Edinburgh come next February will be a real sticky affair

France won’t win next year’s Six Nations championship for the very reason Joe Schmidt’s Ireland just might: discipline, writes Ronan O’Gara.

Amidst the blizzard of statistics sport throws around these days, one stands tall and above everything else in the four years since I’ve stopped playing rugby: Ireland conceding a total of 11 penalties in three tests against the All Blacks and Australia.

The rule of thumb has been, keep it below 10 penalties and a team gives itself a more than even chance. That’s for one game. Conceding 11 against the most attack minded test sides in the world, over the course of three matches, is stunning. I’m just shook by it. It has the capacity to redefine the way coaches think about the sport, about their preparation.