Schmidt’s men told to be focused

Joe Schmidt has admitted the uncertainty around Typhoon Hagibis has created a “distraction” for Ireland’s crucial World Cup clash with Samoa.

Head coach Schmidt is confident Ireland can quickly focus back in on tomorrow’s Pool A encounter in Fukuoka that will now definitely beat the weather.

Hagibis is due to rip through Tokyo, Yokohama and Toyota City at the weekend.

Scotland’s clash with Japan remains under threat – and a cancellation there would see Japan top Pool A and Ireland only able to finish second.

A second-place finish would set Ireland up for a quarter-final against back-to-back world champions New Zealand, but Schmidt is determined not to get ahead of himself with Samoa looming.

“There is a distraction; there was a lot of talk among the players posttraining today when we found out about the cancellations,” said Schmidt.

“Because any time there’s something up in the air or something is unknown – especially when two games have already been abandoned – players are going to talk about that because it’s newsworthy.

“But we’ve just got to make sure our game gets finished with the right result for us.

“We’re not having too many conversations with World Rugby; we had a few earlier in the week because at one stage the typhoon pattern was different fromwhatitisnow.

“We can’t control what happens with the Japan-Scotland game, so on Saturday it’s up to us to get our business done as best we can.”