Joe Schmidt senses the pressure to reach old standards

Twelve months ago, Ireland were heading to Cardiff in search of the win that would keep their Grand Slam ambitions on track, only to go down narrowly in a thrilling, high-octane encounter with Wales. The game was lost but the RBS 6 Nations title would be won a week later.

A year down the road, today’s contest with Italy has none of those high stakes but the outcome is every bit as important for Joe Schmidt and his team.

Ireland on the brink or on the verge of something special? Whichever way you look at this afternoon’s Dublin meeting with the Italians, Schmidt’s side returns to the Aviva Stadium with victory an absolute must. After three games in this championship Ireland find themselves in fifth place and without a win following the opening draw with Wales and defeats in Paris and Twickenham.

The feeling within the squad is this team is on the verge of doing something special or at the very least resuming the expected levels of performance that brought back to back championships in 2014 and 15. The errors and mis-steps in conceding promising leads to Wales, France and England in the previous rounds were frustratingly avoidable and winless Italy should be the opponents on the wrong end of the payback.

Something clearly has to change if an injury-hit campaign that has so far reaped just two tries and countless debates over selection and strategy is to finish with wins over Italy and Scotland to give the Irish a much-needed lift before a daunting three-Test series in S Africa and back to back autumn Tests with All Blacks.

Defeat is inconceivable, Schmidt said as much on Thursday when he named his matchday squad, yet Ireland face a Italy side that gave them an uncomfortable evening at London’s Olympic Stadium just five months ago during the World Cup pool stages, Peter O’Mahony’s try-saving tackle on Josh Furno saving everybody’s blushes in a hard-fought 16-9 win in Stratford.

No wonder there is a sense of trepidation about the place. Ireland are in the strange position of needing a breakout performance of the sort that nearly brought New Zealand to their knees in November 2013 but in a game they are expected to win handily.

“Those performances, when we haven’t been expected to win, have come off having our backs to the wall and we feel we are there now,” captain Rory Best said yesterday. “We haven’t reached the levels that we expect of ourselves, that the coaches expect of us; we haven’t reached that this Six Nations. We have got ourselves in a position where we are against the wall so we need to come out...people expect us to beat Italy but they are a very good side. They got very close to beating France in Paris, they were in control for long periods of the tie against England and even look back to our World Cup game, that was a seven-point game right to the very end.

“They will be coming here thinking this is their big opportunity to get a scalp. That brings pressure on us. We have seen over the last three games, when the pressure comes on, what sort of player you have around you, what sort of men are out on the pitch. That’s when you hope players will stand up. I’m very sure our boys will stand up tomorrow.”

The head coach will expect his players to stand up and that means finally putting in an 80-minute-plus shift rather than clocking off for periods of the game as was the case in the three rounds to date. Against Wales, a 13-0 lead was squandered in the 10 minutes before half-time, the result a 16-16 draw. In the rain at Stade de France, the half-time 9-3 lead was surrendered with 10 minutes to go. A 10-9 defeat to the French.

And at Twickenham last time out, the first-half rearguard that kept a resurgent England at bay and gave Ireland a 10-6 lead after 45 minutes was undone by a sloppy four minutes of madness that saw Anthony Watson and Mike Brown expose the visiting defence. England 21 Ireland 10.

“What we’ve struggled to do is negotiate that final quarter of the game,” Schmidt said.

“Inevitably, when you’re drawing on your squad and extending it all the time, the full squad gets a little bit exposed with that lack of experience. It’s where we’ve got to be better this weekend.

“It won’t be good enough to be in front after 47 minutes. It won’t be good enough to be in front after 60 minutes, like we were against France.

“We’ve got to make sure that, for each segment of the game, we keep delivering, so we don’t allow them access back into the game if we get in front or we can stay really focussed on the job at hand if they get in front.”

For Schmidt the external pressure on him to get the job done today is tangible, perhaps for the first time in his 30-month tenure.

“I sense it, I’ll admit it to you, I really sense it,” he said. “I know we have to win this weekend.”

IRELAND:

S Zebo (Munster); A Trimble (Ulster), J Payne (Ulster), R Henshaw (Connacht), K Earls (Munster); J Sexton (Leinster), C Murray (Munster); J McGrath (Leinster), R Best (Ulster) captain, M Ross (Leinster); D Ryan (Munster), D Toner (Leinster); CJ Stander (Munster), J van der Flier (Leinster), J Heaslip (Leinster).

Replacements:

S Cronin (Leinster), F Bealham (Connacht), N White (Connacht), U Dillane (Connacht), R Ruddock (Leinster), K Marmion (Connacht), I Madigan (Leinster), F McFadden (Leinster).

ITALY:

D Odiete (Mogliano); L Sarto (Zebre), M Campagnaro (Exeter), G Garcia (Zebre), M Bellini (Padova); E Padovani (Zebre), G Palazzani (Zebre); A Lovotti (Zebre), D Giazzon (Treviso), L Cittadini (Wasps); G Biagi (Zebre), M Fuser (Treviso); F Minto (Treviso), A Zanni (Treviso), S Parisse (Stade Francais) - captain.

Replacements:

O Fabiani (Zebre), M Zanusso (Treviso), D Chistolini (Zebre), Q Geldenhuys (Zebre), A Steyn, A Lucchese (both Treviso), K Haimona (Zebre), L McLean (Treviso).

Referee:

Angus Gardner (Aus)