Joe Schmidt must balance Australia ambition with big picture

Ireland touch down in Brisbane today with head coach Joe Schmidt striving to find a balance between the long-term objective of a history-making World Cup campaign and the more immediate desire to extend a record unbeaten run with a series win over Australia.

With the first of three Tests against Michael Cheika’s Wallabies looming in seven days at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium, Schmidt will take his Grand Slam-winning 32-man squad, missing injured captain Rory Best, an hour up the road to a Gold Coast hideaway near Surfers Paradise to shake the long-haul flight out of the players’ leg and begin preparations for a Test series that could provide the ideal springboard into next season and the countdown to the 2019 World Cup in Japan.

Ireland has 12 Tests over the next 12 months that will inform Schmidt and his coaching team as to which players he wants for the final run-in to an opening Pool A game against Six Nations rivals Scotland in Yokohama on September 22, 2019.