Why time is running out to enter Schmidt’s CIRCLE OF TRUST

Georgia Test represents big chance for fringe men to stake World Cup claim

JOE SCHMIDT IS building his Ireland dream on obvious foundations. Mike Ross, Paul O’Connell, Peter O’Mahony, Jamie Heaslip, Conor Murray, Johnny Sexton, Tommy Bowe and Rob Kearney will play in all of the big games between now and the World Cup.

Once fit, Cian Healy will join that list, and Sean O’Brien will not be very far away if he recovers fully. These players are the core that every coach needs, but the days of the Ireland XV picking itself for match after match, week after week and year after year, are over.

There was a time, not so very long ago either, when a player would nearly have to lobby to get off the team. It was a conservative culture and the tendency was to stick with what you knew. They were amateur days and it was about staying with the tried and tested.

But what we knew best was losing. Professionalism has helped to bring change, but there was a tendency for coaches to be conservative until recent years. All that has changed with Schmidt, and I have no doubt at all he is working to a plan with the World Cup in mind.

It is expected Ireland will play four warm-up matches for that tournament. Add those to five Six Nations games next spring, plus the match against Georgia today and the Test against Australia next Saturday, and the total is 11.

Eleven games are all that separate Ireland from the World Cup, and when you put it in those terms you realise just how close the biggest rugby competition in the world is. Break it down further again: Schmidt will play his strongest teams against Australia and in all of the Six Nations challenges. That leaves today and the four World Cup warm-up matches for every player outside of the key crew named above, to make their case.

And when you consider that the World Cup warm-up matches are all about getting the players battle-hardened for the competition, you realise that time is of the essence, for Schmidt and his players.

His two most important units are the half backs and the front row. Sexton and Murray pick themselves, and Healy and Ross will be the props. However, someone like Sean Cronin has a huge year ahead of him: he can really go after Rory Best’s place.

Mike McCarthy will think he can challenge Devin Toner, and the likes of Rhys Ruddock, Tommy O’Donnell, Craig Gilroy, Robbie Henshaw, Jared Payne and Luke Fitzgerald will put pressure on themselves to break into the side Schmidt will send into battle in our World Cup opener against Canada on September 19.

For many of these men, though, their best shot at that is today, 10 months away from the tournament. Sportsmen talk about one day at a time and not thinking beyond the next challenge, but for many ambitious Irishmen they simply have to: today is their day.

Eddie O’Sullivan used to defend himself when people criticised him for not changing players around. He would argue that the opportunities to do so were limited: you can’t mess around with your team during the Six Nations, and not when the big southern-hemisphere countries come up here or we tour down there either, he said.

It was only in ones like this, against countries outside the top tier, when you could have a look at a good number of different players. And somebody will certainly give the coach something to think about today: there will be a major performance from someone that causes him to take notice.

But after that, guys are depending on injuries and loss of form to get their chance. Again, these things are inevitable in rugby. There are always injuries and Schmidt will pray that none of his key men go down with something serious over the next 12 months.

Healy and O’Brien have both suffered significant setbacks this season, and the trick is getting everyone else to next May in decent shape. Do that and the summer can be spent getting people properly conditioned and recuperated.

Don’t doubt for a second that all of this isn’t already planned out. Just as certain is the team Schmidt will play against the Australians. It is not disrespecting Georgia or anyone else: it is what the best teams do.

INJURIES do have one upside for a squad: they keep people interested. What I mean is that when a player gets laid low, it gives an opportunity to somebody else. That means the fringe players are waiting for their chance and if they believe the coach will trust them, then it adds to the strength of the group.

Andrew Trimble is evidence of this. He has been in and out of Ireland teams for almost a decade but when Tommy Bowe was out last season, Schmidt trusted him, Trimble took his chance and he was brilliant.

He believed Schmidt would reward him if he did his job, and so he played with great confidence.

Lining out against Georgia today is the next Andrew Trimble. Between now and next September, a player will get an opportunity thanks to injury, but it is in matches like this one that he must prove to the coach he can take it.

That is why this game and every game are now vital. Look at it this way: there are less than 1,000 minutes of Test rugby until the World Cup.

Injuries have an upside, they give opportunities to others and add to the group’s strength