WORK TO DO

Let’s not fool ourselves, it was just Italy.

Fans of Georgia would probably have been cringing at the sub-standard performance Italy put in and would be wondering to themselves what their country has to do to make it into the Six Nations or, at the very worst, be given a shot at replacing the Italians in Europe’s premier international competition. For one of the top six teams in northern hemisphere rugby, Italy provided about as much resistance as a wall made of paper.

Therefore, for one of the first times ever, a half century of points is probably something to be sniffed at. Alright, the overall performance by Ireland was probably a lot better than it has been in previous weeks (albeit, it was against Italy) but even after the full-time whistle there was a degree of dissatisfaction with the game. The demons of France and England had not been banished by that one turnaround in fortune.

In hindsight it is easy to say that this was a chance to continue with Stuart McCloskey or give Paddy Jackson a run ahead of Jonathan Sexton or even give Finlay Bealham a start at loosehead prop – but even without hindsight there should have been more young players involved. This was Schmidt’s last chance to perhaps push the boundary with his selection but instead he opted for conservatism to get the win – but who really saw Ireland losing to Italy, no matter what team they put out?

Put simply, Joe Schmidt really missed a trick here.

There is a line that he seems to have drawn that he must not cross, but it’s clear now he has to take risks. Ultan Dillane showed enough against England to justify a start that should have come againt Italy alongside Donnacha Ryan. The aforementioned McCloskey and Jackson should have featured in some capacity – both are the form players in their respective positions and yet they are still stuck in the international selection wilderness.

In my opinion it’s time to start looking ahead of the 2019 World Cup – start focusing on who will represent Ireland there and allow them to grow as a squad ahead of then. It may compromise our chances in the short term, but if we can give as many young players chances now and allow them to become familiar with each other as soon as possible then that will bode well for us in the long-term too.

Will it start against Scotland? Probably not. There’s a lot on the line against Vern Cotter’s men this weekend (world rankings, international pride, World Cup seedings, you know all that malarkey) so we’ll probably see something resembling Ireland’s “strongest” team again on Saturday (and no I do not regret the quotation marks over strongest).

It is concerning that it has got to this stage though that a victory over Scotland is a necessity to stay as one of the second seeds for the 2019 World Cup – Ireland have fallen a long way in just a year since we were double Six Nations champions. And based on the current age of the squad it’s not likely that Ireland will fare any better in Japan unless the switch in focus happens sometime soon.

But I don’t see that happening.

In such a results-driven business, the IRFU will be desperate for Ireland to finish with a better record than 1-for-5, especially in a Six Nations where we had three home games. Not that I blame them – it doesn’t reflect well on Irish rugby as a whole if their national team finish fifth in the Six Nations just one season after they successfully defended their crown, and even more so when you consider how much northern hemisphere rugby has regressed recently.

No, things are not perfect in Dublin right now. Maybe they won’t be for a while. But if a long-term goal is established (winning the 2019 Six Nations and finally reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup, anyone?) that Joe Schmidt can agree to work towards then at least we can see where the future of our national team lies.

And then maybe things won’t look too bad.