Perfect start for Joe

SO it turns out Joe Schmidt might know what he’s doing after all... who knew?

This is quite obviously meant tongue in cheek. Schmidt is the reigning World Rugby coach of the year. He’s won enough silverware to open a trophy store. He’s respected, feared and coveted the world over. Joe is, quite simply as coaches go, the dog’s bollocks.

Even so we were all nervous enough before last Sunday’s game with Scotland weren’t we? Not because anybody seriously feared Scotland would turn the Irish over, more so because we feared that a pattern going back to the Six Nations and through the build-up to this World Cup would be continued.

For whatever reason Ireland seemed to have lost their way. From slayers of the

All Blacks in November to being lambs to the slaughter in Twickenham a couple of weeks ago was quite the whiplash and led to the first real doubts of the Schmidt era. A lot of us felt we’d seen this movie before. Cock-a-hoop a year before the World Cup. Excited talk of winning the thing, only for everything to start to fall asunder the closer to the tournament we got leading to an inevitable quarter-final exit (usually at the hands of the Argentines). What happened in Yokohama on Sunday afternoon allayed those fears. This was the Ireland of twelve months ago. Lean and mean and crystal clear in what they’re about. They bossed and bullied Gergor Townsend’s Scots. They wrapped it up with a bow nice and early. What Ireland didn’t do was show anything too exciting or expansive (acknowledging that the conditions were far from ideal). The pack were brilliant and got over brilliantly, but as a strategy for beating the South Africans it looks fairly limited we’ve got to say.

Then again if we trust in Joe – and we should – we’ve got to imagine he’s got something up his sleeve for that eventuality. Bring it on.