“Effort is everything.”
That is the bare requirement for players in Ireland’s squad and across the four provinces.
It is a credo driven by Joe Schmidt that has filtered down to all aspects of Irish rugby. It is one that has seen Schmidt claim nine major trophies, and a Grand Slam, in the eight years he has been in this country.
Chris Farrell, who was man of the match in the bonus point win over Wales, told The Hard Yards about the most striking aspect of Irish rugby since his return from Grenoble, France.
“It’s the amount of effort. You can have all the skill-sets and whatnot but you can beat teams on effort. If you can out-work teams and your effort level is higher than them, there’s no reason why you can’t beat a team with higher skills or that have players of greater potential than the team you are in.”
That lack of effort is more likely to be highlighted in Munster and Ireland team meetings, says Farrell, rather than a making a mistake or being shown by up a piece of skill. The technical stuff can be worked on but that desire and commitment needs to be there in the first place.
Kevin McLaughlin, who played under Schmidt for Leinster and Ireland, offered a fascinating glimpse into how tightly Schmidt runs his ship.
Referring to the superb play involving Bundee Aki, Tadhg Furlong and Johnny Sexton for CJ Stander’s try against England, McLaughlin said:
“They [the Irish management] will understand, based on the data they collect from games, what the intensity is going to be like and they’ll try to replicate that.
“And the second thing is, Joe will put incredible pressure on them. He creates a pressure cooker in training so they get used to it in matches.
“For instance, that Tadhg Furlong play that resulted in the CJ Stander try, they would have had one opportunity to run that, on the Thursday, in training. If they mess it up, they don’t get another opportunity.
“His philosophy would be – You do your work, you do what you need to prepare mentality, you can run through it in the gym before training, but you get one chance. That’s the pressure that he puts them under in training.
“Because England are not going to say, ‘Oh, you messed up. Go back and do the lineout again. Try get it right next time’. That creates huge pressure.”
Decision-making and being clinical under pressure. McLaughlin’s take is something Farrell can definitely relate to.
“That’s Joe Schmidt down to a tee,” he said. “I’ve never seen anyone else analyse a team in greater detail than him.
“You know that if you are doing something for the weekend, if you are going to question it you’d want to have your work and a good bit of research done because no-one puts in as much research as he does into games.”
