JOE SCHMIDT HAS always insisted that his players have a licence to play what they see and attack with ambition, but we haven’t always seen the evidence of that assertion on the pitch.
Saturday in the Aviva Stadium was different, as Ireland opened up in attack and cut Italy to shreds in a nine-try, 58-15 victory.
Everything we talk about in this game must be qualified with the fact that Italy delivered one of their poorest Six Nations performances, but Ireland excited their supporters more than they have done at any point since last season’s final-round win over Scotland.
Jamie Heaslip’s first try was the typification of Saturday’s performance. A cleverly-taken short 22 drop out, a sharp loop play from Johnny Sexton and Fergus McFadden and then some classy offloading and passing from Simon Zebo, Jared Payne, Sexton, Andrew Trimble and McFadden to feed the number eight for an excellent finish.
“Look, again the licence to play is always there,” said Schmidt when asked about that try post-match. “You just get a bit more suffocated when you’re up against sides that are very, very well organised.
Wales attack with their defence, they don’t tend to convert massive scores and what they do is they suffocate and strangle opposition. It’s harder when you play them or when you play England to get the sort of freedom to play like that.
“I think the players really enjoyed that opportunity, because it’s not very often that you get that in a Test match, particularly not a Six Nations Test match.”
Among the other major positives for Ireland was the presence of five Connacht men on the pitch at one time in the second half.
Robbie Henshaw, Nathan White, Kieran Marmion, Ultan Dillane and debutant Finlay Bealham all contributed handsomely to the victory as Connacht’s superb season was rewarded.
Schmidt, however, claims not to differentiate his players according to their provincial allegiance.
“To be honest they’re just Irish players to me,” said the Ireland head coach, “I wasn’t even aware of the fact.”
I think they’re still at the top of the Pro12. Leinster might have a game in hand but those two teams are right up there, so therefore some of those players must be doing a good job and that’s reflected in some of the selections that were made.”
Schmidt said Ireland will “certainly” consider Simon Zebo at fullback again for Saturday’s final-round meeting with Scotland in Dublin after the Munster man delivered an excellent attacking performance against the Italians.
The head coach praised Zebo’s effort to get his “palm inverted” for the sensational offload in the build-up to Heaslip’s first try, though Rob Kearney will come back into consideration for the Scotland clash.
The overall sense from Schmidt on Saturday was that a burden has been lifted. Having enjoyed success everywhere he has previously been in his coaching career, this season has been an unfamiliar experience for the Kiwi.
After back-to-back Six Nations titles in his first two seasons with Ireland, the recent defeats to England and France, as well as the draw with Wales, have hit Schmidt hard.
“Look, I came to this part of the world on the back of play-offs in Super Rugby and play-offs in France for years and play-offs with Leinster and a couple of championships… it’s been a bit depressing to be honest,” said Schmidt.
At the same time, I don’t think anything has changed in terms of how much I question what we do and reflect on what we do and try to help players get better at what they do. But it does give you confidence if you get a good result, it gives you confidence if the performance is good as well.
“Sometimes you sneak a result, you just win ugly and you’re happy with that, but sometimes you walk away and you think, ‘That’s the sort of performance that players worked really hard to deliver and the players deserved that performance, they deserved that result,’ and that’s really satisfying when you’re in a coaching group that is part of that.
“In the last few weeks, it hasn’t quite fallen that way and that’s been frustrating and disappointing and, inevitably, probably a little bit confidence-sapping, because you want to try and get them over the line and enough of the small margins to fall your way.”
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