Already, eyes are turning to the 2015 World Cup

RBS SIX NATIONS:

Very quickly afterwards, perhaps once the flight home from Paris had landed in Dublin yesterday afternoon, or more likely before, the New Zealander will have cleared his mind of the excess baggage of this winning campaign and readied it for the next task at hand — making this team of his consistently successful over a long period of time.

Saturday’s narrow, nail-biting and hugely significant win over France was a first victory in Paris since 2000 and brought with it a first Six Nations title for Ireland since the Grand Slam year of 2009. For that, the plaudits well and truly belong to Schmidt. He inherited essentially the same group of players who finished fifth in last year’s championship, restored the belief that they were a talented squad capable of beating the best and gave them the clarity of purpose not just to do their individual jobs but to unite as a collective to perform as cohesively and efficiently as any team has a right to.