Fringe players lick wounds as Schmidt wields axe

The first cut is the deepest.

That is certainly the way the 12 players jettisoned by Joe Schmidt from Ireland’s Six Nations squad will have felt yesterday as the 34 survivors returned to camp at Carton House to prepare for the opening two games of the championship.

Schmidt’s job as national head coach requires him, of course, to make the tough decisions and having picked so large a training group initially, he gave his fringe players every opportunity to impress both in camp last week and for the Wolfhounds on Saturday against the Saxons.