Six Nations investigate HIAs

France omen has Schmidt’s sights on title

Aviva Stadium next Saturday. ‘When you have to fight as hard as we did, and you don’t get the flash finish you would like, you have to roll your sleeves up and work a little bit harder. ‘It’s just massive relief. If you lose your first game, you’re playing catch-up the whole way. And getting through something like that (in Paris) helps build a group together. It does strengthen the actual team bond. ‘Hopefully that will give them the resolve and the resilience that is required because it’s such a tough competition that we know we are going to be in similar situations. Maybe not right at the end of the game, but similar situations that we are going to have to fight our way through. ‘It had ticked over the 80 minutes and the game was all but dead and buried. I felt it was unbelievably accurate, hardworking and skilful to achieve what they did. ‘To work from a drop out 22, for Iain Henderson to take that and for us to build the phases from there, to have the audacity to have a cross-kick and for Keith Earls to make no contest of it. ‘I felt there was clarity of thought but when (French) guys were lying in the way (at rucks), it made it look to me this is going to be impossible.’ Schmidt kept his counsel over the medical controversies that were a big talking point after the game, with Six Nations bosses announcing a review into ‘a number of incidents’. France’s Matthieu Jalibert and Antoine Dupont both suffered knee knocks, but were also sent for head injury assessments (HIAs), a decision which permitted the return of starting scrum-half Maxime Machenaud for the final minutes. Former Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll described the incident as ‘a disgrace’.

JOE SCHMIDT is hoping Ireland’s try-less win over France is an omen that a repeat of their last Six Nations title win in 2015 could now be on the cards this spring.

Six penalty kicks got Schmidt’s side over the line in a second-round success against the French in Dublin three years ago en route to collecting the trophy.

Now, having again beaten Les Bleus without needing to cross the whitewash, the coach would like title history to repeat itself following Ireland’s dramatic 15-13 heist in Paris where Johnny Sexton added a remarkable added time drop goal to four earlier penalties.

‘I’ll take it. I’ll take any omen we can get right now because I know how tough it is going to be,’ said Schmidt before flying back to Dublin yesterday to commence preparations to face Italy at