generational slump, that Farrell\u2019s side is finished as a serious hitter on the world stage. D\u2019Arcy, though, didn\u2019t go that far in his criticism, believing the team\u2019s situation is fixable.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not all doom and gloom,\u201d he concluded, looking ahead to the remainder of Ireland\u2019s campaign, which includes fixtures against Italy in Dublin next Saturday followed by England in London on February 21. \u201cWhat\u2019s missing is clarity in attack, the courage to back players to make decisions in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as\u00a0a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n