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24th June 2018
12:23pm BST
The World Cup, next September and October, has been on Schmidt's mind since Argentina dumped Ireland out at the quarter final stage in 2015. From August on, it comes to the fore and the focus will be steely.
The Rugby Championship will be underway by then and the Kiwi will be taking studious notes of New Zealand and South Africa [possible quarter final opponents], Australia and Argentina. Most would consider Steve Hansen's men as favourites for the 'Three-peat' but a leading rugby writer from Australia has backed Ireland to win the Webb Ellis trophy.
Alex Broun of Sports 360 was recently on The Hard Yards and backed Ireland to beat his Wallabies. That prediction played out and Broun has gone a few steps further in his post-series column. He writes:
'15 months out from the World Cup and although New Zealand are still the No.1 ranked team in the world, the favourites in Japan are Ireland. Joe Schmidt, alongside Australian High Performance director David Nucifora, have done a superb job developing skills and depth. 'But, most of all, Ireland are the masters under pressure. This win, where they virtually defended for the entire second half, was just as good as the last minute heroics in Paris that began their Six Nations run to glory. 'Yes the All Blacks are far more dangerous in attack than the Wallabies but in the high pressure of a RWC knock-out match with Ireland’s swarming defence and the All Blacks as yet untested mental strength, I’m backing the men in green.'High praise from a man that was media officer for the Springboks and British & Irish Lions (2001) before he turned his hand to the journalism game. Ireland have never got beyond the last eight, in eight attempts, so we'll try not to get carried away with this prediction yet. But....
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