Ireland Men: Who Did What 2021 Six Nations

The 2021 Six Nations was unique in that it was the first, and hopefully only, Six Nations tournament to be played, in totality, during a global pandemic. The teams trained in their individual isolation bubbles and there were no crowds in attendance.

Ireland won 3 of their five games, picking up 3 bonus points over the tournament for a 60% match points pick up.

Round 1	Wales	21 – 16	Ireland	Cardiff
Round 2	Ireland	13 – 15	France	Dublin
Round 3	Italy	10 – 48	Ireland	Rome
Round 4	Scotland	24 – 27	Ireland	Edinburgh
Round 5	Ireland	32 – 18	England	Dublin

At the time of writing Ireland are placed second in the Six Nations Table (below) but it is possible that they could finish anywhere between 2nd and 4th depending on the result in the rearranged fixture between France and Scotland which is to be played on Friday 26th March at 20:00.

TEAM	PL	W	PD	BP	PTS
Wales	5	4	61	4	20
Ireland	5	3	48	3	15
France	4	3	41	3	15
Scotland	4	2	43	3	11
England	5	2	(9)	2	10
Italy	5	0	(184)	0	0

Players Used

Ireland coach Andy Farrell called on 32 players throughout the tournament. The overall makeup saw 19 Leinster, 7 Munster, 4 Ulster and 2 Connacht players named in the squads who clocked up 5,921 minutes played, following 2 red cards and 1 yellow card, over the tournament.

Minutes Played

The provincial breakdown by minutes played is shown below. (Connacht clock in at 1.5%, it’s slice of the pie too small to show the number!)

Only one player played every minute of all five games with Hugo Keenan claiming that honour in his first Six Nations series. The departing CJ Stander put in a full shift in his final appearances only missing out on 17 minutes on the pitch over the 5 games.

Ulster’s most used player was Iain Henderson who averaged over 65 minutes per game.

PLAYER	MINUTES
Hugo Keenan	400
CJ Stander	383
Robbie Henshaw	378
Tadhg Beirne	376
Keith Earls	330
Iain Henderson	326
Garry Ringrose	320
Johnny Sexton	309
James Lowe	307
Rob Herring	280
Team Total	5921

Points Scored

Ireland scored a total of 136 points, the points coming from 12 tries, 11 conversions (92% conversion rate) and 18 penalties.

Unsurprisingly, Johnny Sexton tops the table with 65 points scored from 10 conversions and 15 penalties. Billy Burns was the only Ulster scorer in the tournament with 6 points from 2 penalties.

Keith Earls, Tadhg Beirne and Will Connors were the leading try scorers with 2 each.

PLAYER	MINS	T	C	P	PTS
Johnny Sexton	309	0	10	15	65
Keith Earls	330	2	0	0	10
Tadhg Beirne	376	2	0	0	10
Will Connors	195	2	0	0	10
Billy Burns	72	0	0	2	6
CJ Stander	383	1	0	0	5
Garry Ringrose	320	1	0	0	5
Hugo Keenan	400	1	0	0	5
Jack Conan	113	1	0	0	5
Robbie Henshaw	378	1	0	0	5
Ronan Kelleher	121	1	0	0	5
Ross Byrne	41	0	1	1	5
Team Totals	5921	12	11	18	136

Meters Carried

James Lowe made the most ground with the ball in hand and made the most distance per carry. You can make your own call as to how effective those carries were, but, compared to the likes of Earls, it would be hard to argue that the Munster veteran didn’t have more successful outcomes at the end of his carries.

Henderson was Ulsters main carrier and was the third highest placed forward, who made their carries in the heavy traffic. Stander was the leading carrier, amongst the forwards, not only taking on the most carries but also generating the most distance per carry.

PLAYER	MINS	METERS	CARRIES	MET/CAR
James Lowe	307	433	42	10.3
Hugo Keenan	400	364	47	7.7
Garry Ringrose	320	358	44	8.1
CJ Stander	383	346	72	4.8
Robbie Henshaw	378	304	63	4.8
Tadhg Beirne	376	213	50	4.3
Keith Earls	330	182	25	7.3
Tadhg Furlong	218	133	31	4.3
Iain Henderson	326	125	33	3.8
Jamison Gibson-Park	231	113	19	5.9
Team Totals	5921	3656	656	5.6

Offloads

I found the number of offloads completed by Ireland particularly disappointing. They completed a total of 19 which works out at less than 4 per game. For comparison, France have completed 39 offloads in their 4 matches to date.

PLAYER	MINS	OFFLOADS
Garry Ringrose	320	3
Robbie Henshaw	378	3
Tadhg Beirne	376	3
CJ Stander	383	2
Johnny Sexton	309	2
James Lowe	307	1
James Ryan	175	1
Jamison Gibson-Park	231	1
Jordan Larmour	86	1
Tadhg Furlong	218	1
Will Connors	195	1
Team Totals	5921	19

Meters Kicked

Lowe also tops the meters kicked as well as the meters carried though over half of that total came against France where he was used for clearance kicks in preference to Ulster player Burns.

PLAYER	MINS	METERS
James Lowe	307	1058
Jamison Gibson-Park	231	854
Johnny Sexton	309	669
Conor Murray	150	561
Hugo Keenan	400	299
Billy Burns	72	177
Garry Ringrose	320	139
Robbie Henshaw	378	107
Jordan Larmour	86	87
Keith Earls	330	45
Team Totals	5921	4040

Lineout Success

Ulster’s Henderson was the main go to jumper in the lineouts, closely followed by Beirne. James Ryan would have had a similar total if he had been available for more minutes. Despite only being available for just over two games Ryan was the most disruptive on opponents put ins with 3 steals.

PLAYER	MINS	WON	STEALS	TOTAL
Iain Henderson	326	12	1	13
Tadhg Beirne	376	10	2	12
James Ryan	175	6	3	9
Ryan Baird	43	3	0	3
Jack Conan	113	2	0	2
Rhys Ruddock	80	2	0	2
CJ Stander	383	1	2	3
Robbie Henshaw	378	1	0	1
Team Totals	5921	37	8	45

Tackles Made

The redoubtable Stander clocked up the most tackles over the series though Connors and Ryan have a higher success rate. As you would expect, 8 of the top 10 tacklers are forwards with only Robbie Henshaw and Sexton hitting those heights for the backs.

Henderson, is once again the shining light for Ulster and Rob Herring also makes the top 10.

PLAYER	MINS	TACKLES MADE	MISSED TACKLES	TACKLE SUCCESS
CJ Stander	383	47	3	94%
Iain Henderson	326	41	7	85%
Robbie Henshaw	378	40	7	85%
Tadhg Beirne	376	39	2	95%
Will Connors	195	37	1	97%
Rob Herring	280	34	5	87%
James Ryan	175	32	1	97%
Andrew Porter	183	30	3	91%
Johnny Sexton	309	30	4	88%
Cian Healy	256	29	9	76%
Team Totals	5921	617	92	87%

Turnovers Won

Beirne was lauded throughout the tournament for his breakdown work and it shows in the number of turnovers won with the Munster player well ahead of second placed Henderson.

However, Ireland’s average of just under seven turnovers per game is some distance behind those they conceded.

PLAYER	MINS	TURNOVERS WON
Tadhg Beirne	376	10
Iain Henderson	326	6
CJ Stander	383	5
James Ryan	175	3
Robbie Henshaw	378	2
Ronan Kelleher	121	2
Cian Healy	256	1
Garry Ringrose	320	1
Jack Conan	113	1
Keith Earls	330	1
Rob Herring	280	1
Tadhg Furlong	218	1
Team Totals	5921	34

Turnovers Conceded

Ireland conceded 60% more turnovers than they won, which is surprising, and Lowe was the main culprit which somewhat blighted his overall contribution.

PLAYER	MINS	TURNOVERS CONCEDED
James Lowe	307	10
Garry Ringrose	320	6
Keith Earls	330	6
Johnny Sexton	309	4
Iain Henderson	326	3
Tadhg Beirne	376	3
Billy Burns	72	2
Cian Healy	256	2
Jamison Gibson-Park	231	2
Jordan Larmour	86	2
Josh van der Flier	189	2
Ronan Kelleher	121	2
Team Totals	5921	55

Penalties Conceded

An average of around 10 penalties conceded per match would be power for the course these days and Ireland come in at 9.2.

Some of the gloss is taken off Beirne’s overall display with his total of 7.

PLAYER	MINS	PENALTIES CONCEDED
Tadhg Beirne	376	7
Cian Healy	256	4
Ronan Kelleher	121	4
Conor Murray	150	3
Dave Kilcoyne	120	3
Tadhg Furlong	218	3
Andrew Porter	183	2
Garry Ringrose	320	2
Jamison Gibson-Park	231	2
Johnny Sexton	309	2
Keith Earls	330	2
Peter O’Mahony	31	2
Team Totals	5921	46

Cards Received

I’m firmly on the side of World Rugby’s efforts to reintroduce skill at the contact area, in preference to physical assault, for the safety of players. It’ll be difficult for players who have been coached throughout their careers to push the boundaries of physical domination but the game should be better and open to more players when we come out the other side.

Given their limited numbers in big physical specimens Ireland should be moving the emphasis away from contact and making the ball do a bit more work.

PLAYER	MINS	YELLOW	RED
Peter O’Mahony	31	0	1
Bundee Aki	64	0	1
Conor Murray	150	1	0
Team Totals	5921	1	2

All the Ireland player stats provided by aws