The hunt switches to England

Ireland 26 Wales 3

After engineering Ireland’s best start to an RBS 6 Nations campaign since the 2009 Grand Slam and with possibly the finest performance in that time to beat Wales on Saturday, Schmidt must now train his sights on England at Twickenham.

He may well be rueing the first blank weekend of the championship given the momentum that has been built with an outstanding defeat of reigning champions Wales two days ago. Yet after giving his players a couple of days’ well-earned rest and recovery, he will gather them together in Clonmel to keep the pot boiling and plot the defeat of Stuart Lancaster’s powerful English outfit.