Schmidt rolls out the heavy artillery for must-win Melbourne clash

Joe Schmidt put the band back together yesterday and reminded his Grand Slam winners they were the rock stars in this Test series with Australia, not the support act, writes Simon Lewis in Melbourne.

A week on from the gloom and doom of a series-opening defeat to the Wallabies that marked the end of a 12-match winning run, the head coach will tomorrow want his world number two-ranked team, a collection of Six Nations titleists, European champions, and league winners, to roll out their greatest hits and take this three-game contest into a deciding rubber in Sydney seven days later.

That the Ireland tour bus failed to start after training yesterday should not matter a jot, despite Schmidt muttering about bad omens following the late arrival in Murrayfield that preceded a 2017 opening-day defeat to Scotland.