Old-school values still vital in Ireland’s World Cup plans
Joe Schmidt’s Ireland squad for the first two rounds of the Six Nations is not the sort of thing, if one is being realistic, that you can sugarcoat or take the glass-half-full view if you’re not included, writes
There are 17 backs included in a squad of 39, which will be trimmed by six for the World Cup. The portents are not good for the likes of Rory Scannell, who was involved in the camp over Christmas. This isn’t a November series, so there’s no lower tier nation to be feeding new lads into.
Anyone involved at this stage and heading to camp in Portugal next week is either a proper World Cup candidate or somebody Joe and the management want to take a more forensic look at. Jack Carty is next man in at 10 after the two frontliners. That’s less of a curiosity case than Tom Farrell or Caolan Blade might be. I am disappointed not to see Rory Scannell in there, but happy that current form is being rewarded with Connacht centre Farrell. He has been very good, and to do what he did to Arno Botha with that rip for the try in the Sportsground earlier this month is rare enough at this level.
Anyone who has gotten an email — or however they do it these days — of that 39 is targeted on still being involved once the last game of the Six Nations in Wales is done and dusted.
Thereafter, there’s only seven to drop out for the World Cup.
Sean O’Brien could do with a bit of luck. Injuries are a reality of his position, given how he carries. O’Brien is all about being a nuisance and being hard, but his resilience isn’t just physical. It’s mental, and that’s crucial to keep him coming back and staying positive. I speak to Sean a bit and there’s never a sigh or a moan, never a hint of ‘jeez, give me a break, life’.
He’s made of great stuff, but it’s only when you play with a Sean O’Brien that your appreciation of what he brings increases tenfold. He is a world-class ball carrier, but he is also a world-class colleague, a team-mate of real substance, great craic, and full of energy. Schmidt doesn’t do totems, but privately he must be hoping that Sean O’Brien can stay injury-free and get some proper minutes under his belt in this Six Nations.
There are those old-school values about Sean that you don’t find about the place as much these days. Fellas like Sean Cronin, Cian Healy, and Rory Best, they are such important cogs in the wheel.
One of the oddities of rugby conversations here in New Zealand is nobody has asked me about Jacob Stockdale so far. I am wondering why. Maybe down here, they think there’s a catch. Or that he might be a one-season wonder. On the latter score, I understand the reticence to put him on a pedestal too early. They don’t tend to do that in New Zealand. Stockdale doesn’t float like a butterfly, but boy can he sting. Looking at his incredible stats, it’s easy to overlook that he went on that Irish tour to America and Japan in the summer of 2017 as a freshman. He has essentially gone from uncapped to 12 tries in 14 tests over the past 18 months. He is in his second season of international rugby and if he continues to progress at such an alarming rate in this Six Nations and into next autumn, then you are speaking of a bone fide world-class talent, but let’s just hold the bouquets for a little bit.
Defensively, he is still reliant on Andy Farrell reads and guidance and the Ulster wing has a bit to go in that regard.
However, offensively, his ability to be in the right place is uncanny. He has seven of Ireland’s last 20 tries in the Six Nations, so as goals go for the 2019 tournament, three tries is a starting point. His key goal, however, must be backing up 2018, season after season, rather than having one worldie of a campaign.
What this season will determine for the likes of Stockdale is the capacity to retain the X factor, that unreadable quality that opposition video analysis doesn’t deliver. Where opponents know what he is going to do, but seem powerless to prevent it.
That quality is priceless for any international head coach. There is so much information out there now that getting blindsided by a lack of information or data on an opponent is completely careless.
There are, on the other hand, theorists out there who will convince you that a few bolters or wild cards up the sleeve is essential. It’s really not.
The number of bolters in the Irish squad will probably be less than any other nation in the northern hemisphere, and that’s a good thing. World Cup bolters will be higher among the more unsettled squads in 2019. France is an easy example, and they’re exceptional in this regard, but you could have up to half a dozen players with less than five caps featuring in their spring and autumn squads. Warren Gatland will hardly change his style now of giving youth its head and Scotland and England both announced Six Nations squads with a good chunk of new caps this week.
Ironically, in New Zealand, the issue is more a delicate balancing act between protecting their key frontliners all the way through to the World Cup, while keeping them at the right competitive pitch.
There is no Six Nations to be preparing for. The Rugby Championship will be played in a truncated format and the All Blacks are now on their summer holidays and taking an extended break with a view to peaking for the World Cup — even if that means their involvement in the Super Rugby campaign is limited.
Schmidt may be leaving Ireland after the World Cup, but it’s nothing compared to the new, blank page New Zealand rugby will begin 2020 with. It’s a happy coincidence for the NZRU that this World Cup is in Japan. Rugby relations between the two countries will only flourish during and after the tournament, with a host of All Blacks set to play their rugby there next year. That will suit the NZRU just fine and not just geographically. New Zealand officials will have no problem seeing their star players like Beauden Barrett, Ryan Crotty, Kieran Read, and many others who have the potential to still be All Blacks in 2023, playing their rugby in Japan in 2020 and 2021, because they will feel they can have some semblance of control of those players in that environment, while also keeping the wage bill at home down to manageable levels.
These would essentially be two-and-a-half year sabbaticals in Japan, which would give far greater scope for longevity than slogging their way through an 11-month season in France’s Top 14, for instance.
OF more immediate concern to Irish fans is the final round of the Champions Cup this weekend. Or what we used to call Munster time. A Saturday evening, final-round game against English opposition. A quarter-final on the line. It’s hard to see Exeter destroying that dynamic at Thomond.
It wasn’t nice to read Simon Zebo’s tweet after Racing’s visit to Belfast last Sunday. Ulster Rugby will get a grip on that situation quickly, I expect, and Zeebs will think no less, or no more, of Ulster because of what one hopes is an isolated example of really poor judgment. He isn’t the first or won’t be the last to get the bird at Ravenhill.
They probably don’t like him because he’s good, and that’s OK.
