No room for sentiment as Schmidt gets down to business

So now the real work begins. The debates over squad selection are over, at least inside the Irish camp, and now comes the business end of Joe Schmidt’s preparations for Japan and the 2019 World Cup.

Just 19 days and one final preparatory game, against Wales in Dublin this Saturday, for the Ireland head coach to fine-tune his chosen 31 players ahead of the Pool A campaign, which starts on Sunday, September 22 against Scotland in Yokohama’sInternationalStadium, Schmidt will be relieved to return to the training ground this week after negotiating the least pleasurable part of his role, telling the nine players in the training squad they were not on the plane, though time and injury tolls may see them make it big in Japan eventually before the tournament is over.