SCHMIDT USED TO ROARING BACK

Ireland boss will ensure England defeat has benefits in the long term

‘Did we need to push the boundary some more?’

AT the end of his team announcement for the Scotland game, Joe Schmidt complained to his communications manager about noise at the back of the room.

A cameraman’s equipment seemed to have momentarily miscued and noisily played instead of recording. It was only a brief interlude but in the carefully ordered world of the Irish rugby team, it was enough to draw the disapproval of the head coach.

Such are the standards that obtain — usually, at least.

Defeat to England did not pitch Schmidt’s project into irresolvable crisis. But it did expose weaknesses in a team that had looked imperious through most of 2018.

And in the moments after the heavy beating his side took last Saturday, Schmidt spoke with candour about what England had exposed.

The most telling — and cutting — word that he used was ‘bullied’. By the time he sat behind a table, accompanied by Conor Murray, to name the team to play Scotland tomorrow, Schmidt had softened by comparison.

He praised Murray and Johnny Sexton as a half-back partnership, and he said his men can recover from defeat in their opening game and gather the momentum necessary to be successful in this competition.

And he knows what it takes to achieve in the Six Nations better than any coach.

In private, though, it is doubtful that the harsh tone of his initial analysis of the England game was softened much as the week went on. Schmidt was right; Ireland had been bullied, but with only seven days between that loss and their first chance at making up for it, the starkness of his message had to be tempered.

And in the spirit of never wasting a crisis, he took the opportunity to use the England result as a way of deflating some of the expectation that has grown around Ireland, especially since they beat New Zealand.

‘It’s not a reality check I believe we needed,’ he said. ‘It’s a reality check for people externally that we are just as human as any other team. Things can go wrong for us.’

Faith in Schmidt’s methods, and the ability of his players to implement them, had strengthened to the point of devotion after the All Blacks win. A sobering defeat may well remind people that even the best teams can be made to look frail, but that is a meagre positive to take from such a comprehensive beating.

One defeat might well remind supporters that Ireland are only human; the effect of a second consecutive loss would be more profound. According to Schmidt, he has already been examining himself and his tactics with great thoroughness after the England defeat.

‘For me it doesn’t get any easier,’ he said. ‘I was speaking to a group of coaches yesterday and they were asking me about things like that and I think it is just as tough. And they felt, “Surely your past results protect you?” And I felt no, your past results don’t protect you, it doesn’t protect you from yourself.

‘Did we do enough work last week? Did we get them primed the way we needed to be when we know that brutality was coming?

‘Did we push too hard on the side of being disciplined, trusting that officials would take care of foul play? Were we too clean? Did we need to push the boundary some more?

‘To be honest, I don’t think we do. I think we play a really physical game. I am incredibly proud of the way our players play. They try to play within the laws and they commit fully.’

That need to recognise when the opposition are pushing past the bounds of fair play — and getting away with it — may not be required against a Scotland team that lack the brutish intensity of England (and France, South Africa, New Zealand and possibly Wales, too).

If Ireland are to win the big matches that could await this year, it is a street-smart instinct they will have to learn, though.

For tomorrow, Schmidt seems content that the team he named will come packed with the necessary aggression and intensity. He spoke of noting a ‘better edge’ in training this week, but he was not building up the match into a decisive test of his team’s nerve.

‘To be honest, the bit I can’t control is the result. The bit that the players can control is the performance. That has been our full focus this week. If we get a super performance and we’re beaten by a better team because they are a bloody good team, then we’ve got to accept that.

‘And it will give us a benchmark and extra hunger for that firstround game in Pool A (against the Scots at the World Cup). Whatever way it works out result-wise, we can cope and we can use it for what we’ve got to do in the future.’

But a second consecutive defeat simply won’t be greeted with such equanimity outside of the Ireland bubble. There won’t be mobs roaming the streets with torches and a lust for scapegoats.

But there would, properly, be a very sharp focus on why Ireland had lost twice in seven days.

That is the lot of the world’s leading teams. Ireland have established themselves in that status under Schmidt, but with the success comes increased attention, too.

‘We’ve achieved a lot of things in this particular tournament,’ he said at one point. ‘We need to be flexible.’

It was not the first time he has put the Six Nations in the context of the wider World Cup challenge, and if lessons learned now can be usefully applied in the autumn, then short-term pain will be deemed worth it.

It was 2016 when Ireland last lost successive Tests, on the tour of South Africa. Only four times have they lost two matches in a row under Schmidt.

They have always recovered and improved.

If they are obliged to do so again, it would be under the pressure wrought by recent wins and World Cup expectations.