THE PHYSICAL DEMANDS on international rugby players mean their coaches rarely get more than two pitch sessions per week in which to make tactical and technical improvements.

Any more time on their feet and the players would potentially head into games with a lack of energy and dynamism. The balancing act applies to every facet of the game, including the all-important scrum and maul.

These are obviously particularly attritional areas of the sport, asking intense physical questions of the players involved. Over-repping the scrum, for example, during the week is a potential recipe for disaster before facing a world-class side like Australia.

Still, Ireland get through live scrummaging in between matches, with at least one heavy session each week, usually during their Tuesday pitch session. Yesterday, Ireland’s second-string front row packed down against the starters for the Australia Test, despite a few aches and pains from last weekend’s encounter with Georgia.

“You definitely have to do a good amount to get a good hit,” outlines prop Jack McGrath, who is almost certain to be back at loosehead on Saturday.

Scrum coach Greg Feek oversaw that bout of scrums as always, pushing the players as much as Ireland’s strength and conditioning staff would allow. Much of the rest of the heavy scrum work is done through video analysis.

McGrath and his front row teammates spend a large portion of their off-feet training time in front of the computer or laptop poring over footage of their own scrums and those of the upcoming oppositon.

McGrath goes up against Rodney Ah You at scrummaging practice. Source: Inpho/Billy Stickland

The Leinster prop explains that many of the week-to-week changes to Ireland’s scrum are built upon that video analysis, where the players and coaches pick out weaknesses in their opponents and in their own scrummaging work.

“There is a lot of video work; you have to adapt your scrum. The way the game has gone, every opponent you come up against, there’s so much video analysis that they can even change their set-up or what they’re going to be doing.

Ireland’s maul has served up some fine examples of pre-planned moves leading directly to tries over the last year, and again McGrath indicates that video analysis has an integral role to play.

When we see Ireland scoring a try like the one Rhys Ruddock finished against South Africa, it’s easy to imagine that forwards coach Simon Easterby has been driving his pack through rep after rep on the training ground to ensure that every player knows their role.