Joe Schmidt
Ireland rugby coach Joe Schmidt may have spent the night in hospital recovering from appendix surgery but if he needed anything to raise his spirits then Sunday’s press would do the trick.
‘Ireland have the world’s best coach’ read the headline in the (Irish) Sunday Independent following the epic and courageous 26-23 victory over Australia on Saturday ensuring the Six Nations champions completed their first double over South Africa and the Wallabies since 2006.
Former Ireland lock Neil Francis opined that after both sides had played like the Harlem Globetrotters in the first-half – the Irish roared into a 17-0 lead only for Australia to score 20 points before Jonathan Sexton levelled to make it 20-20 at halftime – Schmidt’s call at the interval secured victory.
“Joe Schmidt realised that if he did not cool the pace of this game, Ireland would lose it hands down,” wrote Francis.
“Quite often, the race goes to the slow and Ireland were quite the more measured side and chose to kick and play territory far more intelligently than they had in the first half.”
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Francis, capped 36 times from 1987 to 1996, said by contrast Schmidt’s Australian counterpart Michael Cheika stuck to his gameplan from the first-half where the Wallabies backs threatened every time they had the ball.
“Michael Cheika must have been happy with the way his team had performed in the first half, what would he do? George Patton said that “if everyone is thinking alike then somebody isn’t thinking”,” wrote Francis.
“What Cheika could not counter was what Ireland would do for the next 40 minutes and the change in the way that the game was played manifested itself on the scoreboard.”
Francis, who has not spared Ireland sides down the years since he picked up the pen after hanging up his boots, said that was where 49-year-old Schmidt outshone his rivals.
“A performance of incorruptible honesty and a series slam that validates the theory that we have the best coach in the world.”
ASTONISHING DEFENSE
The Irish edition of the Mail on Sunday hailed Ireland’s astonishing defensive performance in the second-half comparing it to how in a year they had learnt to hold on to a narrow lead.
They had lost to the All Blacks in the final minute in November 2013 after building up a big lead and leading throughout.
“Ireland laid down a heroic World Cup marker by producing a stunning defensive effort to keep Australia at bay in Dublin,” wrote the Mail.
“Australia duly pegged Ireland back into their half for the remaining 16 minutes but, unlike in times past, this gritty group, conquerors of South Africa and Georgia over the last two weekends, bravely held out for a famous win.”
Ireland’s most august publication ‘The Irish Times’ in their online edition also praised the men in green for their stoic display.
“Sometimes victory comes down to an indomitable will, a sheer bloody mindedness, that drags bludgeoned, aching bodies to defend a few metres of turf,” wrote John O’Sullivan.
“Ireland’s thin green line did just that in the final throes of a pulsating contest, a wonderful spectacle that embodied all that is good and enthralling about sport and ultimately represented a credit to both teams.”
Schmidt and his fellow coaches’ success in impressing on his players that not infringing and giving away penalties also reaped its rewards said O’Sullivan.
“Ireland’s discipline deserves massive praise, as does the courage of the players in making the tackles. A penalty at a scrum, a turnover in a tackle, small margins in those game defining moments but ones to take forward.
“It was a victory to savour, the warts and all.”