All-Blacks heartbreak belongs to the past as Schmidt targets Six Nations

Any thoughts that Ireland’s loss to the All Blacks last month may have been some kind of moral victory have been quashed by Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt.

That defeat, he conceded, was the worst of his career to date after targeting the game as the definitive match from their November series.

“Yeah. Unequivocally. Just because you can’t come that close and not deliver the final bit. There are elements of it that we didn’t control but there are elements that we did control that we didn’t quite nail and you can’t afford to grab the tag of gallant loser,” Schmidt remarked at the Ulster Bank League Awards yesterday in Lansdowne FC.