Joe Schmidt not looking past Paris
The pre-championship chatter may all be about whether Ireland are NatWest 6 Nations favourites, as England head coach Eddie Jones has playfully suggested against the belief of the bookmakers, and various pundits are predicting a return to the winner’s enclosure for the men in green for the first time in three seasons.
Yet Schmidt is more concerned with the threat France pose in delivering a repeat of last year’s opening-day defeat at Murrayfield when Scotland destroyed Irish optimism at the first hurdle.
