WHAT NOW, BOSS?
Tetchy Schmidt refutes suggestions that Ireland have gone backwards since beating All Blacks
JOE SCHMIDT insists Ireland have not regressed since November despite already suffering two Six Nations defeats.
Ireland landed their first-ever victory over New Zealand in 111 years of trying and registered a calendar-year clean sweep over the southern hemisphere’s big three, too, but have since slipped to losses in Scotland and Wales.
Asked if Ireland have lost ground since the autumn series, underfire Schmidt replied: ‘No, I don’t think so. I think there’s incredible intensity in this tournament.
‘The championship is always incredibly tight. In November, you get to play at home mostly and I guess as frustrating at it is, I still think there was some really positive things we did (in Cardiff).
‘I thought our line speed in the first 20 minutes put them under real pressure and created opportunities for us and I thought we were a bit unlucky not to get something more from them when we did get in behind them.
‘It is incredibly frustrating that
you get so close to the line and even get over it and get the ball down but don’t quite get the reward for it. Those are the fine margins, and some days it’s just hard to buy a trick.’
Schmidt was in tetchy form, refuting accusations his team’s attack has become predictable.
He replied: ‘It’s funny you say that. In the end you’re always looking for variation. In fact the teams had seven line breaks each. A lot of the stats are very, very even.
‘Unfortunately the one that favours us is a 10-4 penalty count and the one that favours them is the 229 result.
‘We’ll look at the performance more than the result and say, “In the performance, the seven line breaks we did make, how did we create those?”.
‘Looking at the stats, it’s actually incredibly even across the board.’
However, leaving aside the bloodless round two rout of hapless Italy, the stats also show that Schmidt’s side, held tryless by Wales, has scored just four tries in 240 minutes, or once an hour.
He also queried why the pitch was made so greasy when Ireland agreed with Wales’ request to close the roof because it would guarantee dry conditions. ‘There was a lot of water put on the pitch beforehand,’ he rued.