Schmidt’s squad in rude health for opener
There’s too much at stake for November to be ‘meaningless’
IRELAND head coach Joe Schmidt has the rare luxury of a fully fit squad to select from ahead of Saturday’s November series opener against South Africa. Baring any setbacks in training this week, Ireland boast a clean bill of health for the Aviva Stadium clash, with Kieran Treadwell the only absentee from training at Carton House yesterday, after the Ulster lock’s flight from South Africa was delayed following his side’s weekend win against the Southern Kings. Treadwell will report for international duty tomorrow. Otherwise, the remaining players who were released for weekend Pro14 duty — Leinster’s Adam Byrne, Dan Leavy, Dave Kearney and Andrew Porter, along with Munster trio Chris Farrell, Ian Keatley and Darren Sweetnam — all arrived back in Ireland camp with no injuries to report. Schmidt’s full pack will only heighten the anticipation ahead of Thursday’s team announcement, with Connacht centre Bundee Aki in line to make his debut. The 27-year-old Aki is one of four uncapped players available, with in-form Leinster winger Byrne (23), and Munster duo Farrell and Sweetnam (both 24) also vying to impress Schmidt.
Try telling our greatest icons Soldier Field meant nothing
AS soon the final whistle sounded in Soldier Field just over a year ago, the sneering began. Ireland had just beaten New Zealand for the first time in 111 years of trying, an All Blacks side that had won back-to-back World Cups and was chasing the record for successive international victories.
Indeed, going into that Chicago Test, Steve Hansen’s team were being described as the greatest to have played rugby since William Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it in 1823.
And Joe Schmidt’s men did not escape to victory, they triumphed playing an exhilarating brand of rugby the All Blacks could not handle, scoring five tries on the way to an emphatic 40-29 final scoreline.
It was a monumental result, a shock that reverberated around the rugby globe and unleashed an avalanche of praise upon Schmidt and his players.
However, the accolades were accompanied by the usual begrudging swipes rugby followers have become wearingly accustomed to, primarily through the favoured Twitter platform but also in mainstream media via luminaries of other sports.
‘Why is there so much fuss over a challenge match?’ — was the typical ‘witty’ retort of the GAA follower, while the soccer brigade went long the lines of: ‘Well done Ireland, you won a friendly...big woop.’
Tiresome stuff, rooted in ignorance and a bitterness among followers of other sports, mainly soccer and GAA, resentful of rugby’s explosion in popularity from the early 2000s onwards — a success story at provincial and international level which broke up the duopoly that had dominated Irish sport for decades.
Much of that resentment stems from the traditional perception of rugby as an elitist, snobbish activity, a game of private school privilege for chaps who believe themselves to be engaged in a sport superior to its earthier, riff-raff rivals.
And, while the growth in rugby has elicited a welcome movement beyond those traditional stereotypes, that uncomfortable aspect to the game still prevails and probably always will.
But that should not detract from what was, unequivocally, a tremendous sporting achievement on a national scale in Chicago — preceded by a momentous first Test win in South Africa and followed up by an excellent dismantling of Australia, the other member of the southern hemisphere ‘big three’.
Those matches were, technically, ‘friendlies’ also and their kernel of the problem here lies is explaining why a friendly in rugby cannot be equated to its soccer counterpart or to a challenge game in GAA. That starts with the players. Whereas Republic of Ireland friendlies over the years have been characterised by player withdrawals (most notably Roy Keane’s) and on-field apathy, the chance to represent Ireland against the southern hemisphere nations is one rugby players treasure, with victories in those fixtures frequently cherished more than triumphs in the Six Nations due to the higher quality of opposition.
Brian O’Driscoll experienced his share of disappointment in the Six Nations and in World Cups but views the agonising defeats to New Zealand in Christchurch in 2012 and Dublin the following year among his lowest moments in rugby.
O’Driscoll never beat the All Blacks in an Ireland jersey, nor did Willie John McBride, Mike Gibson, Ronan O’Gara or Paul O’Connell — try telling them the Soldier Field victory meant nothing because it was ‘just a friendly’.
Furthermore, the physical nature of rugby demands utter commitment, players who hold back in contact, through lack of engagement with the occasion, lay themselves open to serious injury — there is no room for a ‘friendly mindset’.
Then there are the supporters. Whereas, in soccer, international friendlies tend to be played in funereal atmospheres before patchy attendances (think of one of the many meetings with Oman), Ireland can bank on bumper crowds each November — as can England, Scotland, Wales and France for that matter.
Next Saturday’s meeting with South Africa, and the clash with Argentina a fortnight later, are set to be sell-outs at Lansdowne Road and the clash with Fiji in between, when Schmidt is expected to unleash some of his younger talent, is heading that way also.
International days out are not cheap affairs, particularly if you are travelling from outside Dublin, and people will not shell out for something they do not believe is worth seeing — the finance this generates for the IRFU adds to the November significance.
And finally, while there are no titles on the line this month, this month’s three Tests are crucial steps towards the Six Nations in the new year and, more importantly, along the path to the 2019 World Cup where Ireland will attempt to reach the last four for the first time at the ninth time of asking.
Argentina knocked Ireland out at the quarter-final stage at the last World Cup and South Africa are the likely last eight opponents at the next, so these Tests are invaluable for Schmidt — both in terms of assessing his own players and the opposition.
The Fiji game is an opportunity to back up the successful blooding of younger players on the summer tour in the interests of a deep World Cup 2019 squad.
Yet, however this month plays out there will be the inevitable ‘friendly’ digs as accompanying white noise.
So be it, but there is much to be gained, and lost, here for Ireland.
Call them exhibition matches, call them friendlies, call them challenge games if you will, but do not make the mistake of calling them meaningless.