IRELAND SLAY DRAGONS

IRELAND boss Joe Schmidt last night braced himself for a “horrible” 48 hours in which he must finalise his World Cup squad.

On Monday, Schmidt (left) must hand over to World Rugby the names of his final 31-man squad that will go to Japan. That will spell heartbreak for nine players in the 40-man provisional squad that has been involved in the last two warm-ups.

Speaking after yesterday’s needed 22-17 victory in Cardiff, Schmidt said: “Yeah, I think it’s a horrible couple of days - it’s probably the worst few days I’ve had in coaching, this time four

years ago. I know how hard these players are working and how good they are, and how hard they’ve worked over a number of years because this is the pinnacle.

“This is what they’ve wanted to go after, this is what we’ve talked about last Christmas as being very much the sole focus of the year. And for those players who miss out, it’s going to be a real body blow, and I’m incredibly conscious of that and I sympathise with it.

“But you can only take 31 and that’s brutality of it, I think.”

Dave Kilcoyne booked his place on the plane with a powerful performance as Ireland went in search of a morale-boosting display on the back of their record defeat to England seven days earlier.

Other fringe hopefuls, such as Jack Carty, Will Addison, Andrew Conway, Niall Scannell and Tadhg Beirne will have to wait and see if they have done enough.

Schmidt is optimistic Johnny Sexton and Robbie Henshaw will get their first games of the campaign in next weekend.