Hindsight is 20/20.
As the Irish scrum creaked and threatened to crumble under its own posts against France on Saturday afternoon, there were many green-clad supporters wondering just why it was that both Cian Healy and Mike Ross were sitting at home rather than watching from the Stade de France bench.
Neither were fit enough to take part in Ireland’s opening Six Nations game, a 16-16 draw against Wales six days earlier, but both trained with Leinster last week and played 59 and 42 minutes respectively in the province’s convincing 52-0 Pro12 triumph over Zebre.
Sure if they were fit enough to play that long at the RDS, surely they could have managed 20 minutes in Paris, right?
Not so, according to Schmidt, who insisted throwing the front-row pair into the cauldron of Six Nations rugby was too much to ask when their match fitness was in doubt.
The New Zealander said: “They got through last night OK. I don’t know how hard they had to work. It was pretty one-sided, 26 points a half in favour of Leinster.
“I chatted with both of them in the week and made the decision it was best for them to stay where they were and get a game under their belt. We were just hoping to get through today. They have never been far from the mix but you just don’t bring people into Test rugby if they are not fully fit or close to it.”
Both Healy and Ross can expect to feature against England in 12 days’ time, with Ross likely to start in place of Nathan White while Healy faces a battle to dislodge Leinster team-mate Jack McGrath from the No.1 jersey, but both will be required to face the challenge posed by the English pack.
Schmidt and his backroom team now turn their attentions to that game at Twickenham knowing their hopes of three titles in a row all but evaporated in the final 15 minutes of th4 10-9 defeat against the French.
“There’s no hiding our disappointment that while mathematically there’s an outside chance, but realistically we know that it is a very, very outside chance. For us it is about building towards Twickenham and putting together the best performance that we can.
