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Schmidt took part in Ireland's pre-match warm up at the Aviva this afternoon. ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan
Job Done

Schmidt: Wales have a 'massive advantage' with seven-day turnaround

The Ireland head coach is very confident that Paul O’Connell will be back for the clash with Warren Gatland’s side.

TOP OF THE Six Nations after a three-try victory over a dogged Scotland side, with no fresh injury concerns. On that basis, Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt should be greatly pleased, but those facts obscure the definite need for improvement ahead of next weekend’s clash with Wales.

How was the Kiwi feeling after securing his second international win?

“Pretty relieved to be honest. The day probably didn’t start too well with a phone call at 8 o’clock this morning to say that Paul O’Connell had a chest infection and had been awake most of the night. He was ruled out and Dan Tuohy came into the starting lineup, with Iain Henderson on the bench.

I think it’s a real credit to those two guys how they adapted so quickly. It’s a real relief to me that the game is over and done with, and we managed to get the win on the board.”

Job done, time to move on. That process will need to be done more swiftly than usual, with Ireland having a six-day turnaround before welcoming Warren Gatland’s Welsh team to Dublin on Saturday. Schmidt admits that he and analysts Mervyn Murphy and Eoin Toolin are unlikely to sleep until the wee hours of Monday as they attempt to dissect this victory over Scotland.

How big an advantage do the Welsh have, given that they played yesterday?

“It’s hard to quantify, but it is massive. To have a six versus seven-day turnaround; one of the things that they could do is finish up with their Italian focus, they could rest up overnight and they would be sitting there watching our game with a full focus on what they’re doing.

imageSchmidt was impressed by Tuohy’s impact having been called into the team so late. ©INPHO/Billy Stickland

“For us, we’ve been very much Scotland-focused and we’re going to have to turn around and do the best we can against Wales next week. It’s a massive advantage. I think also just the quality of training that you can do. I don’t think that on Tuesday we will do a lot. We’ll look to ramp it up into one training on Thursday. It’s a pretty narrow preparation to play such a good team.”

Among the positives that Schmidt is likely to highlight to his players in their video review tomorrow is the excellent work of the forwards at the set-piece. 100% at the scrum, 87% on their own throw and having picked off three of Scotland’s line-outs; forwards specialist John Plumtree will reflect on a job superbly done.

Schmidt was impressed too, underlining the importance of Ireland’s pilfering in the air.

We nicked a couple of line-outs and they missed a couple of line-outs. When you don’t get that set piece possession, it always puts a little bit of pressure on. Even in the first half, we were under pressure but we could keep the pressure on their set piece, which allowed us to defend on the front foot.”

Having suffered such a nasty shock with that early morning phone call regarding O’Connell, Schmidt is feeling positive that his captain will be back to full health soon. The Munster lock will be essential if Ireland are to record a second Six Nations victory against Wales, and Schmidt is sure that O’Connell will be back in training in the coming week.

“He was fine last night. I was talking to him last night and he was pretty chipper about the whole event coming up the next day. So I got the call this morning from the doc, who had been in to see him at 4.30am this morning and his chest infection was bad, he hadn’t slept.

“There’s no way you can play a Test match if you haven’t had that sleep. I’d be really surprised if he’s not [back for Wales]. He should be back by Tuesday, if not training fully then certainly feeling better and I’d say he will be able to train fully on Thursday. I would be really confident of that.”

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