After the Murrayfield hiccup, the weekend couldn't have gone much better for Ireland. Following on from their record Six Nations win and the competition's first attacking bonus point in Saturday's 63-10 victory over Italy, France's 22-16 success over Scotland in Paris yesterday left Joe Schmidt's team in clear second place after two rounds.
Ireland also remain the bookies’ clear second favourites to win the title before hosting France at the Aviva Stadium in a fortnight’s time, albeit England’s odds have hardened to retain the trophy after their last-ditch win away to Wales leaves them in pole position. Eddie Jones’ team now entertain Italy and Scotland at Twickenham before the tournament’s finale on the last weekend in Dublin.
The only blemish arising out of Ireland's nine-try jaunt in the Roman sunshine at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday was the bicep injury sustained by Rob Kearney. There may be a clear prognosis on the extent of the fullback's injury, and Robbie Henshaw's less worrisome bruised leg, today.
Against that, the squad re-assemble in Monaghan on Wednesday for a three-day camp with Johnny Sexton, Rory Best, Andrew Trimble, Iain Henderson and, perhaps, Peter O'Mahony, all to come back into the mix for the game against France.
In the fall-out from Saturday's win over Italy, Schmidt said there might "potentially" be some merit in granting Sexton some game time in Leinster's Pro12 game at home to Edinburgh next Friday night, but the Irish head coach intimated that the Irish team, and Sexton himself, might benefit more from him taking a full part in the three days' training in Monaghan along with Paddy Jackson.
Level of intensity
“The problem with that [Sexton playing for Leinster] is, yes, it would be good for him to get some game time but we have Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in camp so it’s probably important to get some rhythm with us as opposed to get some game time. So I think Paddy’s done a super job; I think it would be good to have them both in camp and to square them off, and see how they’re travelling,” said Schmidt in reference to Jackson, whose nine conversions equalled the tournament record held by Jonny Wilkinson and means that he has landed 27 of his last 28 place kicks at Test level – the one exception being a touchline conversion against Scotland a week ago.
The more Ireland pulled away against Italy, and the more emphatic their performance, the more it rankled that Ireland left a win behind in Edinburgh a week previously.
“Aw, it’s always going to rattle around, just because there are things that are always a concern that they might pop up again,” said Schmidt in reference to Stadio Olimpico rectifying the wrongs of Murrayfield.
“I don’t think any progress is linear, as I said last week, I think there are different things. It’s a bit like tuning a car, you might tinker with this part of it and it’s this part over here that doesn’t quite function as a result. And you’re always trying to make sure as much of it is running as smoothly as possible.
“There are a few things that will still be in the back of our minds, that we know that we need to be good at, that we haven’t quite been yet. But we know there are things that we feel that we demonstrated that were pretty competent when our mindset’s right and the accuracy’s right. But no two games are the same.”
What the last two weeks have also demonstrated is how different a beast tournament rugby is, and especially the Six Nations, when compared to the November Test window, even when facing the All Blacks twice.
Above all else, Murrayfield had reminded the Irish squad of the importance of achieving a level of intensity from the off.
Pressure
Noting how Saturday’s strong start was what the players demanded of themselves, and that the sluggish beginning in Murrayfield was “unusual for us”, Schmidt added: “We touched upon a few things during the week to make sure the guys were ready and they hit the ground running. But the championship is a little bit different. There is a little bit of pressure that you don’t quite get in the November Series.
“You want to win every Test match. You want to perform well. The crowds are there and there’s a great atmosphere. But the accumulation of knowing that there’s points up for grabs, and this is the championship . . . can cause guys to get a little bit spooked and we have a number of guys playing in their first or second championship so that they don’t quite have that experience,” he said.
“So hopefully after today and last week they’ll build a bit of confidence and appreciate that they can live up to these big matches.”
France will arrive in Dublin looking like an altogether different beast under Guy Noves than they were even when beating Ireland a year ago, never mind during the previous World Cup cycle under Philippe Saint-André.
As far as Schmidt is concerned, the most striking feature of France's rejuvenation hasn't so much been their offloading game as their "new blood". Citing the form of Kevin Gourdon and Louis Picamoles in their back-row, centre Remi Lamerat, fullback Scott Spedding, their Fijian-born wingers Virimi Vakatawa and Noa Nakaitaci, and lock Sebastien Vahaamahina, Schmidt deduced: "I think they're going to be a heap of a challenge."
Also citing the close-run affair between Wales and England, Schmidt added: “As I said before the championship started, I think it’s going to be a super championship. I really think there’s going to be some battles that come down to the wire and there’s going to be a number of coaches’ fingernails missing at the end of this Six Nations because it’s just going to be really tight and combative. One team could get away but, if they do, I think it will be by small margins that they will break from the pack.”
