Wolfhounds give Schmidt selection headache

England Saxons 8 Ireland Wolfhounds 14

With a stiff breeze in the air and a glue pot of a pitch underfoot, Saturday’s win against a strong Saxons side did not, perhaps, provide the ideal conditions for Ireland’s fringe players to stake a claim to a place in next weekend’s Test 23. Yet the hard-fought win, the resilience in defence, the opportunism of their two tries and strength of character in adversity all pointed to a deepening of a playing pool more than ready for the highest levels of international rugby. There are limited places available for Schmidt’s Six Nations coaching debut next weekend, but he will have left Kingsholm satisfied his wider group of players are fit for purpose.

As for the immediate problems ahead of Sunday’s clash with the Scots, Schmidt will have seen selection issues intensify with those squad members left behind at Carton House over the weekend given plenty food for thought heading into this week’s final training sessions by their rivals’ performances against the Saxons.

The most obvious vacancy in the starting XV is at openside flanker, where the injured Sean O’Brien will be sorely missed. Ulster’s Chris Henry is fit again and remains the front runner to replace O’Brien, but Tommy O’Donnell in his hour at Kingsholm, followed by Jordi Murphy off the bench for the final 20 minutes, both did enough to suggest there is a three-way battle for the No.7 jersey.

Ireland’s first-choice half-backs remain Johnny Sexton, who helped steer Racing Metro to victory over Toulouse on Saturday, and Conor Murray, but their Wolfhounds counterparts Ian Madigan and Isaac Boss both did enough to put pressure on respective rivals Paddy Jackson and Eoin Reddan for covering roles off the bench. Boss had edged Reddan out for the final November Test against the All Blacks and he did himself a power of good with the opening try, sniping off the back of a driving pack, some testing box kicks and a man of the match performance.

Likewise Madigan, who was Sexton’s understudy in green under Schmidt given his versatility off the bench at inside centre and full-back, against the Saxons showed he can match Jackson as a viable fly-half starter should the Racing man’s fitness fail him along the road.

The Saxons had replied to the Boss try after Craig Gilroy had failed to collect a high pass from Felix Jones, teenage Bath winger Anthony Watson pouncing for a breakway try from the Irish 10-metre line, but it was Madigan’s quick thinking that caught the Saxons unawares after 28 minutes, his well-taken second conversion of the night sending his side into a 14-5 half-time lead they would not relinquish. As the men in white set themselves to defend what they thought would be a lineout from a kicked penalty to the corner, Madigan tapped and darted towards the line, bisecting the opposition half-backs and showing strength to plough through the tackles of centre Sam Hill and No.8 Dave Ewers.

The game also ticked a lot of boxes for those players asked to prove their fitness on the road back from injury, not least the remarkable Richardt Strauss, making light of heart surgery just last October and the most of long-term injury to rival hooker Mike Sherry and a shorter-term knock for Damien Varley to muscle his way into the reckoning off the bench for the second-half, a week after a similar outing in his comeback for Leinster the previous weekend.

“He’s resilient and he’s a little bit of an opportunist,” Schmidt said of Strauss. “It’s fantastic he is back available. I’m delighted for him personally, he’s a great fella and for him to bounce back and be available is a bit of a bonus for us.”

With Ireland’s front-row positions seemingly nailed down by Cian Healy, Rory Best and Mike Ross, the selection debate for bench positions was not helped by decisions made at the scrum by referee Ian Davies, who penalised the Irish pack on a number of occasions, annoying Wolfhounds head coach Anthony Foley and making it a difficult night for the props to impress at the coal face.

Nor was it a stroll in the park for the outside backs, with running rugby off the agenda from the moment Kingsholm was subjected to a prolonged and heavy downpour a couple of hours before kick off. It had cleared by the time the game started but a stiff breeze remained as did a sticky, heavy pitch.

Yet the Wolfhounds dealt with the adverse conditions much the better than their English counterparts, the higher Test cap count – the Saxons total of eight appearances less than the number of capped players in the Irish starting XV – eventually telling as the home side failed to rein in their expansive instincts and ran themselves into mistakes or an impressive visiting defence, both of which combined to thwart full-back Elliot Daly and then Freddie Burns as they made injury-time dives at the line during a final onslaught.

“The boys acquitted themselves quite well in those conditions,” Foley said. “It was tricky out there, wet under foot, breezy, and I thought in the first half we were unlucky not to be further ahead.

“There were a few issues there around some of the decisions that were being made, but the boys never dropped their heads, even when they got that breakaway try. They dug in, played the game in the second-half basically without the ball at times and managed to hold on at the end.

“We’ve been together since last Monday, Joe allowed us to announce the side on the first day, so we got good preparation and good chats amongst the leadership group that we had within it and the organisation and the preparation is a credit to a lot of senior players. There were a lot of fellas there with caps and it showed out there with a lot of experience, a lot of guys making good decisions.”

Indeed, Foley believes a number of his players have shown enough during their week’s preparation and the delivery of a well-executed performance under trying circumstances to add their names into Schmidt’s considerations.

“Everything gets videoed, everything gets reviewed, so the boys are in a good place for selection for Scotland and Wales.”

ENGLAND SAXONS: E Daly; A Watson, M Hopper (R Miller, ht), S Hill (H Slade, 30), C Sharples; F Burns, J Simpson (D Lewis, 75); A Waller (N Catt, 61), J George (D Ward, 64), T Mercey (S Wilson, h-t); C Matthews (E Stooke, 51), G Kruis; C Clark (capt), L Wallace, D Ewers (S Dickinson, 51).

IRELAND WOLFHOUNDS: F Jones; F McFadden, R Henshaw (I Keatley, 61), D Cave, C Gilroy (S Zebo, 51); I Madigan, I Boss (K Marmion, 70); D Kilcoyne (J McGrath, 51), R Herring (R Strauss, h-t) , M Moore (S Archer, 51); I Henderson (R Diack, 70), D Tuohy; R Ruddock (capt), T O’Donnell (J Murphy, 61), R Copeland.

Referee: Ian Davies (Wales).