ASSESSING THE SITUATION

Many times in life we ask: was that worth it?

Most of the time the answer is yes, whether we believe it or not, and most of the time we look back on such moments with fondness once we have enough time to reflect and reminisce. It’s those times in life where, at the time, we are unsure of what the outcome has achieved for us, and that brings with it such confusion and soul-searching, but once we are able to look back we can see that it was indeed a positive thing in our life. Those kinds of moments define us.

For Joe Schmidt, this week may define him as a rugby coach.

Sunday’s defeat of France was as professional a performance as Ireland have mustered under Schmidt since he took over from Declan Kidney. They suffocated their opponents, they limited the French to speculative long shots at goal and they showed an intense physicality in the way they ruthlessly assaulted the breakdown that meant they won all those exchanges with relative ease, and aided their passage into the quarterfinals.

Sean O’Brien was immense from openside flanker. Criticised slightly for being a little subdued against Canada, Romania and Italy, the Tullow Tank put those criticisms to bed with a barnstorming performance which saw him peerless on the ground and bruisingly (no, that’s not a word but just go with it) effective with ball in hand once again.

Meanwhile, the award for the substitute with the most impact goes to Iain Henderson. On at half-time, the Ulsterman reminded everybody in the Millennium Stadium, everybody watching at home, and his coaching staff just why he should never have been dropped for this game, regardless of whether Schmidt wanted him to be saved for the quarter-final or not. Within ten minutes of coming onto the pitch Henderson stole two French lineouts in promising positions, and then proceeded to bulldoze his way through French defender after French defender on the way to another performance that drew all the plaudits it deserved.

The Irish Independent gave him a rating of 9 for the game despite only playing half of it, writing that Henderson “took over from O’Connell and took over the game”. No complaints here, that sums it up perfectly.

On the flipside, it highlights just why Schmidt will be defined as a coach now. Having gone most of this tournament with next to no injury worries, he now has a handful to deal with.

Take your pick from the group of players who were forced off on Sunday as to who Ireland will struggle to deal most without, because you could make a case for all of them. The world’s best fly half Jonathan Sexton? Talismanic captain O’Connell? Enforcer Peter O’Mahony? Try-scoring machine Keith Earls? All four are vital to the Ireland World Cup charge, and to lose even one of them would make the task of overcoming the rest of the world that bit harder.

The problem is we already know we’ll be missing one of them in O’Mahony. By the time this is published we could have lost one or two others as well (N.B. I am writing this in a mild state of depression at 10:30am on Monday with the news of O’Mahony’s injury still weighing heavily on my shoulders), and the way it is going it is all crucial players to Ireland’s successful bid who are dropping out.

In many ways my introduction is redundant. Injuries are part and parcel of the game, and no coach can pick their team around that. Schmidt was wholly justified in picking the team he did, and he will stand by the fact that it is indeed worth it. Ireland have avoided the All Blacks (until the final at the very least) and should Sexton and Earls come through their injuries as expected then Ireland won’t be as depleted as initially feared.

That does not make their job any easier.

Beware Los Pumas. Argentina have been quietly disposing of their opposition one by one with a cold ruthlessness that does not relent for anyone, and they ran the All Blacks mighty close at Wembley in their opening match too. Ireland vs. France was billed as the game to avoid the All Blacks – well the spoils of the victor aren’t exactly great either.

Where Ireland had to throw everything they had at France, Argentina had the simple task of overcoming Namibia and, as such, were able to make eleven changes to their line-up and rest most of their frontline stars. They will reach next Sunday on form, in full fitness and ready to cause an upset by dumping Ireland out at the quarterfinal stage yet again. Daniel Hourcade has drilled his men to the last degree and make no doubt about it, they will be prepared.

Ireland? They need to pick themselves up from their encounter at the Millennium Stadium, do a quick head count and then recoup and recover ahead of another brutal clash this Sunday. Even with a week’s turnaround it’s going to be a task for the players to replicate the kind of play they showed in Cardiff – but they’ll have to in order to overcome the South Americans and reach the semi-finals.

Otherwise another quarterfinal is as far as we’ll get.