Ireland fighting fit as they rise to third in world after Georgia win

Things are getting giddy again. Eventually subduing the team ranked 15th in the world 49-7 after labouring a tad to a 9-0 lead at half-time wouldn't normally be the springboard for world supremacy, but defeats for England and Australia over the weekend contrived to leave Ireland third in the IRB world rankings behind New Zealand and South Africa.

Having also emerged unscathed from a six tries to one win over Georgia, Joe Schmidt can now recall ten players from the win over South Africa who were excused duty yesterday. He can also call on an 11th in Jack McGrath who remained in his tracksuit, two more who were limited to replacement cameos and another in Mike Ross who was hauled off after 45 minutes.

Clean sweep

Schmidt even sounded cautiously optimistic about the chances of Jared Payne being declared fit and thus resuming his partnership with Robbie Henshaw against Australia.

“Everyone came through that okay enough,” said Schmidt. “Jared is walking around pretty well. I’d say Tuesday is the earliest I could answer that question because we would be hopeful he might train Tuesday. If he can train on Tuesday, he will be in the mix.”

If so, Ireland will approach Saturday's match with the Wallabies and their newly installed former Leinster coach Michael Cheika in relatively rude health. They will also be targeting a first November clean sweep since 2006, when they beat South Africa (32-15), Australia (21-6) and the Pacific Islands (61-17).

Schmidt speculated that his predecessor as Leinster coach might look to make some changes and bring Kurtley Beale back into the mix after the intensity of their 29-26 defeat to a fired-up France in Paris on Saturday night. After the match Cheika repeated his intention to give other players in his squad an opportunity, though Schmidt also noted that the Wallabies had an extra day’s rest and that Cheika himself was back in the Aviva yesterday in a watching brief.

“Having said that, some of our boys were watching the game and it is nice to have them watch a game where the team they play for has a decent win; it keeps the pressure on everyone. That helps keep a competitive element within the squad.”

“I think you’ve got to give credit where credit is due. The players worked hard. They suffocated a very physical opponent.

“They kept their structure and kept pressure on that opponent. And they got reward for it. If players roll their sleeves up and they do that, then I think they deserve to be looked at. That’s a responsibility of the coaching staff to make sure we go through that. And that process will contribute to what we decide to go with next week.”

That said, if Payne is fit, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Schmidt reverted to the same 23 which beat South Africa, although it remains to be seen if Rory Best re-enters the mix.

Having watched Australia change a few things in their two competitive tests under Cheika, Schmidt said: “One of the things Cheiks does really well is he gets them to work and he gets them to work collectively.

“That’s part of what I alluded to inside with their defensive work. I don’t think I’ve seen someone work as hard as (scrum-half, Nick) Phipps in behind the line. (Out-half, Bernard) Foley and the wingers work incredibly hard whether it is Adam Ashley-Cooper or (Joe) Tomane or whoever they decide to put up against us. They’re going to work very, very hard in the backfield, so we’re not going to get a lot of space.

“They get off the line hard with guys like (Tevita) Kuridrani coming forward, Michael Hooper coming forward, the young kid (Sean) McMahon coming forward and (Ben) McCalman. They do certainly put a lot of pressure on you.

“I think James Slipper’s a super defender getting off the line. He (Cheika) almost builds that real collective effort as part of his culture in a team and it is a real strength for him.”

Third in the world

That winning Irish farewell to the old Lansdowne Road eight autumns ago also marked the last time Ireland rose to the dizzy heights of third in the world, albeit it's both instructive and cautionary to recall what happed to Ireland a year later at the World Cup.

That 2007 World Cup was notable for how Eddie O’Sullivan relied upon his “Invincibles”, when they struggled to beat Namibia and Georgia while losing to France and Argentina. By using 28 players in his starting line-ups for these wins, Schmidt ought to feel more comfortable at the thought of doing something similar in next year’s pool games against Canada and Romania, before engaging Italy and France.

“I think it corresponds to a degree,” said Schmidt. “You don’t know who you’re personnel are going to be and you don’t know what condition you’re going to turn up in there. We’ve tried to stay short-term focused. It does give you confidence even seeing what happened last week. There might be a few other guys who might be in the mix and today gives you a little bit more confidence again.

"There were some guys who did a really good job," said Schmidt, who added of Dave Foley and Dominic Ryan, "I would include particularly the two starting debutants in that. They did a super job in a pretty physical environment."

Distraction

Schmidt described their elevation as “a distraction”, saying: “I do not think that we can win anything by saying we are third in the world. We probably have to tidy up our scrum a bit, get our setpiece right and just try to get those practical things right.

“I think it is fantastic, a feather in the cap of the lads who rolled their sleeves up for the last 12 months, but I can’t say it is something we will be talking about or even aware off. And you can see Reds is delighted,” said Schmidt, turning to the suitably disinterested looking Irish captain beside him.