Schmidt has team to win Slam – all he needs is luck
Irish match-day 23 is strongest in Six Nations but avoiding pitfalls of tough campaign is vital
WAKE me up when the team actually runs out on to the park. Squad announcements or team announcements are pretty humdrum these days I almost expect to see my own name in the list such is the size of that particular part of the organisation.
It is though a little bit more complicated than that and Joe Schmidt has to make at least five calls out of his enormous squad which could in the end be vital in finishing the year with something special.
Schmidt will have had to recognise the contribution of quite a number of players on the margins and for once he might have to acknowledge this.
The headmaster says that he picks on form but this is never the case and he will pick all his old favourites or players who fit in to the way he wants the team to play.
I do think he has a very good chance to do something this year and two years chasing England up and down the table is not where we want to be.
Ireland have the best 23-man squad in the championship and it is down to a significant factor – that of injury – which will determine how well they do this year.
The first question that you ask when you see the squad which was announced yesterday is can they win the Grand Slam with the personnel if all of those are available to their squad?
The answer is yes, providing they don’t suffer the same injury blight which is currently being experienced by the Welsh, Scottish and English squads.
Player preparation and player injury management is a real skill. Schmidt managed to keep his Leinster team fresh and available for selection. He has done a pretty good job with his Irish team so far. This is something that his English and French rivals can only aspire to as all of their key players are flogged to death.
It is something that has Schmidt fraying at the edges, the fact that a Grand Slam has not been won under his stewardship.
He will get it – he has a real chance this year. On a question of mathematics, the IRFU spent €4 million in a bid to host the 2023 World Cup. Maybe it would have been better to spend €4 million on keeping Joe Schmidt here so that we can win it instead of hosting it. Once Schmidt finishes with us after the Japanese World Cup, all bets are off.
The decisions he has to make while seemingly minor are absolutely crucial.
The starting team which I think will run out against France in Paris on February 3 is on this page. The marginal calls are as follows:
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LOOSEHEAD – I think Jack McGrath has established himself as the starting loosehead. Whatever sort of post-Lions syndrome he was suffering from has cost him dearly but his all-round game and his scrummaging are