Joe Schmidt craving consistency as excuses start to wear thin

Joe Schmidt will have to try and park the “what ifs” of a miserable night in Cardiff as the prospect of a visit to Dublin from Grand Slam-chasing England looms on Saturday.

With Ireland’s own Six Nations title aspirations buried by Wales on Friday at the Principality Stadium, head coach Schmidt’s side are now reduced to the role of spoilers when opposite number Eddie Jones brings his triumphant English side to the Aviva Stadium in search of a world record 19 consecutive top-tier Test victories.

That might have been a familiar and even preferred designation for many of his predecessors in the Irish hot seat but for Schmidt, slayer of the All Blacks, Wallabies and Springboks in 2016, it will not sit comfortably at all.

For all the joyous verve shown by Ireland in November, when New Zealand and Australia were beaten to complete a first sweep of individual Test wins over the Southern hemipshere’s big three, consistency of performance as well as results has eluded Schmidt’s side and last weekend in Wales the rollercoaster ride, having crested against France at home a fortnight earlier, plunged into another big dip.

The 22-9 loss to a Wales side scrambling to stay in the top eight of the world rankings after consecutive defeats to England and Scotland was Ireland’s second away defeat of the 2017 campaign and marked an abrupt end to the chase for a third title in four years.

The Scots had dealt Schmidt’s players a hammer blow in the opening round at Murrayfield as a side seen as serious contenders to regain the Six Nations crown from England following their stellar autumn were caught napping in Edinburgh.

Two wins, over Italy and France, and five weeks later, they were simply outsmarted in Cardiff, on the wrong end of a three tries to nil scoreline, undone by a limited, misfiring lineout and outgunned at the breakdown by the superb Welsh trio of Justin Tipuric, Sam Warburton and Ross Moriarty.

It all leaves Ireland in a pretty sorry position as the focus turns on the unenviable task of trying to stop an England side who put in their best performance of the championship at Twickenham the following day to demolish a fancied Scotland side 61-21 and secure a successful title defence with a game to spare.

Schmidt, who had targeted a top-two finish before the championship and could still achieve that if Ireland upset the odds this weekend, was as upbeat as he could be last Friday night as he searched for reasons to be positive about the final round of the championship.

His assessment, though, was in part based on a string of what might have beens, not least what seemed a certain try from a driving maul undone by Robbie Henshaw’s intervention ahead of the ball when Ireland could have got back to level terms with a conversion at 15-15 with 10 minutes to go.

“I really feel we were incredibly close and I know 22-9 does not look like that, but 15-9 with us going over the line, and us having a five-metre scrum, it is incredibly close. But it is professional sport, international rugby, where you are assessed on your result, not necessarily your performance,” Schmidt said.

“But I do think when people look back through that, they will see some really strong elements of performance, and that includes both sides of the ball.

“The pressure we put on early … While we conceded three tries, one of them was a charge down (replacement Jamie Roberts in the 79th minute), one was when we were a player short in the sin bin (George North’s 44th minute second of the night after Johnny Sexton’s 37th minute yellow card) and the other was when we had to make a change because of a head injury assessment (Sexton again, replaced by Paddy Jackson as North grabbed his first in the 20th minute).

“And at the same time, on the other side of the ball, we got incredibly close. To bounce back from that is difficult but I know that this group of players are incredibly good to work with, are incredibly resilient and I think they have demonstrated that before.

“They showed it during the game against Australia and I think they have a fantastic chance this coming week to demonstrate that from week to week and get something out of the championship because I just think there are so many really good teams involved. And if we can finish in the top half, I don’t think all is lost as a result. So we have to chase that result.”