Ireland head into this weekend’s Six Nations match with Scotland with a perfect three wins from three in this year’s tournament but their defence is still a major point of concern for the championship leaders.
Ireland have conceded six tries in their last two wins over Italy and Wales and have already conceded the same number of tries this year as they did throughout five games in the 2017 championship.
Schmidt defended Ireland’s defence coach Andy Farrell as a ‘world class’ coach but there have been a lot of questions raised over how narrow Ireland defend.
Former Munster centre James Downey and ex-Leinster lock Mike McCarthy discussed Ireland’s defensive structure on this week’s episode of The Hard Yards with Downey highlighting that Ireland’s narrow’s defence stems from how they set up around the ruck.
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[You can listen to the full discussion from the 18:00 mark]
“Firstly, I think that it starts around the breakdown and slowing that ball down,” said Downey.
“When we let teams get that front-foot, get that go forward [ball] we’re not organised quick enough. We just need one or two more seconds to get that one player and maybe push him out a bit further away from the ruck and then everyone else can get into position.
“I was actually looking back on the game the last day and Jacob Stockdale looked a little bit at sea defensively. He’s coming up and he’s not making the right decisions, not taking the defender and maybe it’s a hit or hope.
“Okay he got the intercept, great, but the try before for Shingler’s try is a shot in the dark and he’s not taking anyone.
“People are making wrong decisions and you’re looking at when Ferg [Fergus McFadden] stepped in and Scott Williams got the offload… defending in the wide channels is a very tough position to be in.
“I’m not going to disagree with that, but it starts for me in and around the breakdown.”
Schmidt said that certain players in the Welsh defeat were over-exuberant in their efforts to make an impact on the defensive end and that any enthusiasm to make a play off the line must be executed with a degree of intelligence.
“If you look back at the (Wales) game with one guy doing this and one doing that, there were very clear images that people know what we should be doing,” said Schmidt last week.
“Some of that is exuberance, somebody trying to make sure they are contributing in a positive manner. But any enthusiasm has to be tempered with intelligence on the pitch.
“Teams are too good. You don’t fly out at Hadleigh Parks or Scott Williams and expect them to feel ruffled. They’re going to say: ‘welcome, I’m going to manipulate you and make something of this for my team’. There are some learning experiences there. Do we have to learn quickly? Absolutely, because we can’t afford to keep conceding three tries a game.
“Andy’s doing a great job, not just with the team, but with individuals. Trying to get them to understand the pictures, so they make good decisions.”
