"We arrived 15 minutes late to the stadium and we were late for most things all first half." Joe Schmidt's opening words when in the bowels of Murrayfield was asked to explain arguably the Irish Rugby team's worst defeat of his tenure. Scotland's 27-22 victory had many similarities to Ireland's defeat to Argentina in the World Cup quarter finals. A disastrous start, a heroic effort to get back into the game, only to fall off the pace late on. The loss in Cardiff came just a week after a brutal physical battle against France, which left Ireland ravaged by injury. There were no such excuses on Saturday.
The Irish management have worked tirelessly to ensure that there is strength and depth in this squad. The players appear to welcome the pressure. They openly talk about the price of failing to perform as other squad members are ready to take their place, but what happens when it is a team wide failure? There were plenty of below par performances against Scotland, but who should be dropped?
Ireland had a similarly disastrous start to 2007 World Cup in France. A poor choice of hotel was later given an one of the excuses for the disappointing campaign, which began with an embarrassing performance against Namibia. The view was that Eddie O'Sullivan had planned to rotate his squad for the next game against Georgia. Instead he made minimal changes, arguing the team deserved a chance to make amends. There was little improvement against the Georgians though, and the same players, who had come agonisingly close to winning the 2007 Six Nations suffered an early exit from the competition following heavy defeats to France and Argentina.
Schmidt may have planned to rotate his team for this week's trip to Rome to play Italy. Can he do that now? Any players who are dropped may feel they are being singled out. Making wholesale changes would also be a big risk. Does Joe give the 15 that started at Murrayfield another chance? What does that do to the competition for places? What does it say to the players who are waiting to get into the team?
When asked if the starting players were nervous about their position, Robbie Henshaw says selection is always a matter for management.
Are @IrishRugby players worried after the Scotland defeat? @henshawrob says selection will comes down to management. pic.twitter.com/bpNW7gowgJ
— Ross Lindsay (@Ross_A_Lindsay) February 6, 2017
Schmidt promised a big response when Ireland suffered a comprehensive defeat to Australia in only his second match in charge. A week later Ireland came within seconds of beating the All Blacks, having raced to a 19-0 nil lead in the first half. Schmidt made two changes to his team that week. With no new injury worries reported on Monday it will be interesting to see how team sheet looks on Thursday.
