World Cup will dictate how this team is remembered
Too many injuries, we said. Short-term pain, we said. Don’t panic, we said, it’ll all pay off in the long run. As November wound on and Ireland ticked wins over South Africa, Georgia and Australia off their list, more than one person mentioned that particular column. The phrase ‘In Joe We Trust’ might have been mentioned once or twice, too.
So, mea culpa. I got it wrong. Yeah, yeah, not for the first time either. Point taken. And look at us all now. Not just Six Nations champions but favourites and all, what with England and France to visit Dublin and an injury imprint that is considerably lighter than it was before Christmas, even if some big names won’t be available in Rome tomorrow.
So, the cautionary note first.
This tournament has been knocking about in its various guises — Home Championship, Five Nations and now Six Nations — since 1883 and only once in all that time have Ireland won the thing outright back-to-back. That was in 1948/49. Scotland haven’t done it since 1904 and Wales have managed it just the once since their golden era in the 1970s.
Only England and France, with their demographic and financial advantages, have made a habit of claiming the trophy in clusters so it goes without saying that, should Ireland retain their title when all is said and done next month, then it will stand as a singular triumph in the history of the sport on thisisland.
That’s obviously not to be sniffed at.
The thing is — and there is always a ‘thing’, isn’t there? — this Six Nations will not be the event that crystallises this team’s place in our affections, or their own, regardless of what does or doesn’t happen this next seven weeks. That status can only belong to the World Cup that kicks off in England seven months from now.
You won’t get Joe Schmidt or any of his coaching and playing staff to back you up on that in public. The very mention of the World Cup is habitually brushed aside as some impossibly distant and exotic location that their imaginations can’t even comprehend on the few occasions it is introduced to the conversation at the team’s media engagements.
The reality in private is very different. The IRFU and, in particular, team manager Mick Kearney have long since completed the basic logistical preparations required to make matters move smoothly in England next autumn. Hotels, transport, food. It’s all been sorted. So, can anyone honestly think the same foresight hasn’t gone into the on-field side of things?
It’s a delicate balancing act, obviously. There is the need to win now as well as the imperative of winning later and the epidemic of injuries this season (something that seems to be all the more common in rugby these days) has seen Schmidt cast his net particularly wide in the season-and-a-bit he has been in charge.
The absence of in and around 20 internationals because of injury at the time meant that Ireland used 33 players last November. That number can be framed in a far more dramatic light by comparing it to the Six Nations last year, which Ireland won when Schmidt utilised just 29 players across five games rather than just three.
Add in the sweeping changes that always accompany games against tier two nations, such as that against Georgia three months ago, and the widespread use of personnel that was necessitated in that Guinness Series is obvious. The benefits are already being felt in an expanded strength in depth and that is a basic building block for any World Cup.
Schmidt has used a total of 52 players in his 13 Tests to date. Thirteen debuts have been made — eight home debuts alone against the Georgians — but bald statistics fail to fully explain the means by which Ireland’s options have expanded. For that you need to consider some of those whose international careers have been re-energised.
Andrew Trimble, though currently injured, is the most obvious example given his resurrection last season. Rhys Ruddock has returned after a four-year absence, Tommy O’Donnell made his Six Nations debut 12 months ago and Ian Keatley and Felix Jones have followed similar paths back from obscurity.
Schmidt has had some good fortune along the way, too. Brian O’Driscoll aside, there have been few if any retirements under his watch and even the No. 13’s departure was flagged well in advance thus allowing everyone — both players and coaches — to indulge in copious amounts of succession planning prior to it.
But we’ve been here before, haven’t we?
In 2007 and 2011 there were grounds to believe that Ireland were finally posed to break the glass ceiling that was the quarter-final stage of the World Cup and nobody needs a refresher course on how they ended. So, let’s not all make any grand predictions just yet. November alone should have taught so us that.
Still, though, it’s teed up nicely, isn’t it?
* Email: brendan.obrien@examiner.ie
* Twitter: @Rackob
