Next up is a leisurely June Test series in South Africa. Joe Schmidt's Ireland have not had it easy – the World Cup dream gone with O'Connell in retirement – but the 50-year-old has yet to guide a full tour to the Southern Hemisphere (where Declan Kidney's Ireland lost the third All Blacks Test 60-0 in 2012).
Cape Town up to Johannesburg altitude before finishing at Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in Port Elizabeth promises to be a horrendously punishing experience as Irish bodies disintegrate after a long, hard season.
Andrew Trimble, who has been playing for Ireland since 2005, knows all about these summer missions that the Schmidt era has avoided up to now.
“When you go to South Africa you have to hit the ground running,” said Trimble. “It took us three or four games to get going in this championship. We don’t have that luxury. If we are taking anything away it is the fact that if we don’t turn up in South Africa we are going to get our heads kicked in.
“Maybe just that fear factor will make us get our stuff together, get organised, get set, know our roles better than we ever did, to make sure we get the best out of ourselves.”
Even the All Blacks admit that nothing is more difficult in rugby than winning a Test series in South Africa. Ask O’Connell. Remember 2009.
Wiped out
Ask O’Gara. Yet Ireland, besides Australia in November 2013, have not been wiped out by an opponent since Schmidt became coach.
“That’s a little bit of an Irish mindset that we don’t want to get beaten too heavily,” said Trimble. “I’m starting to know Joe pretty well at this stage and we’re all pretty competitive as well. I think that’s something from the past, that mindset. We’re capable of a big performance and are going there to try to get a win.”
It remains unclear whether Rory Best will be leading Ireland as Peter O’Mahony is expected to return for Munster before season’s end.
“Let’s just wait and see if the old body holds up,” said Best.
Schmidt knows that winning even one Test match in South Africa would rank alongside anything achieved as Leinster or Ireland coach.
Either way, it could prove the beginning of the end of Joe Schmidt’s Irish story. Confirmation on him continuing as Ireland coach through to the 2019 World Cup in Japan (his contract is up on June 30th, 2017) will come this summer.
“The one thing I do sense a responsibility in is giving someone else, if it’s not me, an opportunity to get the same window that I got leading into a World Cup,” said Schmidt.
“Transition is permanent, change is permanent,” he also remarked. “You are always making change.”
Not the Springboks. They remain the same enormous, relentlessly direct force. They don’t change unless you count growing to inhumane sizes.
CJ Stander, too small to make it at home, knows all about what his fellow countrymen will throw at his adopted countrymen. "I think Cape Town [on June 11th] is the opportunity [to win] because it is not at altitude," said the former Blue Bull who captained South Africa at under-20.
“It would be massive for me,” added the 25-year-old. “My granddad always wanted me to play international rugby and I’ll be glad to play in front of him. He’s getting old now, I think he’s 87, and that’ll be great. People are going to be on my back but if I get into the group I’ll put my head down and play my game. Otherwise they can get into your head.”
Report for duty
There will be major decisions for Schmidt to make if O’Mahony, Seán O’Brien and Iain Henderson all report for duty after the Pro12 final on May 28th. Quinn Roux and Richardt Strauss will also be desperate to return to their motherland in a lighter green jersey. “There is a massive pressure to try to get one in South Africa,” Schmidt agreed. “In our rugby history we haven’t managed to get one win in South Africa so it would be fantastic to get there and try to put a performance together that is sufficiently good enough to put us in the mix for a win. The age is there and the youth is there as well.
“We are going to get a few more pieces back and hopefully that’s going to give us a bit more flexibility for how we build a jigsaw for going to a place that is going to be incredibly attritional.
"Pete was huge for us in the last two Six Nations and his performance in the first 60 minutes against France was immense before he got injured."
But Trimble admitted: “Just psychologically at the end of the season if there’s a side competing in finals or winning the Pro 12 and getting involved in the knockout games, that’s mentally quite draining. You’ve got to put a lot into that and then get yourself up for a tour. But that’s something that Joe drives, that mental strength and being able to move on to your next job.
“Staring down the barrel, you could go there and get hosed. That’s what South Africa do; physically they torture sides and we’ve got to be up for that, meet that and I’m sure we will.”
Andy Farrell’s imminent arrival should help.
