The Front Row Union Sport - Ireland Men: Who Did What in the Summer Series

Ireland Men: Who Did What in the Summer Series

Jul 15, 2021

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Ireland completed two matches in July as part of their Summer Series sponsored by Vodaphone. Whether the matches were necessary, after a long and difficult 18 months of practically non stop rugby for the International cohort is another matter but I’m sure that all the players that got their first caps won’t be complaining!

Ireland played teams classified as “Tier 2” opposition in Japan and the USA though there was a significant difference between the quality of the two sides, and based on the continuing growth, and style of play, of rugby in Japan it may not be that long before they are routinely beating Tier 1 sides.

The USA, however, have a bit to go, though if they do ever harness their huge player potential they could improve very quickly.

Results

SAT 3 JUL	IRELAND	39	–	31	JAPAN	AVIVA STADIUM
SAT 10 JUL	IRELAND	71	–	10	USA	AVIVA STADIUM

Players Used

Andy Farrell used 34 players over the two matches with 9 players making their senior debut’s. Munster’s Gavin Coombes picked up his first cap against Japan and Robert Baloucoune, James Hume, Tom O’Toole, Nick Timoney, Fineen Wycherley, Paul Boyle, Caolin Blade and Harry Byrne all debuted against USA.

The 34 players used had the following provincial breakdown.

Connacht	5	14.8%
Leinster	10	29.4%
Munster	10	29.4%
Ulster	9	26.4%

Minutes Played

When it comes to minutes on the pitch we see a slightly different picture as Leinster continue to dominate rugby in Ireland, with the D4 based players racking up at least 10% more game time than any of the other provinces.

Ulster’s minutes played percentage is nearly twice as high as the 12.8% minutes played they clocked up during the Six Nations.

Player Statistics

Minutes Played

Of the 34 players used, 8 played more than 80 minutes, 16 played between 40 and 80 minutes and 10 played less than 40 minutes. The full minutes played for all players is shown below.

PLAYER	PROVINCE	MINUTES
Caelan Doris	LEI	160
Hugo Keenan	LEI	160
Stuart McCloskey	ULS	160
James Ryan	LEI	160
Joey Carbery	MUN	133
Ronan Kelleher	LEI	124
Dave Kilcoyne	MUN	112
Gavin Coombes	MUN	90
Robert Baloucoune	ULS	80
James Hume	ULS	80
Jacob Stockdale	ULS	80
Josh Van Der Flier	LEI	80
Ryan Baird	LEI	78
Jamison Gibson-Park	LEI	75
Tom O’Toole	ULS	72
Peter O’Mahony	MUN	70
Finlay Bealham	CON	66
Craig Casey	MUN	63
Ultan Dillane	CON	59
Nick Timoney	ULS	53
Shane Daly	MUN	50
Ed Byrne	LEI	48
Chris Farrell	MUN	42
Andrew Conway	MUN	41
Will Addison	ULS	39
Billy Burns	ULS	38
Jordan Larmour	LEI	30
Harry Byrne	LEI	27
Paul Boyle	CON	27
Dave Heffernan	CON	26
Fineen Wycherley	MUN	23
John Ryan	MUN	22
Caolin Blade	CON	22
Rob Herring	ULS	10

Scorers

Ireland scored 110 points over the two games from 15 tries, 13 conversions and 3 penalties. All the scorers are shown below.

PLAYER	PROVINCE	MIN	TRY	CON	PEN	PTS
Joey Carbery	MUN	133		9	3	27
Ronan Kelleher	LEI	124	4			20
Stuart McCloskey	ULS	160	2			10
Finlay Bealham	CON	66	2			10
Harry Byrne	LEI	27		3		6
Hugo Keenan	LEI	160	1			5
Gavin Coombes	MUN	90	1			5
Robert Baloucoune	ULS	80	1			5
Jacob Stockdale	ULS	80	1			5
Josh Van Der Flier	LEI	80	1			5
Nick Timoney	ULS	53	1			5
Chris Farrell	MUN	42	1			5
Will Addison	ULS	39		1		2

Carries

Ireland carried for 1,137 meter. Baloucoune and McCloskey toped the meter making efforts though I’d guess it took considerably more effort for McCloskey, half of Baloucoune’s coming from a single try scoring run.

Ireland completed 259 carries with an average of 4.4 meters per carry. McCloskey, Doris and Keenan all averaged over 5 meters per carry. In a rather sedate series, by his own standards, James Ryan clocked in at 15 meters from 13 carries. The top 10 meters carried is shown below.

PLAYER	PRO	MIN	METERS	CARRIES	M/C
Robert Baloucoune	ULS	80	159	10	15.9
Stuart McCloskey	ULS	160	127	25	5.1
Caelan Doris	LEI	160	125	22	5.7
Hugo Keenan	LEI	160	110	22	5.0
Andrew Conway	MUN	41	98	7	14.0
Ronan Kelleher	LEI	124	92	21	4.4
Will Addison	ULS	39	61	8	7.6
Gavin Coombes	MUN	90	46	12	3.8
James Hume	ULS	80	41	11	3.7
Jamison Gibson-Park	LEI	75	38	6	6.3

Tackles

Ireland completed 220 tackles over the two matches. Ryan weighs in with the most tackles, with 21 fairly high considering the nature of the games, and McCloskey had a busy couple of outings adding 19 tackles to his 25 carries. The top 10 tackles, plus their missed tackles and tackle success is shown below.

PLAYER	PRO	MIN	TACKLE MADE	TACKLE MISSED	TACKLE SUCCESS
James Ryan	LEI	160	21	1	95%
Stuart McCloskey	ULS	160	19	2	90%
Caelan Doris	LEI	160	16	2	89%
Josh Van Der Flier	LEI	80	13	2	87%
Joey Carbery	MUN	133	13	6	68%
Gavin Coombes	MUN	90	12	0	100%
Ronan Kelleher	LEI	124	11	1	92%
Ultan Dillane	CON	59	10	0	100%
Dave Kilcoyne	MUN	112	9	1	90%
Ed Byrne	LEI	48	9	1	90%

Ulster Variance

We’ve summated the statistics for Ulster players only and adjusted them for the minutes played to determine if the Ulster players were under or over performing in the key areas.

This is easiest displayed in the graph below.

However if you want to look at the figures in more detail you can have a look at the contributions for each of the Provinces, for some of the stats, below. We haven’t included everything as it gets a bit messy!