THIS VIRUS IS NOT FATAL

Irish boss can rebuild side in time for Japan

JUST like the noble council staff who arrived on St Mary Street, Queen Street and Caroline Street yesterday morning, Joe Schmidt was faced with the wreckage of Saturday’s carnage in Cardiff.

By lunchtime, the streets of the city were pristine again as the detritus of the previous night’s excesses were cleared. Not a plastic pint glass, kebab box or broken stiletto in sight.

Ireland’s head coach has a far more challenging clean-up operation in front of him. Ireland will not play again until their first World Cup warm-up game against Italy on August 10 at Lansdowne Road. No doubt, there will be 145 sleepless nights ahead for Schmidt until then.

You suspect the Kiwi will be slightly relieved to have this championship behind him, for various reasons.

The World Cup has always been the priority this year and the majority of his actions and selections have been a testament to that.

Kieran Marmion became the 36th player to be used by Schmidt in this edition of the Six Nations when he replaced Conor Murray in the dying minutes of this galling 25-7 defeat.

There is a grand plan and Schmidt promised ‘this squad will turn up in Japan’ in the aftermath of Saturday’s shellacking, but there are major conThat cerns now.

Let’s start with the boss. There is no question the events of the past few months have dented Schmidt’s reputation as a worldclass head coach.

The aura and mystique has dissipated somewhat. For a coach who has delivered so much during his nine-year stay on this island with Leinster and Ireland, it has been disappointing to see him resort to petty complaints and excuses during this flawed campaign. Whatever about his constant references to ‘Busgate’ in the wake of the Murrayfield loss in 2017, Schmidt (right) constantly referred to his team’s six-day turnaround before this trip to Cardiff.

In the post-match press conference, he revealed that a ‘couple’ of his squad had been suffering with a bug prior to the game and were quarantined. There has certainly been a virus or malaise spreading through this team’s ranks in recent months. Bizarrely, he took a thinly-veiled swipe at the media in the Monday newspaper briefing after the team was leaked earlier in the week. Schmidt should be above all that. When he alludes to minor inconveniences and outside noise like that as legitimate factors in a Test match defeat, it only fuels the argument that this Irish squad — for all their talents and achievements — are a micro-managed and prescribed outfit who can be easily knocked off their stride. There is also the argument that Schmidt is hanging his hat on reputation rather than form with regards to some of his front-line players.

This has not been a stellar campaign for the likes of Rory Best, Peter O’Mahony, Sean O’Brien, Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton.

The out-half was particularly off colour in Cardiff.

In truth, he should have been withdrawn long before the 73rd minute for Jack Carty. Petulant and error-prone, it was a repeat of his histrionics during Leinster’s loss to Munster at Thomond Park back in December.

Likewise Conor Murray, who still looks a yard short of a gallop. When pressed on whether he should have sent on Connacht’s half-backs earlier to inject some vim and pace into Ireland’s attack, Schmidt once again spun the line that he is trying to play Murray and Sexton into form with continued exposure in the Test arena.

tactic has looked counterproductive. What is he going to do in that predicted World Cup quarter-final match-up against the Springboks if we get another meltdown from Murray and Sexton?

This troubled campaign has dredged up no end of issues and problems, but this is not the time to press the panic button.

This Ireland squad can still make a major impact in Japan.

It’s worth remembering that Ireland went to the 2015 World Cup as back-to-back Six Nations champions. That feelgood factor had zero bearing on the events at that ill-fated tournament.

Likewise, this tournament will count for little when this squad reconvenes in the summer.

For one thing, they should have key players back in action. Dan Leavy and Robbie Henshaw were sorely missed in recent months. Leavy offers a physicality and breakdown nous that few can match while Henshaw offers presence and a creative edge.

If Henshaw is fit, he will slot in alongside Garry Ringrose in the midfield. Ringrose was one of the Irish players who braved the media grilling after Saturday’s debacle and he remained diplomatic when the subject of Henshaw’s return was raised.

‘Well Bundee is phenomenal,’ he offered. ‘I consider myself lucky to play alongside either of them, and Chris (Farrell) as well.

‘But whatever about me, I think the group would love to have Robbie out there. He’s such an influence, someone like him is always missed. But you’ve got to roll with the punches.’

Ireland may look back on these sobering losses to England and Wales as the days which forged a stellar World Cup run. Schmidt hopes that will be the case.

‘We are hurting, it is a hollow feeling and it is frustrating but if, in November, we can say, well “I am glad we tried to build and widen and lay a foundation”, then, you know, we have three of the last five of these things and we got that Grand Slam last year.’

Time to sweep up this mess and move on.

‘Schmidt resorted to petty complaints and excuses’