Putting your life on the line for Joe Schmidt now is a little like the fight put up by the Scots when the game was lost.
The result is beyond doubt and there is nothing to lose – particularly when you’ve been right all along.
In his Sunday Independent column Neil Francis has a good cut off anyone who questioned Joe Schmidt in the last two months – describing them as “teenage scribbers” – even though the only commentator consistently calling for the Ireland coach’s head has been his colleague George Hook.
Whatever you think of Hook’s scribblings, they cannot be blamed on youth.
Who else has actively stuck their head above the parapet and called for Schmidt to be canned? People have questioned Schmidt and his team, which was right and proper after no win in three games.
Even allowing for retirements and injuries and bad luck and the weather and the fixture list, a three-in-a-row chasing coach failing to win any of his first three games is worthy of examination and, heaven forbid, criticism.
Schmidt had, quite rightly, enjoyed a pretty smooth existence as Ireland coach before this Spring. But the nature of the World Cup exit and the loss of the Six Nations title was bound to see Schmidt questioned.
By adults and teenagers. Journalists and fans. Former internationals and, heaven forbid, civilians.
Francis can’t abide by the last criticising Schmidt. Show us your medals etc etc etc.
“Some of the press are calling for his head. It is a truly unbelievable set of circumstances. Sometimes I cannot believe what we get up to in this country in terms of what we want and more pertinently why we want it,” writes Francis.
“If Schmidt were to announce his departure it would be a catastrophe because whoever would be picked to replace him would not even come close to being as good as him.
“The bookies and the teenage scribblers would choose the usual jaded names out of a non-existent list of candidates – Jake White, Nick Mallett and the long shot Eddie O’Sullivan.”
The identity of these teenage scribblers looking for Schmidt’s head is unclear. One thing is certain, Francis has consistently championed Schmidt – except when he is questioning Billy Vunipola’s presence in Twickenham, that “last bastion of middle class middle England”.
Or his celebration of the man Caitlyn Jenner used to be.
