STICK BY JOE, THIS FAD CAN’T LAST ALL YEAR

FERGUS MCFADDEN is certain that Joe Schmidt remains the best man to revive Ireland’s fortunes.

Mcfadden worked with the Kiwi at Leinster and won 15 of his 34 international caps under Schmidt, and he says there’s no way the ex-leinster chief will be pushing the panic button after Six Nations defeats to England and Wales.

“If Ireland had beaten Wales, you could say it would be a great springboard, but at the end of the day there is an awful lot of time to the World Cup,” he said.

“There is no better coach to get some of the stuff they got wrong, right.

“There are four friendlies before the start of the World Cup. That is time for Joe to try new guys and then try to get that consistency going into the tournament.

“I’m sure the boys are really gutted. The Welsh played great. We probably didn’t play our best.

“I don’t want to think we need to be pressing the panic button just yet.

“I have no doubt that team will get things right and get momentum going to Japan.”

Mcfadden believes the shock home defeat to England was the exact opposite of last year’s momentum-building win in Paris that set up the Grand Slam success.

“Last year we beat France in the last play of the game with that kick, it could have been very different, that Six

Nations, that was a huge momentum builder for us,” he said.

“You even look at the Scottish game at home, the Welsh game at home, things went our way in the game because the confidence was high. It looked like it was tough for the boys to build themselves back up after England winning here.”