IRELAND HEAD COACH Joe Schmidt says his side’s tag as favourites to win the upcoming Six Nations is an unnecessary distraction.
The New Zealander will attempt to lead Ireland to a second successive title in the next seven weeks, but underlined that he and his players won’t waste time buying into others’ perceptions.
Stuart Lancaster’s England had been tournament favourites in many quarters until their recent spate of injuries, with Ireland having now edged ahead with many bookmakers.
Schmidt’s men start their campaign against Italy in Rome on 7 February, before welcoming France to Dublin a week later. England at home follows on 1 March, with trips to Wales and Scotland to come on the closing weekends of the championship.
I think being labelled favourites or otherwise, we were unaware of that until this morning, to be honest,” said Schmidt at today’s Six Nations launch in London.
“You do live in a little bit of a bubble. We’ve had a couple of days preparation looking to the Wolfhounds – Saxons game [in Cork on Friday] and then looking ahead to the Italian game, and for us favourites is a distraction.
“Because it’s somebody’s speculation about what might happen across five games, when I think we try to stay one game focused. If I was to speculate, I might come up with a different favourite, as may a number of people in this room.
“I think it can be a distraction that we don’t necessarily need to focus on at all.”
Schmidt is as narrowed in on the processes behind the winning as ever, ensuring all the elements that have made Ireland favouries continue to function at world-class levels.
Wins over South Africa and Australia in November moved Ireland up to third in the World Rugby rankings, another status that Schmidt had little time for. Unsurprisingly, he remains intent on improving his team as much as possible.
I think you just try to get a little bit better at what you’re doing,” said Schmidt. “The peripheral things that occur, whether it’s a ranking or it’s a tag of favourites, I don’t think either of those are tangibly going to add value to what your performance is.
“They can be distractions or you can stay focused on what might help. Whether you can be a little bit better in the set-piece or you can defend a little bit better in an area of the pitch.
“I think it we remain focused on those things that can tangibly help us add value when we do perform, I think it’s a lot better than being distracted by rankings or speculation.”
2 McIlroys. A and B and flips and flops to suit himself and the circumstances. Would prefer if he just said the big money and attention is still in the US rather than skirt around the obvious!
@David Gaffney: But that is what he is saying. He lives in the state’s cause that’s where the money is and he’s never made a secret of that. He’s saying as good as the changes to the European tour are, they aren’t enough to entice the top players to change what they are doing. It’s overtly implied it what he said. Just cause he doesn’t blatantly state it doesn’t mean he’s skirting the question
@Phil Redmond:
Married to an American, his family is in America… The bggest payouts are in America… Totally understandable…
Shane is in the same boat… To play in the top competitions you have to play in the highest ranking tournaments…
@Cowboy Paddy: Exactly and the European tour events need to get much closer to the PGA in terms of prize money and ranking points if they want to start attracting the top players away from it. I doubt that will ever happen though. The PGA want to protect their place as the no 1 tour like anyone in their position would so any sign that the European tour are going to make any significant inroads into that they’ll up the prize money and keep the top players coming back to them
@Phil Redmond: it absolutely does mean he is skirting around it! Why not just say it. Why talk like a politician that is evasive and won’t commit!?
@David Gaffney: Non committal choker and mercenary. #136daystillmoreRorycomedygold