IRFU MUST TAKE A LOOK IN THE MIRROR, SAYS RORY KEANE
Joe Schmidt has taken plenty of blame for Ireland’s World Cup failure but his former employers are culpable too
THERE was an interesting exchange between David Nucifora, IRFU performance director, and a fellow reporter during last Wednesday’s briefing into the review of Ireland’s failings in Japan.
Extensive interviews were conducted with players and coaching staff before and after the tournament, but one accredited member of that World Cup party did not face scrutiny. The person in question was sitting in front of us in an Aviva Stadium boardroom, ready to give his thoughts on his post-World Cup findings.
After a 28-minute briefing outlining the problems, errors and oversights that hampered Ireland’s campaign, the floor was opened to the assembled media.
‘Did anybody interview you? Were you a subject in any way of this review… did anyone review your performance?’
‘No one interviewed me, maybe they should have, that’s not a bad idea,’ Nucifora replied, looking slightly bemused.
‘I’m sure they will at some point,’ he continued. ‘We’ll sit down and talk about how the season went, how the block of time went, but no, my role is to look at this and be as objective as I can about how we want… It’s about being able to look at things in a way to say what’s going to make us better.
‘That’s what it’s all about, my job is to say how do we keep improving, the decisions that have been made have always been about “this is what is best for Irish rugby” and what we do to keep getting better.’
It was interesting to note that Joe Schmidt’s name was not mentioned once during Nucifora’s initial address. But the information that the Australian did share will have made grim reading for the former Ireland head coach. Add in Rory Best’s comments about the pressurised, micro-managed environment that reared its head again at the tournament, and it was a pretty galling 24 hours for Schmidt.
There is no doubting that Schmidt, for all his previous achievements, got a World Cup campaign horribly wrong, again.
However, his employers and his direct superior deserve to take plenty of flak as well.
Nucifora noted the many successful and effective strategies which are evident throughout the professional game at present, and it is a valid point. In July, the IRFU reported that the 2018/19 financial year was their most successful ever, raking in €87.5million in revenue. There is plenty of money rolling in.
Another quarter-final exit should not push Irish rugby into panic mode. But there are long-term issues in the game here, which need addressing. Nucifora and the IRFU seemed to pass the buck earlier this week, but much of what went wrong at this World Cup – and the many other failures that preceded it – should fall at their door.
PERFORMANCE ANXIETY
It was interesting, but not entirely surprising, to hear that players suffered with ‘performance anxiety’ throughout this troubled year. Nucifora cited an inability to cope with the added expectation of being installed as favourites following the squad’s all-conquering exploits of 2018.
That would make sense. A performance mindset is something that is rarely programmed into athletes, most have to learn those skills.
The All Blacks, always ahead of the curve, have had a full-time mental skills coach on board since 2004.
Gilbert Enoka has been credited with playing a major role in helping the world’s best team overcome their World Cup issues, which saw them go 24 years without winning the tournament.
Schmidt’s Ireland followed suit by appointing Enda McNulty – a former All-Ireland winning footballer with Armagh – in a similar role in 2013. On the surface, the stress and anxiety reported by the squad does not reflect well on him, but there seemed to be a deeper issue within this squad during Schmidt’s reign, one that was seemingly left to fester for too long.
‘Too much detail and probably too much tension,’ was Best’s blunt summation of the Ireland environment in Japan.
This is not a revelation. For a long time, there was a suspicion that Schmidt’s intense, forensic approach was not best suited to a long, demanding World Cup schedule. It’s no surprise to hear that a regime like that would eventually become suffocating.
Players were giving that feedback in what was just Schmidt’s second game in charge during the autumn internationals of 2013.
Ireland had suffered a 32-15 loss to the Wallabies and the general consensus was they were overloaded with information in the week leading up to the game. Schmidt and the coaching staff listened, but the same old habits – and the issue of control – seemed to slide back into the camp time and again.
There was a feeling among players who toured Argentina in the summer of 2014 that there were too many meetings. Sound familiar?
Apart from appointing McNulty, there seemed to be very little in the way of managing the Ireland set-up in terms of stress and pressure.
The end product of ground-breaking wins and trophies seemed to justify the means, but the feeling
‘A DEEPER ISSUE IN THE SQUAD WAS LEFT TO FESTER TOO LONG’
remains that Schmidt’s Ireland became far too intense and unforgiving of errors.
The big question is what were Nucifora and the IRFU making of all this during the past six and a half years of Schmidt’s reign? It’s too late now.
SHORT-TERM FOCUS
The irony of speaking about the squad struggling to deal with expectation was that Nucifora himself had heaped a huge amount of it on this Ireland setup back in May.
Speaking to the same journalists in the same boardroom, Nucifora proclaimed: ‘We’d be kidding ourselves if we thought that anything worse than a semi-final is going to be good for us.’
But how could Ireland break new ground at the global showpiece after so many failures when the entire system is seemingly set up to work against them?
The IRFU’s system of centrally contracting players and carefully managing the workload of their frontline international stars is often lauded as a world-leading model. For the best part of two decades, the match minutes of top players have been managed throughout the season, with the view to having them primed for big European Cup weekends (such as this festive block of backto-back fixtures), the autumn internationals and the Six Nations.
That mantra of marginal gains has spawned a great deal of success at provincial level and in the Six Nations – particularly on Schmidt’s watch. There have been some big November wins and big results overseas.
But the IRFU dictating when players tog out for the provinces has long been a source of frustration for head coaches in those regions. They would argue that they appreciate and understand the welfare of their top players better than anyone and don’t need to be micro-managed by the top brass in Ballsbridge.
The system has been justified by the recent successes of the Ireland team. Clearly, it is not working when it comes to the World Cup. This IRFU diktat has been in place for seven tournaments and the record reads: last-16, quarter-final, pool stages, quarter-final, quarter-final, quarter-final.
Last weekend, a second-string Leinster outfit went to Scotstoun and defeated a fully-loaded Glasgow team. The Pro14 no longer looks fits for purpose. It will suit fans and sponsors to see the provinces cruise through the league, but that lack of pressure and top-level competition may harm Ireland teams down the line.
It adds credence to the argument that, in a bid to protect their top players, the IRFU have sheltered them too much and when the real business begins at a World Cup, they are simply not conditioned to deal with that kind of pressure and attrition on a week-to-week basis.
It might explain why Schmidt felt the need to create such an intensive environment within the walls of Carton House. It simply does not occur consistently at club level.
SKILLS DEFICIT
Another interesting observation from Nucifora’s briefing was the claim of a skills deficit that existed at the World Cup. There is a desire for the national and provincial camps to be more closely aligned in that regard.
Many of the players spoke of getting the basics right in Japan, when the rate of unforced errors began to accumulate. There is no doubt that Ireland need to improve in this area, but it isn’t as though they don’t already have the raw material.
Connacht played a high-tempo, passing game throughout their historic Pro12 title-winning campaign in 2016 and they are doing the same under Andy Friend in recent seasons.
Schmidt challenged his Leinster squad to become the best passing team in Europe when he took over at the province and you couldn’t argue with the results. The current set-up is thriving under Stuart Lancaster’s ‘comfortable in chaos’ approach.
In Munster, it’s early days, but they are revelling in Stephen Larkham’s new attacking philosophy.
When you drill down into the provinces, the argument that there is a skills deficit doesn’t seem to hold true.
EVERYONE IN?
It wasn’t surprising, but it was telling that Nucifora failed to mention the All-Ireland League once during his detailed address. This is not a new development.
There are signs that the relationship between the IRFU and the clubs is thawing, but there remains a disconnect between the two operations. If Irish rugby is to grow, develop and reach the next stages at Test level then the governing body needs to find effective ways of aligning with the amateur game. That can only be a good thing for both parties in the long term.
SUCCESSION
Nucifora and the IRFU’s biggest call in recent times has been the decision to appoint Andy Farrell as Joe Schmidt’s successor.
On the same day that Schmidt confirmed he would be stepping down after the World Cup, his defence coach was anointed as the new boss.
Farrell has made a major impact since he came on board in 2016, but there is no doubting that this is a big risk. For all his achievements as a highly-rated defence coach and motivator, Farrell has never had the top job at club or international level. The IRFU gave him a four-year contract and have entrusted him to lead Ireland’s charge towards the next World Cup in 2023.
Perhaps we’ve all become too obsessed with a tournament that occurs once every four years but there is no getting away from the fact that the IRFU have backed a coach who has been involved in two pretty dramatic World Cup failures, with England in 2015 and Ireland’s recent debacle in Japan.
Nucifora recently signed a contract extension taking him up to the 2022 season, less than 12 months out from the next World Cup.
It remains to be seen whether the lessons of 2019 will be learned.