'Defensively it's all hands on deck' - Ringrose ready for 50th cap

In the last couple of seasons, Garry Ringrose has earned a reputation as one of the best defensive readers in the game.

The Leinster centre's stats book at the end of most games tend to show up multiple missed tackles, but to take those numbers at face value would be to miss the point entirely.

For both , Ringrose is given licence to shoot up in the defensive line and force pressure, and a look back through the tape in most games shows that an missed tackle for him often leads to a dominant tackle for someone else.

The tricky part is knowing when to hold position and when to charge up, and it takes a lot of study in advance.

"It's probably understanding what the philosophy of the team is and what they're trying to achieve," he says, when asked about the art of making those defensive reads.

"But then on the day it's reading body language, reading triggers across the whole back line and then ultimately where the ball is in the half-backs, you're trying to figure out what they're trying to achieve."

That's easier said than done against Scotland and Finn Russell this Sunday, with the Racing 92 out-half one of the most exciting and unpredictable 10s in the game. It's often been said his teammates don't know what he'll do next, and if that's the case, then how can the opposition read it?

"I mean, he's an exceptional player, week-in, week-out he does things that not many in world rugby can do so he's the kicking threat, he's the passing threat which means you've got to be alive out wide but if you're too wide, he takes on the line, and pumps at the line and fishes out defenders, as well as getting offloads away.

"So defensively it's all hands on deck against someone like him because he's so good."

The unpredictability of Russell has