Joe Schmidt: We must keep our discipline

Joe Schmidt branded Wales’s scrummaging against Ireland last season as exasperating, but said it was up to Ireland to keep their penalty count in single digits when the countries clash in tomorrow’s Six Nations opener at Aviva Stadium (3pm).

Ireland won the championship for a second year in succession under head coach Schmidt in 2015, despite losing an epic round four encounter with Warren Gatland’s Wales in Cardiff. It denied the Irish a shot at a first Grand Slam since 2009, and a high penalty concession rate by Schmidt’s side was a considerable factor in the reverse, the Welsh having jumped out into a 12-0 lead after 12 minutes in a game they won 23-16 at the Millennium Stadium.

Ireland conceded 11 penalties to Wales’s 12 that March day, including a controversial scrum penalty award by Wayne Barnes against the Irish pack on an Irish put-in in the game’s final play.