SOME MOMENTS DESERVE to be immortalised.
Volkswagen have come on board as partners of The42, which will see them sponsor all of our rugby coverage for the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
Ahead of the tournament, ‘Onward’ — an eight-part series — will be looking back at the unforgettable days from Joe Schmidt’s time in charge as he aims to end his six-year spell on a high.
Next up, Ciaran Kennedy revisits a record win in Murrayfield that saw them claim back-to-back Six Nations titles.
As the 2015 season began, Ireland could by no means have been classed as serial winners. Twelve months previously, in Joe Schmidt’s maiden campaign in charge, the squad had won a first Six Nations championship since 2009.
Now chasing back-to-back titles, the challenge facing Schmidt was to turn his team into one that could contest for titles consistently.
He had already managed to inject new levels of confidence, clarity and discipline, yet by the final day of the 2015 Six Nations his players would be drinking beers to calm nerves, screaming obscenities at a television screen and jumping around beating tables in their dinner suits.
So, how did it come to this?
Before the 2009 Six Nations win, Ireland had last won the championship in 1985. They had not won outright back-to-back titles since 1948-49 (they won the championship in 1982 but shared the 1983 title with France).
With a World Cup looming around the corner, the 2015 championship provided Schmidt with the perfect platform to convince his players that this could be a new era of success for Irish rugby. Former Ireland prop Mike Ross, who won 30 of his 61 caps under Schmidt, recalls how the Kiwi had immediately changed the mindset of the squad during that successful 2014.
“Whenever Joe goes into a team he has an idea of how he wants the game to be played, and he puts relentless focus into every aspect of the game,” says Ross.
Any player who works under him, you have your role, you perform your role, and if everyone does their role you win, generally. He probably put a little bit more structure on it than we had before.”
Yet Schmidt had pressing issues to address. Johnny Sexton had been stood down for 12 weeks following a series of concussions with Racing Metro.
Seán O’Brien was only just getting back to fitness after undergoing two shoulder surgeries in 12 months. Even Ross, Schmidt’s first choice tighthead, had lost his place to a young Marty Moore in the Leinster first team.
Luckily for Schmidt, his team were able to ease into their title defence with an opening weekend trip to face Italy, but even that came with complications. O’Brien was a late withdrawal with a hamstring injury, and Ireland struggled for much of the match before pulling away in the final quarter, fly-half Ian Keatley supplying 14 points in a 26-3 win.
It had been a shaky start, but Ireland were up and running. After a three-month absence, Schmidt welcomed Sexton back for the round two home clash with France, and the Leinster fly-half ran the show with the authority and confidence of a man who hadn’t missed as much a warm-up lap of a training pitch.
He was flawless from the boot, kicking five penalties, with a Madigan three-pointer Ireland’s only other score in an 18-11 victory. Ireland had impressed during Schmidt’s first campaign, but now the fruits of his work were really beginning to show. Against a typically physical French team, Ireland buckled down and bullied their opponents to win the type of ugly game that would have left previous Ireland sides struggling for answers. Not anymore.
A convincing 19-9 defeat of England in Dublin saw Ireland record a tenth successive victory and left them on course for a first Grand Slam in six years. However, in round four the wheels came off in Cardiff. On the occasion of Paul O’Connell’s 100th cap, Ireland were left chasing the game after a Scott Williams try and four early penalties from the boot of Leigh Halfpenny.
The Grand Slam dream was over, but Ireland were still capable of winning the championship on the final day. Dubbed ‘Super Saturday’, three teams entered the final round of fixtures in the hunt for first place.
It was a remarkable day of rugby that delivered a total of 221 points, and 27 tries. Wales’ 61-20 defeat of Italy in the early kick-off meant Ireland needed to win by at least 21 points away to Scotland to overtake Wales, and even then they would need the result of England v France to fall in their favour later that evening.
To borrow that old cliché, all Ireland could do was look after their own performance. O’Connell was first over the line inside five minutes, powering over from a few yards out.
O’Brien extended Ireland’s lead with a lineout move straight off the training ground, collecting the ball from Devin Toner and squeezing through a pile of bodies to race clear. Ireland would have plundered for more if not for some stubborn Scotland defending, yet O’Connell ensured Sexton kept the scoreboard ticking over by kicking to the posts rather than for territory.
Further tries from Payne and O’Brien in the second half, along with 18 points from the boot of Sexton, helped Ireland to a record win in Edinburgh, but despite the 30 point difference between the teams the atmosphere was somewhat muted at the final whistle. There was still the small matter of England v France. A nervy evening ensued as Irish supporters, and players, watched a manic 12-try match unfold in Twickenham.
“It was torture,” says Ross. “We were feeling fairly confident [sitting down to watch England v France] because we didn’t think England were going to blow out France by 26 points. Then we were watching it and it looked like it had turned into a game of fecking Sevens. We were dying watching it.
“I remember [Vincent] Debaty made a massive run up the sideline and scored a try and everyone was going baloobas. Then England had a five-metre lineout to score a try that would win them the Six Nations, and France turned it over.
We’re all celebrating when France turned over that maul, and then they tapped and went! The celebrations just turned to shrieks, ‘What the fuck are you doing?’… ‘He’s lost his mind!’… I remember Peter O’Mahony hopping up and down over it, but thankfully they eventually kicked it out.”
A 55-35 win for England left the hosts just short of the target needed to catch Ireland.
Cue supporters filing back into Murrayfield as Ireland re-emerged, by this stage suited and well refreshed, to collect the Six Nations trophy for the second consecutive tournament. It had been a far from perfect campaign, but in just his second year in charge it was becoming clear that Schmidt was doing something special with this team.
Volkswagen have been proud sponsors of Irish Rugby since 2011, and they are also rugby partners of The42 during the 2019 World Cup. For more, visit volkswagen.ie/rugby
Hon Ireland….finish this on a high !
@Jb Walshe: amazing how the media have decided that O’Mahoney should be written off.
@Jp Cleary: his performances have more to do with that than the media. Does he really deserve to be one of the highest paid players in the country for so little output?
English referees coincidentally finding a knock-on where there wasn’t one and ignoring a head shot.
Absolute joke
@teuO6nLS: – he didn’t see the “try” so couldn’t give it and the tmo ignored the head shot. Plus it was never a try in a million years and he lost control of it
@teuO6nLS: thank you. I thought the same thing. That was a try until Karl Dixon stuck his nose in, then suddenly it wasn’t. Oh I was seething, but we’ve won it now, so justice is done :)
Refereeing laws need to be looked at…should leave question open to TMO, try yes or no…and let them decide.
So the TMO sees that from Harry but misses the one on Furlong from a yard out. The refereeing really has been a farce
Cooooommmoooon Ireland. 38-16 win.
@Willie Murphy: Appalling tactics that will only give Scotland confidence. Possibly the worst half tactically in the AF era. Unbelievable idea to turn the fastest scrum half in the game into the slowest…
@Thesaltyurchin: Ringrose needed,our centre partnership is fine defensively but attack wise I’ve sharper butter knives in the kitchen.
Terrible atmosphere there. So dead.
Are all the yuppies not feeling patriotic?
@Damien O’Sullivan: was thinking the exact same. reminds me of the games during covid when the stadium was empty.
@Damien O’Sullivan: every stadium lacks atmosphere when the home team is playing shite
@Pud: Well wake up boys!! Bring the passion
@Pud: Yuppies waking up a bit… team too
Christ, still no work done to improve the lineout
Crowley, Nash and Larmour are a level or 2 below Sexton, Hansen and Keenan. Ringrose should be playing 13. We have 2 12′s out there right now. Scotland’s defense has not really been tested, easy day for them so far.
All the armchair ‘experts’ on here. How may of you have played International Rugby?
Just enjoy the win and the back to back 6 Nations!
It’s already a one man show from Bundee Aki.
Fair juice to the team and management…Proud to be Irish
hard to see how farrell and co are improving this team week on week. attack that is one dimensional and predictable. a set piece that is average at best.
@Niall English: prioritizing highlight reel moments over basics in the pack.
James Ryan gets dog’s abuse from those with red tinted glasses for “only” doing the basics – securing quick ruck ball, running the lineout and making a ridiculous number of tackles. All three things are missing badly from the team
@Niall English: i’d have ryan with beirney in the second row if all being fit. what we are lacking today is ball carrying in the pack. cant get over the gain line and get on the front foot and give our backs a platform to play from. our attack is basically running the same back line, screen pass move with one or two slight variations. so easy to defend against.
@teuO6nLS: James Ryan missed the tackle for Scotland last try. This says it all, no matter what colour you are.
@teuO6nLS: I was never as high Ryan as others, but it seems more than a coincidence that every time Ireland/Leinster seem to struggle/outright lose he’s not in the game day 23. It happened in the world cup, it happened in this years 6N and it happened to Leinster in last years Heineken Cup. Clearly he is their talisman.
@Joe Kelly: think you’ve had a few too many beers, James Ryan is injured and wasn’t playing today
Larmour starting internationals in the year 2024 says it all. Another fella living on past “glories”
@mWhSNsK2: he’s 26 ffs not like he’s a player on his last legs being picked again despite constantly failing to turn up like others
@teuO6nLS: he wasn’t good enough 4 years ago, he’s not in his clubs first 23 when all are fit. He should be nowhere near a 6N squad, nevermind starting. His first touch today was him running backwards ffs
@mWhSNsK2: he’s started on the right wing for Leinster all season what are you on about?
@teuO6nLS: because Lowe was on his extended break and JOB got injured. They come back in, he’s out of the 23
James Lowe shocking again today. Finishes a few tries in the corners that even I would score. The guy can’t tackle, defensive positioning is dreadful and he can’t kick.
@Ray Ridge: I’d say you couldn’t finish a donut and know nothing about rugby or Lowe. He has an excellent kick and is a great finisher.
Leaving Henderson out, even as a sub, is looking like a mistake. Very little leadership in the team and clearly no one in the pack knows how to run a lineout
The penalty machine that is Joe Mccarthy at it again.
@Ray Ridge: what’s the odds on more penalties conceded than carries?
Thank heavens for Gibson-Park, Aki and Lowe….
@Michael KILLIAN: we need more Kiwis :)
Larmour needs to step up today
@Dave Moran: More headless chicken running around no doubt.
@Dave Moran: Keenan a big loss but this team has enough to cope without him. Larmour just needs to do the basics right.
@Ray Ridge: bore
Quinlan with his usual biased red tinted glasses comments, if a munster player had the scutters out there, he’d give them a standing ovation!!!
@den: Also only highlighting errors made by Leinster players – he is a complete dose. Worst co-commentater out there. He makes Donal Lenehan look unbiased and that takes some doing.
@den: fool
I don’t know which is worse the effort from the players or the effort from the officials…
@Shanek: the effort from so called fans who can’t enjoy the game. Yuo know the ones who know everything.
Hopefully the Leinster players can do enough in the collision today to accommodate Beirne and O Mahony. Will be comfortable win if so
@Eoin H: It’s Irish players not Leinster. This is International not provincial!!
@Eoin H: like they did against La Rochelle…..twice?
@Eoin H: like small Joe last week?
@Eoin H: this is obviously a joke because you picked Beirne and POM. If you’d said Murray it’d be harder to tell if you were serious or not…
@Eoin H: assuming omahony can stay on the field for once
@Eoin H: don’t forget Bundee without Leinster he’d be terrible. Sausage
@Eoin H: Yea, ‘comfortable’
@Eoin H: Dublin Jackeen.
@Eoin H: blue eyed fool, go home to mammy in d4.
I think Ireland’s golden era may be over…
@M To The B: yeah, played terrible over the last 2 games
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS
Jesus, if we have to call on Larmour to plug a hole in fullback we are truly in trouble. He proved today he isn’t good enough at this level, hopefully we blood a rival fullback in the summer, o’brien is injured i know and is a good option (you need at least 3 deep)but Haley is a far better option than relying on lads like larmour today. If only we kept Carbery as a full back……..
Jheez, its like they dont want to be there. Kick Kick Kick. boring, and inviting Scotland into the game. Worst tactics ever in a half of rugby
Terrible performance and it looked like last week really spooked them. Mind you, we were playing with 13 as Larmour contributed nothing and O’Mahony was a passenger again
@Darragh Freir: leave the blue glasses at home
We are Not Favourites
We can’t be Favourites
C’mon IRELAND
Have a feeling POM is gonna retire after this game
@mWhSNsK2: think he’s retired during the match
@orb7eckn: if he did, Ireland are goosed. Bundee is the only other player that has a semblance of a leader
@mWhSNsK2: The entire Irish pack looks like the don’t care.
@mWhSNsK2: No POM is still out there, but he ain’t a leader in any sense of the word.
@orb7eckn: then you’re a blind boy,as he’s doing as much carrying and tackling as Doris and VdF.
@mWhSNsK2: a lot of lads ought to retire after this shitshow.
@mark sheehan: I stand corrected, larmour should be nowhere near that team
Lineout is a shambles… limped to a title.. kiddin ourselves with the “one of best in the world” nonsense.
@barry fay: Best team in the 6 nations, top 3 in the world, which part of world class don’t you understand. Scotland are a good team
@Fergal Smith: Top3… who ya kiddin.. get past a qtr final and we can talk.. all the rest is fluff.
@barry fay: you not asleep yet
@barry fay: You obviously don’t know the game or who they lost to. Negative Armchair expert, the cold and timid soul who neither knows victory or defeat.
Just awful. We haven’t improved that’s it in a nutshell
Please, please bring the bench on at 50 mins
@rayridge Scotland by how much ??
@Gary Galligan: A bit like the England match last week, this won’t be the cakewalk many people think.
First half was abysmal by Ireland just like
O’Mahony last 2 performance. He really cost us the grand Slam. A passenger now really and keeping an excellent prospect from actually contributing something to the team.
A mistake making him captain this year ad the line out is still not functioning and also cost us a semi final in the World Cup.
St Paulie needs to be held to account.
@Jimmy Bean: hahahhahaha talk about bitter