JOE SCHMIDT HAS sent a simple message to his Ireland team:
Don’t let yourselves get pushed around.
Ireland are the best-disciplined team in Test rugby and Schmidt will remain focused on his players keeping the penalty count low, but he wants his team to fight fire with fire of the legal variety.
Joe Schmidt wants to see an abrasive edge from Ireland. Source: Tommy Dickson/INPHO
We can be certain that no one has spent more time analysing Ireland’s defeat to England in the opening round of this Six Nations than Schmidt and his reviews have underlined to him that Ireland were not far off.
As they face into a clash with Italy tomorrow in Rome, showing four changes to their starting team, Schmidt is asking for three things in particular:
“Continuity, cohesion, and an abrasive edge.”
The Ireland head coach was pleased with the improvement Ireland showed in the third of those departments against Scotland in round two, but the defeat to England still rankles.
Schmidt put his hand up when recounting that Ireland had lacked something physically, suggesting that his team could have benefited from more contact in training the week of the England game.
“We normally present a real physical challenge to our opponents,” said Schmidt yesterday. “We can reflect on the England game and we weren’t quite where we needed to be. I’d be the first to admit that and take a degree of responsibility in that.
Dave Kilcoyne and Ultan Dillane start for Ireland in Italy. Source: Billy Stickland/INPHO
“Because you take for granted that that’s where you’re going to be, up and at them, and maybe we needed to do just a little bit more contact in that period.
“On the back of Europe [the Champions Cup], you tend to look after them a little bit because they’ve had a fair bit of contact and then maybe we should have just spiked a little bit of contact during the week, just to get them up and ready for what was a really physical challenge.
“We probably should have responded when there was a few off-the-ball incidents. We should have responded with, certainly not with indiscipline because that’s not us, but to be a bit more abrasive within the laws of the game because that’s what we feel we can deliver and that would be something I’d love to see on Sunday.”