Will Joe Schmidt’s bold approach pay?

Joe Schmidt has never been one to shirk the difficult decisions. If anything, he has a reputation for being direct and letting players know exactly where they stand and what is expected of them.

Yet even he appreciates his name was just about the last thing any of his players wanted to see coming up on their phones last Sunday. A call from Joe only meant one thing.

The World Cup is the Olympics of rugby. Four years is a long time to wait for the next event if Joe has just delivered bad news.