Sean Farrell reports from Cardiff
ALL THE PLANNING, all the drills and all the infamous ‘homework’ Joe Schmidt hands down to his willing pupils. This is exactly what it’s all for.
Beat Argentina in today’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final (kick-off 1pm), become the first Irish senior men’s team in the final four of a World Cup and there’s no crack in the argument that Schmidt’s time in charge has been a success. Lose, and he joins the line of coaches who couldn’t push beyond the last eight.
Of course, no debate should be as black and white as that, but that’s the knife edge coaches live their lives on.
‘Worry is a wasted emotion’, don’t forget. So we don’t want to linger too long pondering what happens should Ireland fall to the Pumas.
The challenges are clear: Meet an Argentina team in flying form and fresh after enjoying the luxury of meeting Namibia to close off their pool campaign. Meet them without the team’s totemic leader, the dynamic playmaking 10 and two frenetic ball-hungry flankers.
With Sexton joining the rank of mere spectator under the Millennium Stadium roof today, Ireland will again trust the reins to Ian Madigan and ask him to make the disruption to the gameplan as seamless as possible. While his coaches and team-mates have been quick to praise Madigan this week there is little doubt that he will need other leaders around the park to lend a hand with managing the game.
Fortunately, Ireland still have one of the smoothest operators around in Conor Murray.
“There’s no need for people to panic or try to do something different. We’re a tight group we know exactly what we want to do,” says Conor Murray, summing up the message coming from the team room all week.
Understandably the Limerick man keeps quite tight-lipped about the possibility that he may take an extra portion of kicking from hand off his number 10′s plate. But after running the ball a lot last week it would be no surprise to see Ireland return closer to the kick-chase that served so well in the Six Nations.
It would almost be remiss not to send Tommy Bowe and the Kearney boys to test out Santiago Cordero and Juan Imhoff early on. But whatever way Ireland go about declawing the Pumas, they must take another big delve within to find the same sort of emotional pitch that overawed France at the same venue seven sore days ago.
“It’s kind of weird, after the huge high and the buzz of beating France on such a big occasion, it’s quiet for the next few days and then you have to visualise what’s going to happen and get stuck in to training,” explains the scrum-half.
We’re, not ‘used to it‘, but we’ve experienced turnarounds like this; with a few changes and knocks and bumps around the place. I think we’ve adapted well and trained well this week.”
The changes Murray speaks of range from the exciting in the arrival of Chris Henry and Iain Henderson to the starting line-up, to the slightly more concerning swapping of Jordi Murphy for Peter O’Mahony and Madigan for Sexton.
Adapting to whatever the game throws at them has always been a key part of how this Ireland team set themselves. but the physical demands of the sport have tossed the kitchen sink this week. Today’s the day we see the result of all that homework.
Get the rescue remedy out.
Ireland
15. Rob Kearney
14. Tommy Bowe
13. Keith Earls
12. Robbie Henshaw
11. Dave Kearney
10. Ian Madigan
9. Conor Murray
1. Cian Healy
2. Rory Best
3. Mike Ross
4. Devin Toner
5. Iain Henderson
6. Jordi Murphy
7. Chris Henry
8. Jamie Heaslip (captain)
Replacements:
16. Richardt Strauss
17. Jack McGrath
18. Nathan White
19. Donnacha Ryan
20. Rhys Ruddock
21. Eoin Reddan
22. Paddy Jackson
23. Luke Fitzgerald
Argentina
15. Joaquín Tuculet
14. Santiago Cordero
13. Matias Moroni
12. Juan Martín Hernández
11. Juan Imhoff
10. Nicolás Sánchez
9. Martín Landajo
1. Marcos Ayerza
2. Agustín Creevy (captain)
3. Ramiro Herrera
4. Guido Petti
5. Tomás Lavanini
6. Pablo Matera
7. Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe
8. Leonardo Senatore
Replacements:
16. Julian Montoya
17. Lucas Noguera
18. Juan Pablo Orlandi
19. Matias Alemanno
20. Facundo Isa
21. Tomás Cubelli
22. Jeronimo De La Fuente
23. Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino
