133 days ago, Ireland went into their World Cup quarter final against Argentina as heavily-backed favourites to reach the last four.
This morning, Ireland are fifth in the Six Nations table and are without a win in four games. They are riddled with injuries, bereft of attacking vigour and led by a coach that is being openly questioned by those outside the the camp.
At the post-match press briefing, following Ireland’s 21-10 loss to England, this was Schmidt at his lowest since that heartbreaking loss to New Zealand in 2013.
It would be a step too far to say he was a broken man but he did not look far off. He told us:
“There’s a little bit of a transition period. We’re building past that hopefully.
“I guess the only thing I’d say is don’t lose faith that we won’t keep building. Hopefully that will be sufficient to get people enthusiastic about what we do in the next two games.”
Schmidt was at pains to talk up his troops ahead of home games against Italy and Scotland:
“Look, I’m positive by nature. I think we tried to play positively. I think we demonstrated today with the enterprise we showed and we’re going to keep trying to do that. I am excited about some of the young guys that are coming in. Some of them have spent a week or two with us in match-day mode.
“They’ve shown hints that they can well step up this level and that has to be a positive, going forward.”
Going into the game, Ireland scrum-half Eoin Reddan had stated that Schmidt had the unwavering support of his players. On Saturday, Schmidt appeared to have bought into Eddie Jones’ mind games and sent his Ireland team out to run the ball from all over the park.
Schmidt still has plenty of currency in the bank but opposing coaches may feel they have found a way of getting to Ireland – through their coach.
As it stands, Schmidt is calling on his men for two final hurrahs before 2016’s next challenges – South Africa thrice, New Zealand twice, Australia and Canada. He said:
“We need to get a result and make sure we build over the next two weeks to get a result towards that.
“It’s an incredibly proud group. I think they showed some real character today particularly in that first-half defending.
“I thought we really challenged England. They’re a really good team, a very settled team. I think they’ve had very good consistency of selection through this championship so far. All those players are very well-known to us over the past few years.
“To be honest, it’s really tough at the moment for players who take so much pride and make such a big effort to do the best they can and we’re not quite getting the best result but I don’t seriously feel that we’re a million miles away.”
It has been 36 years since someone from the IRFU [Noel Murphy] was the head coach of a Lions team.
Schmidt looked odds on 133 days ago. Now?
It might as well be a million miles.
