Schmidt backs power of Irish scrum to derail England’s title hopes
Joe Schmidt believes Ireland’s scrum was the biggest plus point from an encouraging autumn series, promising to unleash it on the rest of the Six Nations in two months’ time.
Concluding an autumnal clean sweep with victory over Argentina – courtesy of two tries from man of the match Jacob Stockade and one from CJ Stander – Schmidt said the focus is now on reclaiming the title they won in 2014 and 2015 and denying Eddie Jones’ England a hat-trick of championships.
The two teams meet at Twickenham in the final round of matches on March 17, and the Kiwi predicted that his side’s scrum could give them the platform to come out on top in that tussle, name-checking almost every forward when asked to sum up his autumn highlights.
“I think tonight and in the South Africa performance the scrum has gone really well,” Schmidt said. “[scrum coach] Greg Feek does a super job for us and Tadhg Furlong continues to be a really strong character, not just in the scrum, but around the pitch as well.
“Cian Healy was incredibly dynamic coming off the bench against Fiji [the previous weekend] and was very, very strong tonight. Not as visible, but you don’t get to be as visible when you play the Argentinians. It is a little bit suffocating trying to attack against them sometimes because they are very connected and bring a real intensity to their defence.
“Iain Henderson taking further responsibility in the line-out, calling the line-out, running that particular aspect of play, gives us a bit of depth, with Devin Toner having had that responsibility in recent times. When you build that further back, we have Dan Leavy and Josh van der Flier back in the picture. At the same time, it was great to have Seanie [O’brien] out there.
“I though Pete [O’mahony] was really good at times tonight. They went the blindside close to the line with a five-metre scrum tonight and he buried the guy with a fantastic tackle, and CJ just continues to be unbelievably effective. I think he carried the ball 20 times tonight and got 14 tackles, which was second only to [centre] Bundee Aki.”
Argentina came back into the game with three tries in the second half through Joaquin Tuculet, Juan Manuel Leguizamon and Ramiro Moyano, and Schmidt added that had left something of a sour taste in his mouth.
“I know it is a little bit paradoxical to say I am delighted with the Guinness series and frustrated by a few things we didn’t get right,” he said. “It was a little bit glum in the coach’s box at the finish.
“But I’m really satisfied with the work ethic and how enthusiastic the players were to commit to what we were trying to do and work hard on it.”