CHAMPING AT THE BIT Schmidt: Now we have a bit of certainty over a return date - motivation among the players will skyrocket very quickly
JOE SCHMIDT believes the motivation of Irish rugby’s top men “skyrocketed” when the IRFU named a date for a return.
The weekend of August 22/23 has been pencilled in for PRO14 action at the Aviva Stadium in the form of interpros.
And Schmidt feels having a date to towards will make difference to players.
“One of the good things is there’s a little bit of certainty around the future,” said the former Ireland boss.
“August 22 has been talked about a lot as a starting point and once players get that it gives them a little more motivation.
“People like Ireland strength and conditioning that look a big coach Jason Cowman (inset) can start to work back from that to get players ready to play.
“If those first couple of weeks are derby games, the PRO14 play-offs and European play-offs, hopefully some Test matches, then I think player motivation sky-rockets very, very quickly.
“I had a text conversation with Johnny Sexton – and he’s never lacked for motivation anyway – but his motivation is still very high.
“For Johnny and a fair few others it’s given them a great window to get into physical condition and get over any bumps and bruises that they had.”
While he understands the concerns of IRFU chiefs over the massive financial cost of not playing, Schmidt believes the sport will recover.
“The consequences
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are going to ripple for quite some time,” he said in an interview for Mcsport’s My Motivation campaign.
“There are clubs and national bodies who are burning through financial resources that they don’t really have because they’re keeping staff on and there’s no income.
“When you have no income you have outgoings and that unsustainable.
“In the long-term, the Irish model has been incredibly sustainable and they’ve done an incredible job in keeping the vast majority of their players.
“I’d like to think that there could be something that
is
OLYMPICS TOKYO 2020 could be solid again in the future – as soon as things get back underway, revenues can re-ignite the engine and it can continue as before.
“Maybe in the short-term some player contracts won’t be what they were. The ceiling of player salaries may be lowered a little.
“I know they’re talking about it in the Premiership and certainly in France.
“If those salary caps can come down a little and everyone obeys them, then it may not be as lucrative for the player as it once was but it will still be quite lucrative.
“It can regather momentum and re-inflate over a period of time.”
Schmidt also wants to see a finish to the Six Nations that had two rounds to go.
“Ireland were in such a good position,” he said. “With France getting the red card against Wales and only having the six-day turnaround, I felt it was set up for Ireland to get a win there – and they would only have to get a good win against Italy to be in a race with England.”
Schmidt now wants World Rugby to work towards a global Test match championship at least every two years rather than a World Cup every four years.
He believes it would be a fairer way to determine world rankings.
“It has to come at some stage,” said Schmidt.
“One of the problems with that is that it is like trying to get world unity on things – everybody has a position that they want to protect.”
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