WE OWE WALES
Overdue win will be hard earned — Joe
JOE SCHMIDT has admitted Ireland are due a Six Nations win over Wales when the sides meet in Dublin tomorrow week.
The Welsh have consistently proven to be the Irish coach’s championship nemesis during his time in charge. Ireland’s 2014 win in his first campaign has been followed by two defeats and a draw in the three meetings since.
However, the New Zealander is now hoping this underwhelming pattern of results can change when his table-topping side host Warren Gatland’s team at Lansdowne Road in eight days’ time.
‘Whether it is played over there or over here, they have been very tight fixtures and maybe we are due some margin of luck to fall our way to get a result against them,’ he said yesterday following the conclusion of a midweek camp in Athlone.
‘We don’t want it to be luck, we want it to be that we make sure that we work hard enough to earn whatever we get from them.’
Schmidt, who had a 22-strong squad with him in the midlands, confirmed that Robbie Henshaw’s shoulder operation had likely ended his club and
country season. ‘It’s not going to be good for probably another three or four months.’
He also suggested that Chris Farrell, who filled in at No13 the last time Henshaw was unavailable for Ireland in November, is in pole position ahead of Garry Ringrose to take over the shirt to face the Welsh.
‘I do think Chris would have his nose in front because he has been with us the whole time, Garry hasn’t,’ explained Schmidt, who added he doesn’t expect to see Ringrose, injured in early January, play a comeback game tomorrow for Leinster at home to Scarlets.
‘As much as Garry has more Test match experience and was outstanding in Japan and the USA, and was super for us previous to that, Chris has got the current game form with us.
‘He found his feet a little bit against Fiji, but he was really good against Argentina and showed there is a bit more to Chris Farrell than a bludgeon. Nice, soft skills and a tight pass.
‘He has got good length in his pass. He has actually got pretty good kicking skills and his defensive acumen against an Argentinian team, with the likes of [Joaquin] Tuculet coming into the back line just outside that midfield area, I thought he closed the space down really well.
‘They would be probably some of the things we would volunteer as the strengths we see in Chris.’
The 19 players who took a full part in yesterday’s open training session at Dubarry Park comprised eight backs – Rob Kearney, Keith Earls, Jacob Stockdale, Farrell, Bundee Aki, Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray and Joey Carbery – and 11 forwards – Cian Healy, Jack McGrath, Rory Best, Niall Scannell, Andrew Porter, Devin Toner, Peter O’Mahony, Dan Leavy, Jack Conan, Jordi Murphy and CJ Stander.
The three players kept separate from this group were hamstrung duo Tadhg Furlong and Iain Henderson, along with James Ryan, who started in France but didn’t feature versus Italy. Schmidt claimed all three are still very much in the round-three selection mix.
‘Iain just had a bit of tightening in his hamstring. He had a bit of a bump in the leg as well, which just causes the leg to be a bit tight. He could have played on (against Italy). We are managing him at the moment,’ explained Schmidt, who withdrew the lock at halftime versus the Azzurri.
‘We thought initially he would train fully Thursday, but the ground was very soft and it means that rear chain, with the calves, the hamstring, glute and muscles get worked very hard in those conditions. We just thought we would err on the side of caution.
‘Iain is probably a little bit ahead of Tadhg… you saw him working with Tadhg there. He is pretty much 100 per cent, but we are just staging their re-entry.
‘At the same time James Ryan has also made really good progress. Those two are back in the mix.
‘Tadhg ran 75 per cent speed today. He is not far away from potentially being able to train fully on Tuesday.’
Quinn Roux, Jordan Larmour, Kieran Marmion and Sean Cronin, who appeared off the Test bench last Saturday, all spent this week back at their provinces.