Sean Farrell reports from Cardiff
IRELAND HEAD COACH Joe Schmidt admits the next 40-odd hours before the Rugby World Cup quarter-final kicks off against Argentina are crucial for in bringing his squad to match-ready levels.
Schmidt named his line-up for Sunday 1pm fixture today with three enforced changes from the win over France, a trio of tweaks that did not include a change at number 10 where Jonathan Sexton was a serious doubt after hobbling off in the first half of the Pool D decider.
“We’ve allowed him to build his way back into the week,” Schmidt says of the groin-hampered out-half.
“He had a fairly light start to the week, he trained fully in the Millennium Stadium this morning and we believe that he’s ready to go.”
After he sat out the post-match session on Monday the first positive sign of Sexton’s recovery came on Wednesday when management informed us that the playmaker had run 3.5 kilometres. And while the rest of the team were enjoying a day off from training yesterday, Sexton was swinging into his first opportunity to kick since a soft restart against Les Bleus.
“He hasn’t done as much kicking as he would have, but that wouldn’t be sensible either. We’ve allowed him to build his way in to the week so that by the end of the seven days he can be ready to go.”
Schmidt added: ”If he’s fit, he’s fit. Before we played France in the Six Nations a lot of people asked questions and he was fine.
“We don’t tend to take too many risks with players. We have copped a few injuries, but we’ve managed people through the week. We have a fantastic medical crew: a super strength, conditioning and rehabilitation group and Johnny himself is ready to go.”
As for his other big selection calls today, the Kiwi says Jordi Murphy’s familiarity with running as ‘a six’ in training helped him get the nod on the blindside flank. Besides, the “incredibly strong” Iain Henderson was needed elsewhere.
“Jordi has started Six Nations matches for us,” explains Schmidt, “he’s played six before, he’s played across the back row and we felt he was best positioned having rehearsed running in that position more often than anyone else.
“We did think about putting Iain Henderson in there and putting Donnacha Ryan in, and that may still happen during the game. We just felt Paul (O’Connell) is an unbelievably good scrummager for us. Iain is an incredibly strong young man so we felt that added a bit more ballast to our tight five because our back five (forwards) have lost a lot of experience.”
“There’s a few guys, to be honest, who are carrying bumps and bruises. It’s been a light training week, but we’ve got 48 hours more to freshen and hopefully be ready to go by 1pm Sunday.”
Good to see Eamon Dunphy was spot on with his assessment of Brazil during his rant at the end of the champions league final…
Piques trips don’t lie….
And then Neymar does that!!!
outrageous. great goal.Barca will be happy. the Luiz clearance was a massive turning point
game was well over when luiz cleared
Brazil are still a class team. I think they will go on and win the World Cup for a sixth time.
Not a hope, they are only good in all those “nobody cares” cups or world tours.
Titles or cups meant nothing tonight. That was a simple case of passion and “who’s the best”. What a game! Fook the begrudgers”
Some clearance from Luiz that was more impressive than Neymars goal
Trappatoni has to go!
This is Spain’s Bishop Brennan’s kick up the arse. They’ll be back.
Def not joe, Brazil seem to really want it. But great clearance by David Luiz, coulda been a draw.
After the passionate singing of the national anthem there was always only going to be one winner. Brazil were awesome at times. Great curtain raiser for WC 2014.
I hope now people stop saying Neymar is the most overrated player ever.
first time since 1985 spain lose 3-0
Shakira played a great game.
Richie sadlier sounds like gift grubs Shane lunch :D
scrappy goal.arbeloa having a nightmare. have money on Spain. not looking good at the moment
Tippy tappy taps out!
After watching that masterpiece by Brazil tonight do you all, well almost all, still think as you did last year here on thejournal.ie, the Euro is of a much higher standard than The World Cup? :) :) :)
Brazil were class tonight! David Luiz was like a man possesed! Can’t wait to see Neymar playing with Barca! The only thing I’ll say is Spain played 120 minutes against Italy,had a days less rest & that pitch wasn’t fixed up since the last match.
Best game any of you will ever see!!
That would be France v Germany in the 1982 World Cup. I haven’t googled anything, so I may have something slightly wrong.
Did you watch it at the tennis club Paul?
I didn’t see the match, just saw the goals. I did see Brazil’s games against Italy and another team and was unimpressed with the standard of football. I know football and politics are two completely different things but at a time when there is so much trouble, pain and anger in the country, a lot of which is centred around the costs of holding a world cup and having terrible health care, high taxes, poor education etc, I would have felt sorry for brazil if they lost the game because the country needs a lift and something to cheer about and there were a lot of sacrifices made for it. I was surprised to see the score of 3-0 and I wonder if Spain weren’t giving it 100 per cent for these reasons above. As I said I didn’t see the game so I’m not saying they didn’t deserve to win, I just wonder if the result would have been different if it was the world cup final at stake.
Here’s where your analysis fell down – “I didn’t see the match”. Spain looked tired and Brazil broke them. They could have won by 5
Haha fair enough
Just figured out why good comments get red thumbs including trolls……..!!
I always knew that my team would get back on track ;) also I think that they needed some time to reconnect again with the new players