Ever since Joe Schmidt took over as Ireland coach there has been criticism of the style in which his team plays, but while very few were calling for a change when Ireland won back to back Six Nations championships, the manner of our Rugby World Cup exit coupled with the two performances against Wales and France have sparked more criticism of the Irish style of play, and widespread call for change.
With England coach Eddie Jones even describing the Irish game plan as an 'Aussie Rules game', the low-risk kicking game that Ireland have adopted is no longer justifiable if the results aren't there to back it up, and a more entertaining style of rugby is what the masses want to see.
One of the main complaints has been the lack of offloads and line-breaks, the latter of which there were exactly zero of against France, and Brian O'Driscoll hit the nail on the head when he explained why that was the case in his regular spot on 'Off The Ball':
Zebo a couple of years ago, against Australia, threw a great offload and it didn't go to hand but it was definitely the right option and they scored up the other end.
Now I don't know, I wasn't part of that conversation, but Joe's philosophy is that it's the right offload if it goes to hand. Sometimes, that can't be the way, you're going to lose a few offloads here and there but high risk, high reward and even risk, reward.
I feel as though there is definitely scope to throw a few more. I wonder as well on our line breaks whether we're expecting players to go through.
Players should interpret that a break is going to happen and get there and if it doesn't you just back-pedal and realign. You don't stay back.
When a line break is made you have to have the ability to react to that and see it happening in real-time as it transpires.
Spot on.
Whether it is a fear of being dropped for taking a risk, or just being instructed to stay back, Irish players never seem to gamble on their teammates making a break, and when they do evade the tackler, we often see that player isolated with no options for an offload.
O'Driscoll should be seen as the authority on line-breaks and offloads, and what he has said there is what many fans of Irish rugby have been saying in recent weeks and months.
Joe Schmidt today confirmed that youth will be given a chance in the remainder of the 2016 tournament, but whether or not a change in playing style will also be introduced remains to be seen.
BOD was speaking on Newstalk's 'Off The Ball', and you can listen back to Friday's episode here.
