JOE SCHMIDT HAS been keeping a close eye on South Africa’s Super Rugby sides in recent weeks, trying to give himself a little bit of a head start.
Ireland travel to South Africa in June for a daunting but exciting three-Test tour against the Boks. No Irish team has won a test match against the Boks on South African soil.
After a disappointing Six Nations, which did end on a high note with yesterday’s 35-25 win over Scotland, the challenges don’t become any easier.
Watching the Bulls, Sharks and Stormers, Schmidt will have noted once again the sheer physicality of the South African players. No surprises there really, but the Lions have been playing some stunning, high-tempo and risk-taking rugby again this season.
The Boks still haven’t got a head coach in place after Heyneke Meyer left in the wake of the World Cup, but an appointment is expected early next month. Whoever that proves to be, Schmidt will feel he is ahead of the curve in terms of preparation.
One of the encouraging things about the Six Nations campaign this year was the emergence of CJ Stander in the back row. Stuart McCloskey won his first cap and Ultan Dillane, Josh van der Flier and Finlay Bealham showed promise too.
Along with the new faces, there will be returning men for South Africa. Peter O’Mahony, Sean O’Brien, Tommy Bowe and Luke Fitzgerald are among those to have missed some or all of the Six Nations through injury. Selection headaches lie ahead for Schmidt.
Yeah, it is exciting because they’ll hopefully be looking over their shoulder,” says Schmidt about the returning players. “Pete was huge for us in the last two Six Nations and his performance in the first 60 minutes against France [at the World Cup] was immense before he got injured.
“CJ Stander has come in and got better with every game. Pete’s probably looking at that going, ‘Well, I better roll my sleeves up and keep working hard.’ I hope that that’s part of the challenge.
“I really think Donnacha Ryan has grown in the last couple of games, Ultan Dillane obviously too. Iain Henderson is going to look at the six or the lock position and say, ‘I better roll my sleeves up and get working.’
“I think we’d love that to be the case with guys like Sean O’Brien, Tommy Bowe, Luke Fitz coming back, there are lots of guys, even the guys we had in camp this week. It was great to have Chris Henry in camp, Quinn Roux, Matt Healy – there’s a real spread of guys. Andy Conway, Dave Foley. It’s been a really good opportunity to include those guys.”
This Six Nations has seen the ‘transition’ word loom its head again, understandably so after the loss of captain Paul O’Connell post-RWC and the aforementioned injuries.
Schmidt believes Ireland have managed this period well and stresses that the additional depth will be important against the attritional Boks.
“Transition is permanent, change is permanent,” says Schmidt. “You’re always going to be making change.
“We made a change this week, Josh had been unbelievable for us considering he made his Test debut for us three weeks ago at Twickenham, but Tommy [O'Donnell] came in and did really well. Because we felt he brought a little freshness and his dynamism would be useful to us and he delivered today.
“You’re always looking for pieces you think will fit the overall jigsaw but we’re going to get a few more pieces back and hopefully that’ll give us a little more flexibility going to a place that’s going to be incredibly attritional.
“The players that do travel to SA, we’re very unlikely to get through from Test to Test to Test without picking up a knock or starting to show signs of the attrition that will occur.”
2016 certainly doesn’t get any easier from here.
