Frost/Nixon should have nothing on this.
This evening, on prime-time Irish television, Joe Schmidt will give his first interview since returning home with his defeated World Cup squad.
The Ireland coach will be one of the main guests on RTE One’s Late Late Show.
This is not the first time Schmidt will be interviewed by Ryan Tubridy but, given Ireland’s earlier than expected departure from the World Cup, it may be the first time he faces some truly tough questioning.
Here are the questions we hope Tubridy poses to our two-time Six Nations winning coach.
This was an Ireland team that had won the last two Six Nations, had a host of players in their prime, a world-class coach and who had a gentle start to the tournament in a group with two under-performing European rivals. Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium was estimated to have north of 55,000 Irish fans in attendance. Defeat means they continue a sorry tradition of being the only Tier One rugby nation not to reach a World Cup semi-final.
Schmidt said he expected Argentina to start hard and fast. There was no apparent plan to counter the flurries Argentina threw as they flooded the breakdown, flung up high balls and targeted Ireland out wide. 17-0 after 15 minutes tells its own story.
All the talk, for the two years of Schmidt’s tenure, was how Ireland would suffer if they lost Sexton during the World Cup.
For all that talk, a viable alternative was not found. In 24 Test matches Sexton was fit to play in, the out-half started 20. That includes three of the summer’s warm-up matches, when he was being rested. Ian Keatley played against Italy in February but was nowhere near the World Cup squad. Paddy Jackson played minnows but was not trusted in clinch encounters.
Schmidt has already dismissed this question by stating his respect for current England boss Stuart Lancaster. However the English RFU are, we are reliably informed, going to make Schmidt an offer. An outright dismissal of the England job would assuage some Irish fears.
The Kiwi appeared to throw his players under the bus, last Sunday, by highlighting the inexperience of some of those that took to the pitch. He also accused that players of veering from the game-plan and having to have their heads knocked together by captain Jamie Heaslip while Nicolas Sanchez was kicking conversions.
With further time to mull over the 23-point walloping, Schmidt may be more forthcoming with aspects of his coaching that fell short.
There was a lot of talk about Ireland having set plays up their sleeve for the bigger World Cup matches. The plays were nowhere to be seen as Argentina climbed into ragged green jerseys all over the park.
Many Irish rugby fans would like to see Ireland give the ball a spin and show some attacking, offloading, Super Rugby ambitions. At the very least, they will settle for Leinster [circa 2010-2013].
Surely there will be some hard-hitting questions.
A soft interview would be a massive let-down but we are not getting our hopes up.
