Back to family life today, and all next week, for Ireland’s victorious coach.
Joe Schmidt and Paul O’Connell twice faced the press for Q&A sessions at Murrayfield Stadium.
The first was quickly rushed through as captain and coach returned to the Irish squad to watch the drama unfold at Twickenham. The second was a much more jubilant affair as they soaked in the achievement of being back-to-back Six Nations champions.
Typical of Schmidt, he name-checked as many of his backroom team as possible when asked about his influence on the team. ‘I’m pretty much a spectator when the game kicks off,’ he added.
Asked about Ireland’s form heading into a World Cup, in six months, Schmidt revealed an overseas trip he was planning with his family to seek treatment and advice for his 11-year-old son, Luke, who has epilepsy. He said:
‘[The win] is a massive boost, to be honest. But the reality, for me, is that I’m on dad duty. I’ve got a sick son and we’re off overseas to see specialists to try to get some help with him. The reality for me is a long way from rugby when we fly out on Tuesday.’
‘I’ll park the rugby for a little while,’ Schmidt added, ‘and we’ll see if we can get really lucky on both sides of what’s important to us, then we’ll look at the World Cup towards the end of April and I’ll be watching performances of players as will the other coaches. We’ll be tracking players through Jason Cowman and the medical and analysis staff, and then we’ll try to put that together. We’ve got a Barbarians game in May and that will probably be the start of it.
Schmidt says Ireland’s championship win is special for a number of different reasons.
‘It is special,’ he explained, ‘because of how we had to rebound after last week [and defeat in Wales]. It has been so long since we put together back-to-back [championship] wins. We had the disappointment of missing out on a record [of Test wins].
‘On Paul’s 100th cap, that would have had some synergy about it, but the big fella just decided to grab the group by the neck this week and drag them into this game with a fair bit of energy and resolve. Thankfully, it was enough to get us over the line.’
Hat-tip @killeroc for post-match quotes
