The odds on Ireland winning Pool D shortened from 4/6 to 4/7 in the aftermath of beating Canada, and while that may seem a little premature, it takes cognizance of two important developments in Cardiff on Saturday. Not only did Ireland hit the ground running, but the Blarney Army descended on the Welsh capital in such force that, as expected, they turned it effectively into a home fixture.
Such was the severe over-crowding in Paddington and Bristol en route to Cardiff and the three-hour queues out of Cardiff on Saturday night that the First Great Western Rail had to publicly apologise yesterday. They had only catered for 8,000 to take that particular route. Given there were over 68,000 in the Millennium Stadium, it seems safe to assume over 50,000 of them were Irish.
Repeat the feat
On the presumption that the Irish supporters repeat the feat in London over the next two Sundays for the Romanian and Italian games, and then again when Ireland return to Cardiff for the French finale, that can only be a positive.
"Yeah, it's fantastic for the team, they love it but it scares me," said Joe Schmidt with a wry smile. "It's fantastic but I just don't want these people to be let down. We're working hard and we want to make sure that they get rewarded for the support they give us.
“I always feel a massive weight of responsibility to try and encourage the lads to be as good as they can be because that support’s phenomenal and they probably grow an extra inch because of it.”
The squad re-located to the George’s Park complex in Burton-on-Trent in rude health yesterday and the nature of the 50-7 win also gave Schmidt and co the elbow room to make several changes.
“It’s a bit of a catch-22. We want to build cohesion, we want to get continuity, we want to keep guys in a match rhythm as well. Guys are used to going week to week. At the same time, if we do get to a fourth or a fifth week and are in the mix, we want guys to be both fresh and have a rhythm.
“Some guys play really well fresh and others need a bit more rhythm in their games and we try to mix and match as best we can.”
Ideally, Schmidt admitted, he would like all 31 players involved at some point, and presumably therefore, the sooner the better. “You’ve selected them because you trust that they’ve got the ability to contribute. We’d like to see everyone contribute, but at the same time it is trying to combine that continuity that was demonstrated at times and trying to maintain that into next week and, particularly, the week after and the week after that.”
Own orchestra
With huge work-rate from the pack and strong set-pieces, Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton ran the game as if it was their own orchestra. The depth, width and use of decoy runners showed all the signs of a squad which had been training well but keeping their powder dry in the warm-up games.
Schmidt was happy with the “three-dimensional” nature of Ireland’s performance, and was effusive in praising the way Sexton varied his game.
“I thought there was great width but I also thought there was great depth to our attack and I think Johnny found some good space in behind that allowed us to get some territory. At the same time, if they were looking to protect the territory, we took it at them on the edges.
“The number of guys who have got really good experience now, who can read a game and get a fair bit of licence to do exactly that – so, what we try to do is give them the tools to put that together and one of the things about having the tools is guys understanding their role but also being individually capable of making the links that need to be put together.
“I thought our passing game was pretty good. Johnny will probably be disappointed with his first wide pass that he made, but he made some cracking passes as well.”
However, Schmidt admitted this was to some extent tailored for Saturday’s game. “You just try to tailor your package for your opponent. We’ve probably, not stifled ourselves, but probably been relatively content to ease our way through. You know, I think we’re too competitive to give up Test results but the major priority is not the pre-season so I do think that it’s really important to work your way through that.
Pass space
“So what we worked through was great and it’ll be a little bit different for next week. I don’t think you can play that against the Italians necessarily because they do have a lot of line speed and guys like Campagnaro, Venditti, Luke McLean and Sarto get up into your pass space. I’ve seen Sarto intercept a few and once he’s got it you’re not going to catch him.
“So you try to tailor your package but whatever package you try and put together, you’ve got to have someone who’s good enough to operate it and Johnny demonstrated he’s an incredibly capable rugby player.”
That he is.
