Samoan physicality will weigh heavily on Schmidt’s mind

In the perfect world, the one the squad envisioned on the flight out to Japan, Ireland would already have their slot booked in the quarter-final by this stage.

With a nine-day break, after a predictable win over Russia, to the final pool outing against Samoa next Saturday, the blueprint for taking out South Africa in that quarter-final would already be on the table and part of the staple daily training diet, despite the necessity to deal with the specific threats the Samoans carry. Joe Schmidt and his coaching staff would be simultaneously priming two different sets of players for two diverse challenges.