If you know what Joe is talking about, please get in touch.
The Welsh mind games have been few and far between this week. Warren Gatland, Shaun Edwards and Wales captain have showered Ireland with praise and there were suggestions that the nations’ rivalry is akin to brothers scrapping in the back yard.
Gatland could not resist a nibble, however, and spoke about knowing exactly how Ireland were going to play. He fully expects them to ‘kick the leather off the ball’.
Joe Schmidt was asked, following his team announcement, if he expected Gatland’s team to pull any surprises ahead of Saturday’s game. He responded with this tongue-twister:
I’m not sure what he is thinking. It is almost double jeopardy to start to think about what he might think we are going to do, and then think that we might think about doing something else.
‘I’m not that smart, so I got lost at the first “think”,’Â Schmidt added. ‘We will work away, vary our game and play to our strengths, as much as possible.’
The Kiwi predicts ‘a ferocious but entertaining game’ and praised the journalist/statistician that flagged his team as the highest passers in the championship so far. The implication being, Ireland are far from kick and chase merchants.
Schmidt says he was hoping to retain the status quo in his winning squad, rather than drop form PRO12 players in. The break of league activity helps, however, as the New Zealander is expected to bring additional players – such as Luke Fitzgerald, Isaac Boss and Richardt Strauss – for the captain’s run and as injury back-up.
Munster’s Ian Keatley will travel but Schmidt insisted he was fully confident Johnny Sexton’s hamstring(s) will last the full 80 minutes, if required.
For all his belief that Ireland are capable of imposing their game on the Welsh, Schmidt remains wary of a team that can blow the championship race wide open with a win in front of their home crowd.
He says, ‘The way Wales bounced back [after losing to England]Â has been very good and, I must say, they have improved with each game… We know how hard it is to win at Stade de France and they did it with a little to spare.
‘They are a very settled team and they have benefited, over the years, from consistent selections. The only real changes would be Dan Biggar and Rhys Webb becoming fixtures and pushing out Rhys Priestland and Mike Phillips.’
Schmidt added, ‘They have some very clear and obvious strengths that they play to and they have played to them very well in the last few weeks. Those strengths will be to the forefront again.’
The strengths, for anyone that has not seen Wales play in the last seven years, are straight-up running frenetic rucking, solid line-outs and getting on the front-foot by bashing anyone that stands in their way.
Gatland will not be altering his game-plan for Ireland. Schmidt insists he is not for budging either.
