Ronan O’Gara offers advice on how Ireland can defeat the Bok blitz.

Former Ireland flyhalf Ronan O’Gara provided some insight into how Ireland might counter South Africa’s renowned rush defense.

This weekend at the Stade de France in Paris, Andy Farrell’s Ireland will play the Springboks in what is being billed as the Pool B championship match; the winner will likely avoid France in the quarterfinals.

On RugbyPass, Jim Hamilton and the head coach of La Rochelle discussed O’Gara’s incredible time as coach of the French European champions as well as the tantalizing matchup in Saint-Denis.

O’Gara, who over the past two seasons has emerged as the mastermind behind Leinster’s demise, offered his opinion on how Ireland, which is largely made up of Leinster players, might approach defeating the Springboks this weekend.
He believes that disarming the Boks’ blitz will be essential.

“You have to go through a rush defense; many people try to get around it, which, in my opinion, completely misunderstands what you’re trying to do.

“For me, the key to playing against the rush defense is to attack flailing arms.
That’s a skill in itself because if you run into bodies, you’re tackled behind the gain line and the ball will be held up and ruck speed will be four to five seconds.
But if you can identify opportunities for late footwork at the line into flailing arms, the capacity for high shots, which today is a red card or a yellow card on average, is.

Footwork and defense at the line, short passes—if you try to play long passes, long passes, they [South Africa] will eat you up with salt.
They have found exactly what they were looking for.

“What you need to do is close the gap between your nine and ten, or your first receiver.
Do you understand what I mean by “reduce your space”?
Your nine and tenth positions might only require three defenders, and your tenth position might only require three defenders for the next attacker.
They most likely have eight on the line, but you must be aware that if you can make a second pass accurately, say from nine to ten, and say ten to Bundee Aki or [Garry] Ringrose, then there is a possibility that what will happen there will be for their shooter to go for him, but he might have the ability to tip [pass].

You’ve got James Lowe or Hansen behind here [pointing behind second receiver], but they’re gone.
We’ve probably taken seven defenders because we’ve tried to pass through them here.
My theory is as follows.

“I’m biased, but you can see Paul O’Connell’s brilliance in terms of, whatever day it is, one to ten wins you a World Cup. You only need one to ten players for a game; anything more is a bonus.
However, Ireland is currently excelling in this area because players like Kelleher, Porter, and Furlong are all capable of playing the ball and are threats.
McCarthy, James Ryan, Henderson, O’Mahony, van der Flier, or Doris.
Their abilities are underappreciated because if they were wearing an All Black jersey, we’d be all over them, but that, in my opinion, is something that doesn’t receive the credit it merits.

As opposed to only having your ten and twelve years old make decisions, “They’re all good decision-makers and all.
Ireland very rarely scores in the corner, as you can see from their phase game.
It’s impressive to see how quickly we’re moving through the teams.
“.