THE HEAT IS on Ireland after their defeat to Japan and a stodgy five-try win over 20th-ranked Russia, and Joe Schmidt’s players are quite happy operating in a pressure situation.
The head coach has them well used to it.
The Grand Slam-winning boss is renowned for demanding high standards of his players, be it on the field, training ground or even just around the hotel.
The approach has clearly delivered success with Leinster and through three Six Nations titles and prolific wing Jacob Stockdale is happy to embrace more pressure to perform from the Kiwi.
“Whenever we’re training, Joe likes to push the intensity and really build it,” says the 23-year-old.
“Which is obviously class for us as players. You get that intensity that’s almost like a match.
It’s amazing how much pressure one man can put on an entire team. But it’s brilliant he does.
“Whenever you’re off he’s a bit more relaxed and you’re able to chill out a bit more. I think he gets a really good balance in his coaching style.”
Stockdale was not involved in Thursday’s win over European qualifiers Russia, but having experienced the shock defeat to Japan, he is taking heed of advice from an older head about the importance of moving beyond any doubts generated in Shizuoka and dealing with pressure in a Schmidt World Cup squad.
“I was chatting to Earsly before the Russia game and he was saying about how, in 2015, how much pressure he felt they were under. And this time around he’s saying he’s not letting that get to him he’s just going out and enjoying his rugby.
“That’s kind of what I took from that. You get really wound up about not putting in the perfect performance or not having the perfect game every week.
That pressure can build to a point where it takes control of you, or you can just go out and enjoy your rugby and be confident in your ability.
“If you play to the gameplan that the coaches and the leadership group have created, nine times out of 10 that’s a much better way to do it.”
Stockdale won his second international cap in Japan after a try-scoring debut in America two years ago. He admits he struggled with the culture shock of the World Cup’s host nation on his first senior tour, but – bar one result – he says he is enjoying the experience second time around.
“To be honest, the first couple of days last time, I didn’t really enjoy it that much just because it was such a culture shock and it was so different.
“But by the time I was leaving, I loved it and couldn’t wait to get back. It’s been brilliant so far, it’s been a lot more enjoyable.
Even getting to travel around and see different cities and experience different parts of Japan. It’s really fun and everyone is so welcoming and they’ll do anything for you to try and help you. It’s been class, a thoroughly enjoyable trip.”
He adds:
“I think the mood (in the camp) has largely been – has been pretty positive. Obviously it was a pretty disappointing result against Japan and the days after that were tough. But you have to accept the reality of where you are and all we can do now is to try and do our job to make sure that we secure qualification in the pool.
“But yeah, the mood’s been largely very good. After the Japan performance, guys wanted to right a few wrongs and we trained really hard.”
Murray Kinsella joins Sean Farrell and Gavan Casey from Japan to give his blunt assessment of Ireland’s performance against Russia
