JACK CARTY IS set to get his first Test start for Ireland in Saturday’s World Cup warm-up against Wales at the Principality Stadium [KO 2.30pm].
The Connacht out-half is in line to wear the number 10 shirt, having come off the bench for his previous five Ireland caps, including in last weekend’s heavy defeat to England.
With Joey Carbery currently out injured, opportunity has knocked for Carty and Ross Byrne – who wore the number 10 jersey against the English.
Carty is set to start for Ireland in Cardiff. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO
Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO
First-choice out-half Johnny Sexton is a possibility to return to Ireland’s matchday squad this weekend on the bench, although Schmidt will hold him back from his starting XV until the second clash with Wales in Dublin on 7 September, his team’s final game before flying out to Japan.
Carty’s introduction is likely to be one of many changes to the Ireland team from last weekend, with Schmidt handing opportunities to players before registering his World Cup squad with World Rugby on Monday, 2 September.
Schmidt won’t officially announce his 31-man squad publicly until Sunday 8 September, the day after the Wales clash in Dublin, and will naturally hope no one is struck by injury in that final warm-up fixture.
Schmidt looks likely to give starting chances to the likes of Kieran Marmion and Niall Scannell, while key man James Ryan, loosehead prop Dave Kilcoyne and number eight Jack Conan could make their first appearances of the season.
Munster man Peter O’Mahony is set to captain the team – possibly from openside flanker – with regular skipper Rory Best and Johnny Sexton not expected to feature in the starting line-up. Wales, for their part, are likely to name an experimental team.
26-year-old Carty will be eager to take his chance on what is a final World Cup audition at out-half, as he is set to edge out Byrne for the 10 shirt.
“Ross and Jack both need more time and my problem is we don’t have a lot more time,” said Schmidt yesterday. “There’s only this game coming up this weekend.
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“Ross didn’t train on Monday. He got a number of bangs last weekend – there was some big traffic coming down his channel [in the England game].
“So, it’s highly likely that will mean Jack will start and that’s a great opportunity for Jack. Ross started last week, that’s probably the way we would have gone anyway – to give them a start each in the absence of Joey – and if Johnny’s involved he will probably come off the bench this week anyway.
James Ryan is set to return in a boost for Ireland. Billy Stickland / INPHO
Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
“So, we’d limit Johnny’s game time to maybe 20 or 25 minutes and then try and get him 65 minutes against Wales the following week. That might be a rough sketch of where we are at the moment and then we’ll see how that is.
“If we decide to maybe give Johnny a little bit more time [i.e. not play him this weekend], then it might be Ross [on the bench] or we might even change it up again on the basis of thinking ahead if we take two out-halves and three scrum-halves [to the World Cup], who else in the backline can cover that out-half spot.”
It certainly would be intriguing to see someone other than Byrne or Sexton covering the out-half slot, although Byrne will hope for another chance after last weekend’s tough outing in London, when many of Schmidt’s senior players underperformed.
The Ireland head coach now looks likely to hold several of those players back for the final warm-up game against Wales in Dublin on 7 September, but he expressed disappointment at how some of his tried-and-tested figures showed up against England.
“I think they were disappointed,” said Schmidt, who had watched the game back in full three times by yesterday, as well as drilling into specific areas in greater detail.
“I’m always disappointed when we don’t get something right and certainly in the six and a half years I’ve been involved with Ireland, we’ve never had anything like that. There’s never been that sort of score put up against us.
“It’s foreign territory to us. So, 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.”
Schmidt says he doesn’t need to remind key leaders and senior players that no one’s spot in the starting XV or wider squad is safe.
“I don’t think I have to give that message. We don’t operate in a safe environment. Just stand in front of Manu Tuilagi when he’s running at you, a safe environment is foreign to these guys.
Schmidt wants to see his players bounce back strongly. Billy Stickland / INPHO
Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
“To say that suddenly after one poor performance that you need to throw things out is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction.
“I can’t guarantee it’s an aberration, but if you have been working with a group for six and a half years and one time, and one time only, they let a game get away from them to that extent in offering up that much lineout ball to opposition, missing that many tackles, then I have real confidence that this group will turn this around.”
Looking towards Cardiff on Saturday, Schmidt is keen for Ireland to improve their tackle success from a damaging 78% against England and stressed the importance of players “getting into good positions” defensively even before tackling.
Ireland conceded eight tries in total at Twickenham and Schmidt has real grievances with his team’s work without the ball.
“Immediately after the game, I was asked about the edges and missing tackles on the edges,” said Schmidt. “Those guys were put under pressure having to make decisions on overlaps that are tough, and we had a couple of young guys on those edges trying to make decisions because on the inside of them we didn’t quite have enough help and that’s pressure points for them.
“So if they can get a bit more help, they can try and make better decisions as well.
“We also feel some of the big lads a couple of times, the guys like Maro Itoje, when he went through the front door for his try… I mean, I think that’s one of the worst scores for us to give up.
“We’ve got two props who get in on the near side – one is kind of not sure what he’s doing and the other one steps sideways instead of stepping off the line and Itoje goes straight through. So that was particularly disappointing.
“Then we decided to defend a certain way off a scrum and three guys do that system and one guy decides not to, and Cokanasiga goes straight through and runs 35 metres to score.
“Now that’s left a little bit of a scar, to be honest, and the only way that scar heals is by making sure there’s clarity and next time out getting some more certainty in what you’re doing.”
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Carty starts at 10 and POM set to captain as Schmidt looks for response
JACK CARTY IS set to get his first Test start for Ireland in Saturday’s World Cup warm-up against Wales at the Principality Stadium [KO 2.30pm].
The Connacht out-half is in line to wear the number 10 shirt, having come off the bench for his previous five Ireland caps, including in last weekend’s heavy defeat to England.
With Joey Carbery currently out injured, opportunity has knocked for Carty and Ross Byrne – who wore the number 10 jersey against the English.
First-choice out-half Johnny Sexton is a possibility to return to Ireland’s matchday squad this weekend on the bench, although Schmidt will hold him back from his starting XV until the second clash with Wales in Dublin on 7 September, his team’s final game before flying out to Japan.
Carty’s introduction is likely to be one of many changes to the Ireland team from last weekend, with Schmidt handing opportunities to players before registering his World Cup squad with World Rugby on Monday, 2 September.
Schmidt won’t officially announce his 31-man squad publicly until Sunday 8 September, the day after the Wales clash in Dublin, and will naturally hope no one is struck by injury in that final warm-up fixture.
Schmidt looks likely to give starting chances to the likes of Kieran Marmion and Niall Scannell, while key man James Ryan, loosehead prop Dave Kilcoyne and number eight Jack Conan could make their first appearances of the season.
Munster man Peter O’Mahony is set to captain the team – possibly from openside flanker – with regular skipper Rory Best and Johnny Sexton not expected to feature in the starting line-up. Wales, for their part, are likely to name an experimental team.
26-year-old Carty will be eager to take his chance on what is a final World Cup audition at out-half, as he is set to edge out Byrne for the 10 shirt.
“Ross and Jack both need more time and my problem is we don’t have a lot more time,” said Schmidt yesterday. “There’s only this game coming up this weekend.
“Ross didn’t train on Monday. He got a number of bangs last weekend – there was some big traffic coming down his channel [in the England game].
“So, it’s highly likely that will mean Jack will start and that’s a great opportunity for Jack. Ross started last week, that’s probably the way we would have gone anyway – to give them a start each in the absence of Joey – and if Johnny’s involved he will probably come off the bench this week anyway.
“So, we’d limit Johnny’s game time to maybe 20 or 25 minutes and then try and get him 65 minutes against Wales the following week. That might be a rough sketch of where we are at the moment and then we’ll see how that is.
“If we decide to maybe give Johnny a little bit more time [i.e. not play him this weekend], then it might be Ross [on the bench] or we might even change it up again on the basis of thinking ahead if we take two out-halves and three scrum-halves [to the World Cup], who else in the backline can cover that out-half spot.”
It certainly would be intriguing to see someone other than Byrne or Sexton covering the out-half slot, although Byrne will hope for another chance after last weekend’s tough outing in London, when many of Schmidt’s senior players underperformed.
The Ireland head coach now looks likely to hold several of those players back for the final warm-up game against Wales in Dublin on 7 September, but he expressed disappointment at how some of his tried-and-tested figures showed up against England.
“I think they were disappointed,” said Schmidt, who had watched the game back in full three times by yesterday, as well as drilling into specific areas in greater detail.
“I’m always disappointed when we don’t get something right and certainly in the six and a half years I’ve been involved with Ireland, we’ve never had anything like that. There’s never been that sort of score put up against us.
“It’s foreign territory to us. So, 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.”
Schmidt says he doesn’t need to remind key leaders and senior players that no one’s spot in the starting XV or wider squad is safe.
“I don’t think I have to give that message. We don’t operate in a safe environment. Just stand in front of Manu Tuilagi when he’s running at you, a safe environment is foreign to these guys.
“To say that suddenly after one poor performance that you need to throw things out is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction.
“I can’t guarantee it’s an aberration, but if you have been working with a group for six and a half years and one time, and one time only, they let a game get away from them to that extent in offering up that much lineout ball to opposition, missing that many tackles, then I have real confidence that this group will turn this around.”
Looking towards Cardiff on Saturday, Schmidt is keen for Ireland to improve their tackle success from a damaging 78% against England and stressed the importance of players “getting into good positions” defensively even before tackling.
Ireland conceded eight tries in total at Twickenham and Schmidt has real grievances with his team’s work without the ball.
“Immediately after the game, I was asked about the edges and missing tackles on the edges,” said Schmidt. “Those guys were put under pressure having to make decisions on overlaps that are tough, and we had a couple of young guys on those edges trying to make decisions because on the inside of them we didn’t quite have enough help and that’s pressure points for them.
“So if they can get a bit more help, they can try and make better decisions as well.
“We also feel some of the big lads a couple of times, the guys like Maro Itoje, when he went through the front door for his try… I mean, I think that’s one of the worst scores for us to give up.
“We’ve got two props who get in on the near side – one is kind of not sure what he’s doing and the other one steps sideways instead of stepping off the line and Itoje goes straight through. So that was particularly disappointing.
“Then we decided to defend a certain way off a scrum and three guys do that system and one guy decides not to, and Cokanasiga goes straight through and runs 35 metres to score.
“Now that’s left a little bit of a scar, to be honest, and the only way that scar heals is by making sure there’s clarity and next time out getting some more certainty in what you’re doing.”
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