5 MATCHES WHICH CREATED A BEAST
By SHANE McGRATH
JOE SCHMIDT getting emotional was probably the only surprise to emerge from Ireland’s win against France. Even an individual as driven and focused as the Ireland coach will feel his eyes grow dewy reflecting on his five-year association with this competition. Ireland have played 29 matches under Schmidt in the Six Nations, winning 21, drawing one and losing seven. Here are five of the most significant.
FRANCE 20 IRELAND 22 MARCH 15 2014
THE first championship under Schmidt could be his sweetest. It wasn’t a Grand Slam – defeat in Twickenham made sure of that – but it was as hard-won as one. Two reasons explain why. Firstly, it was Schmidt’s first tournament in charge of the national team and 12 months previously Ireland had been a rabble. Hobbled by injury and an incoherent selection policy under Declan Kidney, they ended the championship mortified by defeat in Rome. Kidney was gone shortly after. By inspiring such an improvement, Schmidt illustrated his coaching excellence. But there was a second threat to Ireland’s championship hopes in 2014, and it was Brian O’Driscoll’s long goodbye. The penultimate match for Ireland was at home against Italy and it turned into a farewell to the country’s greatest ever player. Before the start of this game in Paris, the stadium monitors broadcast a stylish farewell message from his sponsors. The risk of distraction was obvious – but Ireland avoided it, thanks to the class of O’Driscoll (left) and the leadership of Schmidt.
SCOTLAND 10 IRELAND 40 MARCH 21 2015
EDINBURGH was in darkness when Ireland eventually got the cup. The stands were empty and the players returned to the field in suits. They celebrated with unfettered joy, and there has rarely been a more invigorating performance under Schmidt. Ireland were defending champions but had been effective rather than expansive in the first four rounds. They scored four tries in those first four matches, one of them a penalty try. They had to cut loose against Scotland after the Welsh had hammered Italy. Ireland required a 21-point margin of victory and won by 30 – scoring four tries. They played a style that some suspected was simply not possible under Joe Schmidt. Come the final whistle they had to sit, watch and wait. If England beat France by 26 points in the final game of the day, they would win the championship. The margin was only 20. Ireland’s joy, deferred by three hours, finally broke loose.
ENGLAND 15 IRELAND 24 MARCH 17 2018 This was the best day Ireland enjoyed in the championship under Schmidt. And excepting the wins over New Zealand, it was the best performance from an Irish team in his care as the country won its third Grand Slam. The team had built up enormous confidence by round five. The win over France through Johnny Sexton’s late drop goal set a mood that was maintained through a rout of Italy, a nerve-jangler at home to Wales and a dismissal of Scotland. The season came down to the final day in London. England had been derailed by shock defeats to Scotland and France and Eddie Jones was tangled in controversy in the days before the match when forced to apologise for a video that showed him referring to the Irish as ‘scummy’. The day itself brought snow and biting temperatures, and a scintillating first half that saw Ireland win the game by half time through tries by Gary Ringrose, CJ Stander and Jacob Stockdale. SCOTLAND 27 IRELAND 22 FEBRUARY 4 2017 SCHMIDT hasn’t got much wrong since he moved to Ireland almost a decade ago, but mentioning the bus after this match was a dreadful idea. Ireland were 14-0 down by the end of the first quarter, and 21-5 down with less than half an hour gone. Stuart Hogg was brilliant as the Scots showed their talent for counter-attacking and maximising turnovers. Ireland were dreadful, leaden-footed and reactive. When their fightback eventually came, the game was beyond them. After the match, Schmidt, in trying to explain such an awful misfire, talked about the bus. It was one of the first things he mentioned, and despite subsequent touchy denials from the Irish camp, it was an excuse. According to Schmidt, Ireland were 15 minutes late arriving at Murrayfield because they took a different route. It later became clear this was the result of police direction in response to road works. Using it after a poor performance was a rare miscue by the coach. WALES 22 IRELAND 9 MARCH 10 2017 THIS is a match that resurrected memories of another famous Welsh hijacking. At the 2011 World Cup, Ireland went into a quarter-final against Warren Gatland’s team confident of progress, only to find their tactics thoroughly undone. Wales completely shut down Sean O’Brien, who had been a sensation until that point. They did a similar marking job on CJ Stander in Cardiff on this particular Friday night. It remains Ireland’s only match played on a weekday in the championship to date, and they couldn’t react when the Welsh approach started to take effect. This was also a contest in which Schmidt made a serious misstep, deciding to persist for too long with an injured Conor Murray, with the scrum half only able to use one arm. Together with a yellow card for Johnny Sexton, a Robbie Henshaw mistake at a maul that saw a try for Rory Best disallowed, and a roaring display from George North, Ireland learned what it is to suffer a night out in Cardiff.