Unfortunately, the Ireland coach was not asked why he waited until the 70th minute to empty his bench.
The dust has far from settled but Ireland have lost the Castle Lager Series 2-1 in South Africa. A less than stellar Springbok side had too much for Joe Schmidt’s side as they held out for a 19-13 win after coming back from 10-3 down.
The turning point of the game arrived after only 10 minutes when Willie Le Roux challenged Tiernan O’Halloran in the air. The collision was reckless and O’Halloran landed on his neck.
Ireland have every right to be livid here 🙈 https://t.co/1V8XjaFQH3
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 25, 2016
Somehow, Le Roux was only left to reflect on it in the sin bin.
Schmidt revealed that the Connacht fullback never really recovered from the impact. He told Sky Sports:
“We effectively lost him early in the game. He is off to hospital now.
“He pushed on and tried to play.”
The Kiwi withdrew his shaken, “sore” fullback at half-time and was forced to rejig his backline, with Matt Healy coming on for his Test debut.
As for whether referee Glen Jackson should have red-carded Le Roux, Schmidt said, “I don’t really comment on those things. Others make those decisions.”
Schmidt also lamented that his side were shorn of an attacking platform as their scrum struggled all evening. He must wear some of the blame for that as he opted to start Mike Ross over Tadhg Furlong, who had impressed in the Second Test.
He believes the series loss was tough on his players but had the presence of mine to send best wishes to Ireland’s U20 side ahead of their World Championship final and both the Irish and Northern Irish sides at Euro 2016.
