Schmidt praises Best as he confirms hooker for World Cup captaincy

Joe Schmidt praised Rory Best’s work ethic and ability to bounce back from is personal Twickenham disappointments as he confirmed the veteran hooker as Ireland’s captain to lead his team into the World Cup in Japan.

Best, 37, has announced he is to retire following his fourth and final World Cup appearance this autumn having previously played in the 2007, 2011, and 2015 campaigns. Yet there were question marks raised in some quarters as to whether he would even make the final squad of 31 following a below-par performance in a misfiring team that was hammered 57-15 by England at Twickenham on August 24.

Those questions were answered today as Schmidt not only included the Ulsterman but confirmed he would continue as Ireland skipper when the men in green kick off their pool campaign against Scotland in Yokohama on Sunday, September 22. The Ireland boss did, however, admit to doubting whether Best would come through an arduous pre-season camp.

“I think there’s always doubt in your mind when you first start a Rugby World Cup build-up because people have to get through that period of hard work and it’s testing for everyone including Rory,” Schmidt said.

“I felt he worked really hard. It wasn’t a great game against England and, again, without taking away all of the responsibility from the players, I knew we were heavy-legged, I knew we weren’t going to be at the top of our game.

“If you’re trying to get the balance of ‘when do we most need to play well?’, it’s still in three weeks’ time. Nobody wins a Rugby World Cup at a pre-World Cup Test match. We knew it was part of a process but even then it was incredibly disappointing.

“But in that game, I still felt that Rory, despite the lineout not functioning very well, around the park he did a good job. In the last 20 minutes at the weekend (off the bench against Wales last Saturday) I felt he led the scrum, he made a dozen tackles in 20 minutes. That’s not a guy who’s miles away from being at his best.”

Another seasoned Ireland campaigner was not so lucky. Lock Devin Toner, 33, was one of the big names omitted from the final 31-man squad as Schmidt included twice-capped Jean Kleyn and his Munster team-mate Tadhg Beirne to augment expected Test starting second-rowers James Ryan and Iain Henderson.

Schmidt, who had coached Toner at Leinster prior to taking the Ireland job in 2013, and turned the 6ft 7ins lock into a Test mainstay, had nothing but sympathy for the veteran.

I've coached Dev for 10 years and he's not just a lineout champion for us, he's such a good player but he's also an absolutely quality person. That was an incredibly tough conversation yesterday.

"Jean Kleyn, we probably don't have a specialist tighthead second row, as such, and again at the start, I said about the balance that we're looking for across that squad of 31. Jean Kleyn fitted that.

"Tadhg Beirne gives you the versatility of the second row - and he's teamed up very well with Jean Kleyn in Munster this year - but he also gives you the threat over the ball like a six or seven and he can play in the back row, he obviously did for us on the weekend.

"James Ryan made an immediate impression coming back into the side (last Saturday) and Iain Henderson, who has promised so much, has performed at times incredibly well for us and we're going to need him to very much put his best foot forward. It was a very tight decision around Dev as well."