TRY TO STOP US! Schmidt rounds on those who criticise Ireland’s playing style
JOE SCHMIDT defied critics of Ireland’s style yesterday after springing a surprise in his selection to face Scotland.
The head coach challenged those cribbing about how he sends out his team to prevent Ireland scoring tries if they want to derail them.
Iain Henderson has not been recalled for tomorrow’s fourth leg of the Grand Slam bid, Devin Toner keeping his place in the second row beside James Ryan but Tadhg Furlong returns, with Garry Ringrose also named for his first start of the campaign at centre.
And Schmidt wasn’t done there, as he rounded on those who argue Ireland use predictable tactics that rely on a stop-start game.
Warren Gatland suggested Ireland’s win two weeks ago was because the ball was in play for 32 minutes and 57 seconds of the 80. Schmidt was having none of it. ‘If they stop us scoring tries then they will get more game minutes,’ he said, arguing that the Wales game had eight tries, and with each try and conversion attempt taking
over a minute, that would reduce the ball-in-play time by 10 minutes. ‘The highest game minutes was a game where there were very few passes made (England’s 12-6 defeat of Wales), where I think there were about 30 more kicks than any other game. ‘You can keep the ball in play all you like and play no rugby. ‘I think it’s one of those things that might fit snugly in summarising a game but it’s probably a truism that you can make stats say anything you like.’ The retention of Toner means there are two changes to the 15 that started in the victory against the Welsh, with Furlong replacing Andrew Porter and Ringrose coming in for Chris Farrell. Porter returns to the bench, which Henderson rejoins after missing the last match with a hamstring problem, while Jack Conan and Fergus McFadden slip out of the match-day 23 altogether, replaced on the bench by Jordi Murphy and Jordan Larmour. Should Schmidt’s (below) side beat the Scots, they will be 80 minutes away from only the third Grand Slam in the country’s history. And if results go their way, they could win the title tomorrow evening.