Updated at 08.00
WITH THE DUST beginning to settle on the most physically ferocious Test match of the year, and their deep frustration at the performance of the match officials starting to subside, Joe Schmidt and Ireland should feel their spirits lift.
There is one more fixture to come in this November series, with the Wallabies now in town for Saturday’s clash at the Aviva Stadium, but Ireland approach that encounter from a positive position.
They have injury concerns over key men this week, but after three international fixtures this month, Schmidt’s side are in a good place. Nine new caps, a first win over the All Blacks and an exceptionally competitive second performance against the best team in the world – for the Kiwi head coach that’s a fine return.
Ireland are, and should be, deeply disappointed to have lost on Saturday in Dublin, but Schmidt sees this month as a success so far.
“Obviously, there was success against Canada in that there were a number of new guys. I think the number of new caps was us trying to take an opportunity to have a bit of a look and to work with a wider group.
“We’ll probably be afforded that opportunity to a degree again [against Australia] because we have guys who are knocked about.
“As far as looking at the overall series, if you had said to me before the series that you’d be two out of three going into the Wallabies, I probably would have taken it because that means we’d have to have beaten New Zealand in one of those two games.
“Considering we hadn’t done it in 30-odd times of trying in 111 years, you’d probably put your hand up and take one of those.
“As it is now, we weren’t that far away this evening and I think there’s huge merit in the effort that the players put in. Some of the time, as much as you want to be really clear and crisp about what you’re doing, some of it was just pure effort.
“I thought we didn’t really have a lot of clarity or direction but, gee, they were just determined to try and keep going and they did it incredibly well.”
While Schmidt managed to focus on the positives after Saturday’s bitterly disappointing defeat, one could sense a simmering discontent at how the game had been adjudicated.
The Ireland head coach managed to bite his tongue and reject several invitations to criticise referee Jaco Peyper and TMO Jon Mason.
What Schmidt did expand on was why he wouldn’t openly criticise the match officials.
“Yeah, look, being vocal, is that a solution? I don’t know,” said Schmidt.
I think you can be vocal through the appropriate channels. I think there’s always a risk in being outspoken, when if you want to affect change you need to have a rapport, you need to engage with people who are making the decisions.
“If you isolate yourself from them then I think you have less access to them and then you potentially have less opportunity to have some sort of discourse to get some answers or to affect change.”
Ireland’s referee report would make for fascinating reading, while their list of referrals to the citing commissioner is likely to have been extensive, even if it only led to two official citings for Sam Cane and Malakai Fekitoa.
Away from that controversial side of the game, Schmidt rued the loss of key men Robbie Henshaw, Johnny Sexton and CJ Stander inside the opening 22 minutes of the game.
Despite those influential players departing through injury, Ireland can still reflect on having lost the mini-series to New Zealand by just a single point on aggregate, 50-49. Few would have backed such an outcome early this month.
“The one thing that it does give us confidence is we’ve had a few more guys being given the opportunity to play at this level and as long as we can keep growing that while at the same time keeping a core that are experienced.
“You know, I think losing a 10 and your 12, how many times does that happen? I thought CJ was huge in Chicago and losing him as well, it does make it a challenge, especially during the week.
“You sort of train two and a half, maybe three times, during the week and the guys who start tend to get the bulk of that time.
“Therefore, you tend to get a little bit potentially slower to take opportunities [with early changes], you lack a little bit of clarity and suddenly if there’s any lack of clarity they’re getting off the line and putting pressure in your face and it’s very hard to play because they are very proactive and very physical.”
Onwards to the Wallabies with elements of frustration lingering, but a belief that Ireland have grown as a force in recent weeks.
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Have to love Schmidt – would have been easy to cut loose and have a go at the Referees (take Jose or 99% of football managers for instance) but instead he is refined and professional, an attitude which will benefit Ireland in the long run.
He has them looking great for the six nations
@Ted Striker:
Ted I think the single item that frustrated him the most was the inaccuracy shown in good attacking positions. Against the All Blacks you only get 2 or 3 chances per match on average, Ireland got those chances and did not convert for, a perfectionist like Schmidt this will drive him crazy. The Ref and officials combined with the over physical play of the All Blacks will have annoyed him. It is however the inaccuracy’s displayed in the red zone combined with two thirds possession and territory that will frustrate the most, these are controllable the others are not.
Good post!!!
Nothing about the Irish performance Saturday knocks my confidence about the future prospects of this team, they are immense as individuals and immense(r) as a unit.
Besty though, what a beast.
Agreed, Schmidt showed his true class here. Like you said it would have been easy to bitch and moan about the officials after the match but instead he decided to focus on the positives which is the mark of a great coach.
@Sloop John G: What was the point in him moaning about the officials when as per usual the Irish media and fans almost went into meltdown with all their myopic moaning and groaning.
Best coaching attitude a coach could have ; always driving Ireland for better results , always looks at the positives rather than dwelling on the negatives ! We could all learn from his positive driven attitude!! Come on boys in green !!!!
Good attitude to start the week. Australia will be very different. I don’t think they are here to hurt players, just to continue on their grand slam quest. But if anyone lays into Ireland like that again, and the ref lets it go, then we need to have a hard play option. Rory is great but he’s an old-fashioned gentleman in a thugs’ game nowadays often played by thugs. I would like to see POM and Henderson out there and giving some back in such circumstances. I don’t blame the ABs too much. It’s the ref’s job to protect players and the ref failed and other refs may also fail. I say this because I can see England coming to town in March and trying that kind of nonsense. Eddie Jones didn’t promote Hartley for just his good looks, charisma and playing skills. Aussies call that ‘the mongrel’ attitude. Cheka’s Wallabies will run all night and I hope we can match them. Our back line moves looked stilted agains admittedly superb AB defence. Still, injuries aside, it’s been an interesting experience and we have some good young players hopefully learning fast.
This is the finest comment I’ve seen since the game. The all blacks simply tested the officials to their limits, and realised that the officials were soft. Our boys should have also realised that the officials were soft. The AB’s were under huge domestic pressure to perform. They did everything they had to do( a lot of it illegal) but if we want to fulfil our available talent, we need to become clinical(illegal) like the AB’s were. It’s clear that this AB team are dependent on Barrett. The man is a legend. He was shit in Chicago ( we beat them) , he was sublime in Dublin ( we were out smarted ) . We should have hurt him,taken the yellow card, and continued the game( as the AB’s did). We need to be men, and realise we are in the top 4 teams in the world now. Man up Ireland, learn, continue and be proud.
You guys are exactly right. Ireland need to strike a better balance between the excellent sense of discipline they have reached under Schmidt’s tenure, and which is probably going to improve even more thanks to Farrell, and an aggro factor which they sometimes seem to be utterly lacking these days. For one thing, on Saturday, when Cane all but decapitated Henshaw, the whole team should have been at the guy’s throat in a split second; instead all of them basically stood and stared, complaining timidly to the clueless ref. Ditto with Dagg’s demolition of CJ. And I too have concerns about Best’s leadership for this type of game. He is an excellent player, but I don’t think he is the man for the kind of street fight that the ABs actually started on Saturday, nor does he get any respect from the refs whatsoever. During the 2 games against the ABs, the difference in the way the refs interacted with Reed and him was frankly embarrassing, and it is a big problem for our team in games with such small margins.
@Brian Valès: POM really is the man for the job. He does not take a step backwards and would not have let those things go without some fight. The problem is, POM is in a HUGELY competitive backrow and CJ has been one of our stand out players all year. Hard to drop him. So, do we unbalance a backrow to keep POM, CJ & Heaslip or do we drop the superb Heaslip and move CJ to 8? What about VDF? He too has been immense.
I think we will see CJ rested at the weekend anyway , injury not withstanding. POM, Heaslip and VDF to start.
@Cian O Donoghue: To me, Jonny is the man that should have been given the captaincy, but it is too late now, and his propensity to injury might have been a problem anyway. In the future, POM is an obvious candidate, as you said, as is CJ ; but I also place great hopes in Henshaw. This guy is a natural leader, a match winner, he is as tough as you can get, AND he is able to keep his cool on the pitch. I also believe that refs naturally have greater respect for captains / players they are accustomed to seeing win, score tries, dominates others. And in his relatively short career, Henshaw already has this winner aura.
We need another 9 of Murray’s quality and a bloody hooker that has throwing accuracy. S. Cronin is excellent in the loose but can’t throw.
We’re not going to find another 9 of Murray’s quality any time soon.
How short time ago we fretted over cover @ no.3 and look where we are now!! They are out there and Joe will find them.
Brill attitude but 4 November to be a real success and a real upward curve they have to beat Australia
12 incidents of suspected foul play sent to citing commissioner to review…ALL but one by all blacks….says it all…I would argue world rugby need to make a statement on this and player welfare..this threatens the game…
@Fiona Graham: I suspect that there will be a lot of soul searching as a result of this match. The new directive issued by the governing body concerning head and shoulder clashes was ignored by both the ref and TMO. The amount of criticism of the officials of this match is huge and much of it coming from respected commentators. The fact that much of the criticism revolves around NZ infringements adds heightened debate due mainly because we are talking about possibly the greatest team ever to play rugby. World Rugby will now ,in my opinion,want referees to be seen to be following the letter of the law as far as head and neck clashes are concerned. However what we don’t need is a knee jerk reaction either where a slight contact by a hand or arm to the head results in a red card. I don’t know what criteria has to be met before a TMO is deemed to be qualified but some of them beggar belief in their ineptitude. In the Pro12 the banter between the refs and the TMOs is sometimes like an apres match type comedy show. The amount of decisions that they get wrong is also astonishing and sometimes I wonder would we be better without them altogether.
Paul Fitzgerald
We could not have coped with being down to 14 men- possibly/probably.
We had our opportunities and did not take them and that’s why we lost.
Yes they played the rules to the limit and got away with it but the referee should have protected us more and the tmo too