It might not help Joe Schmidt’s cause on Saturday that Ireland are in a different time zone for this Test. Stuart Lancaster needs his players to hit the ground running and be at full speed by the second pool game of the World Cup; Schmidt’s schedule requires peak performance two weeks further down the track. All of which is five weeks from now.
The tricky bit is getting this message across if Ireland leave Twickenham having been knocked about the place, as they were by Wales last weekend.
There was a gulf in performance between the two legs of the Wales-Ireland fixtures. In Cardiff Wales looked like they had overslept, and arrived at the Millennium as the bands were striking up. Ireland were not quite as sluggish a week ago but they were a clear second best in the collisions. And the only way you can overcome that is with a referee who blows the other team off the park.
Instead the reverse happened, and since then Schmidt has been busy broadcasting that Ireland’s scrum is a model of legality. “I think they’ll [England] enjoy playing against us because they know we stay up and we’ll stay square,” he said of Saturday’s game. Had he texted that direct to Nigel Owens he could not have been any clearer.
Schmidt has obvious concerns about the Irish scrum for two reasons: Cian Healy – selected in the World Cup squad – is still absent, recovering slowly from a disc operation in his neck in May; and in Tadhg Furlong the coach has, on the bench, a man with zero experience of starting a professional rugby game at loosehead. The forwards coach, Simon Easterby, was riding point on Friday on what we can expect from the 22-year-old Leinster prop who made his Test debut off the bench last weekend.
“Tadhg’s played really well, and the thing about selecting him on the loosehead this week means he has trained all week in that position, as has Cian Healy who has been passed fit [for the World Cup],” Easterby said. “This was an opportunity for Tadhg, not only to train there but also to hopefully get some game-time there tomorrow.
“We feel really confident that he’s a bright kid; he takes things on board really quickly; he’s working really well with Greg Feek and he has the support of his provincial hookers with him at times. He has Rory Best on his inside as well. So, there have been a lot of good things in preparing Tadhg for that challenge.”
You understand Easterby’s job here, but it is inescapable that Furlong – a fine player with a very bright future – is a big risk in this game. If Jack McGrath has to leave the field earlier than planned there will be a sharp intake of breath in the Ireland coaching box.
“He scrums against looseheads a lot,” Easterby continued, implying that this lessens the risk. “So there’s an element of him knowing what they want to do as well. There are differences to the two positions but like I said he’s a bright kid. He understands what it takes to try and battle against a loosehead and maybe what a loosehead is trying to do him as a tighthead. I think that adds value to his position and value to what he brought this week, which has been excellent in terms of his training time and the work he’s done, and the extra work that he’s done to put himself into a really strong position tomorrow.”
Mike Ross described the shift across the scrum as a right hander trying to write with their left hand. “You need to be more experienced before you can dominate, but I’d be confident he can do a good job for us,” he said. “It’s definitely a baptism of fire I would say.”
Ireland have had issues previously in this area in Twickenham, where England are under pressure now to make a statement after their difficulties up front with France. Paul O’Connell is an admirer though.
“I just think obviously this English side is an excellent team. They’ve played great rugby. I spent the morning doing a lot of the player profiles and you’ve guys with incredible skill levels, incredible footwork and great attacking play. But I think on top of that England then have a great structure in place in how they play.
“They do some of the things which Bath did and I suppose opened Leinster up a few times at the Aviva Stadium, but for me when you play England it’s always you think of the size of the players. They’re always a big, strong squad. There’s also a big, strong bench that’s going to come off and come at you as well. So yeah, it is a very, very tough place to come and it is an intimidating ground to play in.” Ireland will be hoping their rookie loosehead doesn’t have to sample that too early.
