Schmidt: Patience key to unlocking Azzurri

Ireland return to the Aviva Stadium today, buoyed by their great escape in Paris and armed by both history and form to overcome Italy and make it two wins from two in the 2018 NatWest 6 Nations Championship.

Never will the Aviva appear so much of an Irish stronghold as it will to the visiting

Italians, having achieved just two victories, both at Murrayfield, in their 45 away games in this championship and without a Six Nations win anywhere in 13 consecutive matches.

A 14th defeat in a row today will equal their unenviable tournament record, set during a losing run from 2000 and 2002, and the statisticians have also been cruel enough to highlight the bizarre fact that the Azzurri have never won in round two of the Six Nations.

To change that dismal collection of dubious feats would require the delivery of a first home championship defeat since England came to Dublin five years ago and won 12-6 and, for all head coach Conor O’Shea’s laudable positivity and intelligence about the way forward for Italian rugby, today does not look like the moment fortune will favour his side.

If that is the case and Ireland are to win today in the teeth of an expected downpour then it is the manner of the performance that will determine the level of success achieved by Joe Schmidt’s team.

Last weekend, their championship got up and running by the skin of its teeth, albeit by a hugely impressive team effort to thread together 41 phases before Johnny Sexton executed the most sublime of pressure-filled drop goals from long-range.

The dramatic finale capped an otherwise forgettable and tryless performance in that 15-13 victory over France in which Ireland came second best to their hosts at the breakdown and could muster very little attacking penetration off painfully slow ruck ball that referee Nigel Owens was satisfied was not a result of French spoiling tactics, despite visual evidence to the contrary.

Ireland captain Rory Best yesterday spoke of the frustration that caused his team and the need to get a better handle on it in the breakdown contest with the Italians today.

“We want flow in our game, but at the same time we had to look back and every example we saw, where you could blame the referee, we didn’t do something right, whether it was the ball-carry, the fight on the ground, whether it was the reaction to the clean-out, whatever it was.

“I think that is something we are aware of always, from game to game, but we didn’t solve it as well as we could have. Nearly every solution is in our hands and we need to be better. It’s something that at training we are really aware of. Okay, we don’t necessarily knock lumps out of each other training at the breakdown, but we have got to get into good habits.”

For a team that scored nine tries against today’s opposition in each of the last two

seasons, there will be an expectation for Ireland supporters that Best and his players return to normal service today and the tries start to flow again. Yet, both captain and head coach have asked for patience from the Aviva Stadium against a side renowned for making life difficult in the early stages of games. Schmidt agreed that applied a different kind of pressure to Ireland.

“I think that (patience) is really important. I remember four years ago when we won the championship by points differential, we scored 19 points in the last six minutes, so if the crowd can be patient, maybe we can do something similar. Sometimes it takes a while to break a team down,” Schmidt said.

“Italy, I remember four years ago, when we did do that, they had been very close to beating Wales in the Millennium that year. It was only last year that they managed to beat the Springboks.”

Schmidt pointed to a mobile Italian pack and exciting backs, who twice carved England open last Sunday in Rome and might have done so a third time, but for a handling error, only to succumb to a late flurry of tries in a 45-16 opening defeat.

“Those sorts of things will make them hard to break down. If it takes a while, I hope the crowd can stay in behind the team.

“The only thing we can guarantee is that we will be working as hard as we can to keep them entertained and the scoreboard ticking over. How we do that? We’re going to have to vary our game and try to keep them guessing. At the same time, we will have to match a fair level of physicality.”

If Ireland do need a strong finish, then the prospect of unveiling replacements Joey Carbery and Jordan Larmour should be enough to keep Irish fans in their seats and behind the team in green. Not only them, but just as last week against the French, it was the breadth of Irish reinforcements that got the job done.

Last week was a pressure situation, as Ireland chased the game. This week, it is about closing the deal. Either way, they have the resources for a successful mission.