CJ Stander and Jack Conan are both the prime candidates to be Ireland’s No.8 this November. The Munster man holds the edge but today’s performance needs addressing.
After 20 minutes of Munster’s match with Leinster at the Aviva Stadium, Stander had made just one tackle and two carries for barely any metres gained. Not to worry, we assured ourselves.
By half-time the carry count was five. You suspected he’d make a big play early in the second half and get into his stride but it never materialised so. He ended up making 22 metres off nine carries and passing on possession another couple of times. He stuck nine tackles and missed one.
There was his successful stint as Munster hooker but, that aside, there was little good to remember on his 100th appearance for the province.
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How Leinster treated Stander was interesting and it will be an issue Munster will try to address in the coming weeks. Leo Cullen and Stuart Lancaster had obviously been watching the British & Irish Lions closely during the summer as Leinster’s tactics to deal with Stander were similar to how the New Zealand sides did it.
In a nutshell, ramp up the line-speed and smother the big ball-carrier before he has a chance to build any momentum.
The first instance of this was as early as the second minute. Stander took a pass in midfield but Johnny Sexton was on him in a split second and wrapped a high tackle around him. The support arrived in the form of Rhys Ruddock and there was almost a turnover but Leinster hooker James Tracy knocked on when attempting the poach.
Later in the half, the moment Andrew Conway pitched a pass to Stander, Sexton was there again.
Sexton was all over Stander today pic.twitter.com/v6RerO3hvj
— Pat McCarry (@patmccarry) October 7, 2017
We asked Leinster head coach Leo Cullen, following his side’s 23-17 victory, if Stander had been targeted as a key man to shut down. He responded:
“Oh, he’s such a key player for their game. Exactly.
“He’s such a strong carrier, the way he’s able to sit forward and even wen he gets hit behind the gainline he has this ability to be able to ride his way through the contact and gain those extra three, four, five metres.
“He’s definitely someone we targeted because he’s such a key individual for them. I thought the guys showed pretty good line-speed. A couple of times Stander got a bit of momentum but, over the course of the game, that was a pleasing aspect.”
Leinster treated him with professional disdain. To see him made metres was an affront to the Leinster game-plan and they went out there – each and every player – to eat up his space; get in his face.
It wasn’t just Rhys Ruddock, Conan and Sexton that were stepping up to the task. Barry Daly and Rory O’Loughlin double-teamed at one stage, and Henshaw threw every bit of himself into another tackle soon after.
Conan had a quieter than usual afternoon’s work, too, and second clean break of the match resulted in a turnover as his offload landed plum in the retreating Peter O’Mahony’s arms. He had one superb turnover, late in the second half, when he planted the feet when Conor Murray attempted to scramble through and won his side a penalty.
Himself and Stander had only one notable encounter during the match. On 32 minutes, Conan burst forward on a carry and jutted inside Stander’s attempted tackle. As he was for most of his decent stint, Tommy O’Donnell was there in support and scragged the Leinster man to the turf.
Stander had the least effective game we have seen from him in 2017. He sat Ruddock down on one occasion but there was little else to set the pulse throbbing. Even when he was playing on an injured ankle, back in April and May, he carried with more intent and posed more threats.
At the Aviva Stadium, in the biggest game of the season so far, he was strangely muted.
As he said himself at the PRO14 launch, back in late August, he is attempting to add some wrinkles to his attacking game. As soon as he started making waves in the international game, the scrutiny and video analysis was ramped up.
He was looked upon as a man who would carry 90% of the time he had the ball in hand. Opposition players braced themselves whenever he got the ball as they knew he was intent on bulling forward.
It was a disjointed effort from Munster – attempting to get some width into their game without paying hard-carrying dues and making sloppy errors – and their usual talisman could not dig them out with a big moment or two.
One suspects Stander will click into gear in the coming weeks but Munster will have noted, like the rest of us, how teams are attempting to shut the big man down.
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