SCARLETS SORROW

I think after the Dragons match at the start of the season I said that I hadn’t seen a worse Ulster performance ever since I started following them. Scrap that, because Saturday night was about ten times worse.

Despite the fact that we still had Pienaar, Afoa and Nick Williams to call upon, as well as Roger Wilson and Andrew Trimble back from Ireland duty, I think it’s safe to say that we never even got out of first gear on Saturday night and unfortunately we deservedly left the Parc y Scarlets with nothing.

As well as the Scarlets played (and they did play quite well, all credit to them), we made it very easy for them, and it gives Mark Anscombe a lot to think about heading into the international break. For all the accolades he received for masterminding the win in Montpellier, he will have to put his hands up and admit that he got it wrong on Saturday. Now he has a two week break to look at what needs to be done for the Edinburgh match.

But that’s in the past. This week I’m more interested in what’s coming up…

From the Scarlets to Samoa

Of course, the Autumn Internationals are back this week and over the course of the next three weeks Ireland will pit themselves against the might of Samoa, Australia and New Zealand. Not a bad way for Joe Schmidt to start his reign as Ireland coach – facing seventh, fourth and first in the world rankings.

I fully back Joe Schmidt as Ireland coach, however he may find himself with a bit of a difficult start. Understandably in his first squad he’s gone for familiarity with seventeen Leinster players in there, however he will have to get used to a few of the new players that he’s working with and with the three games coming in quick succession, it may be a little too early. Playing them in reverse order (of world ranking) may help, however at international level there are no easy games.

Samoa are up first this weekend and boasting stars such as Kahn Fotuali’i, Toulouse lock Iosefa ‘Joe’ Tekori and Leicester prop Logovi’i Mulipola, they will be more than a handful. Indeed, if both Mulipola and Fitzpatrick are elected to start this weekend’s game then they will come face-to-face in the scrum again for the second time in the space of a month for two different teams.

Home advantage may be what swings this game in Ireland’s favour. The two sides are very closely matched and the fact that Ireland don’t have to travel may be what puts them at a slight advantage. Nevertheless, they know that this will not be the walkover that Fiji were in Thomond Park last season – Samoa aren’t seventh in the world for no reason and they will pose Ireland a lot of questions.

Australia and New Zealand however will be much sterner tests. For all the strengths of Samoa, they aren’t in the same league as the Tri-Nations sides, not by a long way. We all the know the immense strength of the All Blacks, their superb victory in South Africa to secure them the Rugby Championship proved that they are still the team to beat in Test rugby while the Aussies are still a very strong outfit despite their Lions humiliation, and they could have easily beaten England at the weekend.

It will be an interesting start for Joe Schmidt and it will be interesting to see how he approaches the matches, whether he decides to prepare his team for the Six Nations or if he goes all-out for three wins. So early into the job it is likely that Schmidt will want to get a bit of momentum and go for the wins (much to the delight of the fans!) however with a first trophy since 2009 the main aim, I don’t think anyone would begrudge a bit of rotation either to give everyone a shot.

I’m predicting just the one win over Samoa this weekend. I hope for more of course, but with a new coach and with two of the world’s best teams coming to the Aviva Stadium this November, it may take a while for the new-look Ireland to gel. I’d say Joe Schmidt will ultimately be looking for three good performances to start his tenure as Ireland coach, and I don’t think many would argue with that.

That said, three wins would be acceptable too.