Bruised Ireland in ‘foreign territory’, admits Schmidt

We are, Joe Schmidt admits, in uncharted waters. That’s not the sort of statement we expected to hear from the Ireland head coach at this point in the World Cup cycle. Unexplored horizons have been reached time and again during his term in charge but the new lands discovered have invariably been sunlit and grounds for contentment.

Not this time. The predicament in which Ireland find themselves just four weeks out from a Pool A opener against the Scots in Yokohama is an unsettling desert devoid of positivity. Shipping 57 points to England in Twickenham has induced a sense of disorientation as the long trip to Japan beckons. “It’s foreign territory to us,” the Kiwi said yesterday. “We’ve never been in a situation where we’ve been out of a game like that before. Well, not in my six-and-a-half years. So, as I’ve said, I’m looking forward to the players getting out there this week and next and proving that that’s an aberration. That doesn’t reflect us.”