Scars for wounded Ireland likely to be physical as well as mental

The scars from Ireland's first home defeat in the Guinness Six Nations in the six years under Joe Schmidt's watch are likely to be physical as well as mental.

Medical updates on CJ Stander, Devin Toner, Keith Earls and Garry Ringrose are expected today but Stander's facial injury is likely to force a change at number eight.

Stander appears to have suffered two fractures in his cheek and eye socket, which if so could sideline him for at least four weeks, so ruling him out Ireland’s encounter against Scotland at Murrayfield next Saturday and most probably Italy in Rome a fortnight later.

The options for Joe Schmidt would be to start Sean O'Brien in the middle of the back-row, where he played for Leinster in his comeback game against Wasps two weeks ago, or bring in Jack Conan.

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Two weeks ago, Ireland's stock of secondrows had rarely looked so deep, whereupon both Tadhg Beirne and Iain Henderson were ruled out of the opening Six Nations exchanges.

Hence were Toner also ruled out due to the ankle injury which forced him off on Saturday, Schmidt's only remaining options in the second row would be to partner James Ryan with either Quinn Roux or Ultan Dillane.

Earls' hip-pointer injury looks sure to at least curtail his training week too, while Schmidt and co also have to decide whether to stick or twist with Robbie Henshaw at fullback, recall Rob Kearney or look at another option.

Not alone is an historic back-to-back Grand Slam beyond them, but so too the Triple Crown while even the title is a long shot and requires favours from elsewhere if they are to make up the five-point differential arising from England’s bonus point win.

In terms of the title, beating Scotland – who could afford to empty their bench for the final quarter of their bonus point win over Italy – is now imperative.

Schmidt accepted that the challenges this week will be as much mental as physical, for these serial high-achievers now have to suddenly readjust their sights after the most disappointing Test defeat many of them have ever known.

Accepted nothing

“There’s a lot of guys hurting at the moment and they will be looking for a way back in and I think the only was back in is to roll our sleeves up, show that resilience mentally that we are going to be have to be able demonstrate next Saturday.

“It is not just about physically getting up and having that vibrancy, it’s about mentally being attuned and ready to go and retaining the confidence that we should have.

“As I have said we are human and there are times that human beings, without ever being complacent, if you assume anything in this world of high performance sport, assumption will undo you. We couldn’t assume we could rock up and just deliver a performance that they [England] would accept. They accepted nothing from us and gave us as little as possible and that’s a credit to them.”

Even allowing for England’s physicality and all-round excellence, Ireland’s performance lacked its customary energy, intensity and accuracy. Thirteen of this starting XV beat the All Blacks here last November. They haven’t become a bad side all of a sudden, but the recurring capacity for slow starts in the Six Nations is a major concern for Schmidt, not least with the World Cup opener against Scotland in mind.

“We’ve worked incredibly hard to get to where we are without suddenly saying one game has completely undone us. One of my frustrations is we haven’t tended to start competitive campaigns overly well. That, for me, is a bit of a concern looking further ahead. I mentioned November. I mentioned France last year and how we built our way through the tournament.

“I like to think that we can demonstrate we can take a step up next week and, beyond that, how we can get back into the tournament because it is a very tough championship.

“If you are a little bit off the mark, any team can knock any team over. Even for us, the last time we went to Murrayfield, we didn’t get off the bus and we were 21-5 down at half-time,” he said in reference to the defeat there on opening day two years ago.

“On the back of that experience, we ended up beating England at the end of that Six Nations and getting second. I think it would be a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction to believe, on the back of one poor performance, we’ve suddenly lost all the progress and all the confidence we’ve tried to build over the last number of years.”

Human beings

While Schmidt said “there is always a risk of having slow starts when you first get guys together because it is never quite as cohesive as you would like it to be,” he admitted revealingly: “We were very quiet before the game. I didn’t sense the same kind of energy levels that I would have noticed in November when the All Blacks came. And if you don’t have those energy levels and have that mental preparation done, it is pretty difficult to get a foothold back into the game.”

Then, having done so, Schmidt said that conceding a second try gave England “a great boost of oxygen from a try where they didn’t have to do too much and that always gives you a spring in your step.”

“You almost get this vibrancy from the group and we didn’t quite have it tonight. It is disappointing and difficult to put your finger on exactly what it was, but you are talking about human beings here.

“There is emotional energy that needs to be switched on collectively and it is very hard if that is not quite present to suddenly generate it, if it does not begin at the very start. I am not sure quite why but is disappointing that we did not have that same vibrancy that we normally do have.”