‘UPSWING’ WAS THE word Joe Schmidt kept coming back to yesterday as he attempts to move his Ireland team on from a low point.
There weren’t many consolations surrounding the record loss to England, but the fact that such a performance came before, and not during the World Cup, is some small mercy.
The knowing barbs from Warren Gatland yesterday were a timely reminder that this will be no gentle landing for Ireland after they spun out in Twickenham. Good. Further testing and scrutiny is needed. But going to Cardiff this weekend, the scene of this year’s previous low point, the head coach must hope that signs of the upturn come sooner rather than later.
Coaches continually say that the performance is their focus as opposed to the result. But in these pre-World Cup fixtures it is actually true.
Winning is far from necessary for Ireland to appear as though they are back on track to make a mark at the World Cup, restoring sound fundamentals is.
“We want our set-piece to be tested and we want our set-piece to be good. There’s an opportunity and a responsibility on our players to deliver there,” Schmidt said, and the presence of Niall Scannell and James Ryan adds confidence to scrum and line-out.
“So, starting with that… I think they’ll try to test us with some width…
“I think they will test that backline defence. We’re going to need to be better connected and deliver there.
“Across the board, I’d love to see us tested like that. I’ve no doubt Gats is getting enthusiastic about testing us there, because it’s a great opportunity for his group as well. They will be looking to try and make sure they secure their opportunity to get starting points and game-time.”
Seeing the perspective of the other side is important, of course, because that is part of the explanation Schmidt provides for last Saturday’s demolition at the hands of England.
At the World Cup the stakes will be the same for everyone, but Schmidt’s view of Twickenham is that England were at a different point in their preparation and Ireland, perhaps daunted by facing Eddie Jones’ suped-up side while fatigue filled their own legs, subconsciously sought shelter from the punishing physical threats wearing red roses.
The message for this much-changed matchday squad is to forget the humbling that came before, come out fighting for a spot on the plane to Japan.
The message is probably to keep your belief. Not to go into your shell. You can’t afford to go into your shell now. We’ve got two games left, we have to get out and express ourselves, we have to get out and play the game.
“I think the worst thing for us to do would be to be conservative or to take a step backwards because we’re hesitant or we’re not utterly confident in what we’re doing or the people either side of us.
“And there’s a little bit of a difficulty with that because Will (Addison) hasn’t started at fullback for us for a year. We’ve got a few different combinations. Kieran and Jack is a combination at least and Jack knows Bundee well but Chris and Bundee haven’t had a lot of time together.”
After then running through the combinations of his pack, the Kiwi adds: “but we need to accelerate some of the combinations because that’s kind of part of the formula.
“Usually when you’re getting ready for a Test match it’s about ‘right, how can we best take our opportunities and maximise our opportunities to destabilise our opponent?’
“At this stage it’s really about how can we best maximise our opportunities to get some combinations together so that, no matter what happens in the World Cup, we can balance up and have different guys slot in and be comfortable enough…
“We need guys to be comfortable with different systems, because that gives certainty to a player. He can predict, reasonably, what the guys either side of him are going to do so he knows what his role is.”
So there will be an element of tinkering. It’s too much to expect a full about turn with Ireland humming as a finely oiled machine this weekend. But there ought to be signs of it.
“There is a degree of disappointment that we haven’t got up and running at any express rate, but it is kinda trying to make sure we are on an upswing when we get to Japan not already having hit the peak of what we are doing and starting to taper or getting comfortable.
“We want to make it a little uncomfortable because Scotland are going to make it thoroughly uncomfortable.”
As Wales and England (twice) have done this year already.
Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey and Bernard Jackman try to identify how Ireland can get back on track after Twickenham.
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