Schmidt focuses on southern scalp
The Ireland head coach has named a 37-man squad for the three Tests at the Aviva Stadium which begins against the Springboks on Saturday, November 8, takes in Georgia a week later and concludes against the Wallabies on November 22.
Schmidt’s first season in charge, having succeeded Declan Kidney in April 2013, ended in glory with the RBS 6 Nations title but it began shakily with a home defeat to Australia followed by a heartbreaking last-minute defeat to New Zealand, and with the 2015 World Cup now less than a year away, a victory over a southern hemisphere big gun would be a huge psychological boost for his players.
“If you offered me one, I’d grab it,” Schmidt said. “Without a doubt, we’d love to get a result because one of the things about the performance against New Zealand, we didn’t get the result but the Six Nations was sold out a hell of a lot quicker than it had been in recent times.
“In a funny way we did get confidence out of the performance against New Zealand. We didn’t get the scalp but getting as close as we did and seeing some aspects of what we did that we were trying to develop and the way we were playing, ‘look lads, if this works against these guys we can make it work against these other guys’.
“I’d love to get one of those two results. I think it would be fantastic for us as a rugby nation.”
Schmidt was unable to pick 15 players due to injury and will be missing some integral components from his starting XV this November, not least the ball-carrying prowess of forwards Cian Healy and Sean O’Brien. All of which should lead to a tempering of expectations for Ireland in the month ahead, with a lot, Schmidt suggested, depending on this weekend’s Champions Cup pool games involving the Irish provinces.
“You don’t have 15 injuries and presume that anything is going to happen. We have to try to make as much of the progress happen as we can, with some lesser experienced guys, but it’s an exciting opportunity for them.
“Where we finished and where we start are two different paces as well because the last time we were together was the end of the June series and now we are at the start of November. Inevitably if you haven’t done something in an environment for that length of time apart from a couple of one-night camp stays, you’re playing a little bit of catch-up and I think one of the determining things is going to be the condition the players turn up in on Tuesday, based on how tough the weekend is.
“Saracens are going to be massively physical in Thomond Park on Friday night, Toulon are going to turn up (at Ulster) at 1pm Saturday knowing they have to be better than last week where they were tested by Scarlets at home, and going to Castres for the second year in a row where last season they were down by three tries before they really got up and running, Leinster are going to know they can’t do a repeat of Sunday against Wasps. They don’t want to be chasing the game.
“Therefore physically from the start there is going to be a little bit of attrition in the weekend. How much we can get done between Tuesday and Friday is probably going to be compromised by the physical condition and the mental wear and tear you get from these back to backs.”
The Ireland coach gives his lowdown on his squad’s five uncapped players.
“He’s had a really good season with Connacht and that was represented in the performances against some pretty tough teams. His performance against Jack McGrath and Cian Healy in the Leinster derby spoke volumes for him.”
“He’s a cracking young kid. There’s lots of scope on his frame to grow into the second row that can have a long-term future. But, you take out Donnacha Ryan, Iain Henderson, Dan Tuohy, suddenly look at guys you can’t pick, the likes of Kane Douglas and Franco van der Merwe, and you’re looking at guys you think have potential, and Dave Foley’s got potential, so he’s in the group.”
“Darragh’s got the scope to play on the wing as well. He’s a big kid at 6’2”/6’3” and he has some scope about him as well. He is a kid we just wanted to get into the environment because we don’t know much about him. I know Andy Conway well, I know Darragh Fanning well so they are very much on our radar and this young fellow is a bit of a long-term investment to see how he goes in the environment and to learn a bit more about him.”
“The only thing I’ll say is that I’ll have a better idea (about him) in two weeks, to be honest. I’d know a lot more about Robbie (Henshaw), and I think he has started the season very, very well. So trying to compare him with someone I know less about is a little bit difficult. I’d rather just work our way through that and see what comes of it, in terms of decisions we make closer to match days.”
“He’s not a fresh face to me. This is a kid who had a string of injuries who has come back to form. There has been some untidy aspects to his game but I think we have all seen just enough glimpses of him, probably, earning an opportunity to be involved in the camp and for us to probably get a look at Dominic Ryan who is back playing rugby, as opposed to the Dominic Ryan whom I was coaching four or five years ago.”
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