What changes will IRELAND see under Schmidt

First topic message reminder :

What changes do Irish fans hope to see under the new management..... Positional, tactical, etc

I expect to see the end of the SOB at 7 experiment, although he is has done a decent job there, he is by far a better 6, and joe will have an intimate knowledge of this, and so I think we will see the use of a true out and out fetching 7 whether it is Henry or someone like Dom Ryan. I hope to see dynamic second rows like Touhy, Henderson or Nagle getting more game time.

I think we will see a lot more of McFadden and Trimble, as they are very skilful backs whom have suffered from a conservative gameplay with huge emphasis on defence rather that attacking flair.

I also hope we assign I full time scrummaging coach. Feek is doing an ok job but I really feel a full time coach is needed in this potential problem area for Ireland. I hope kiss stays on but moves back to his defensive duties, with any luck Gret Smal will be replaced as I feel our forward play has become predictable and out dated in recent seasons..

Ireland have a fantastic pool of talent, and this emerging Ireland side tour, i think, is a stoke of genius as it will give fringe players further opportunities to show their abilities outside the provincial game. I hope to see a lot more of both these fringe players and those whom are going on the North America tour to be used in big situations so we won't be as badly affected with injuries as we were this year. If you fail to prepare then prepaid to fail.

The biggest thing I hope this new management set up causes, is an end to the constant interprovincial bickering over bias selection etc, as it ruins so many threads and is utterly tedious for all involved!

rodders wrote:

Sin é wrote:

nganboy wrote:Didn't Gatland coach Ireland?

He did. Keith Wood got him fired which explains his 'Welsh players hate the Irish' comment. I also suspect that there was some blazer from Ulster who upset him and thats why Best isn't on the Lions Tour.

Hmm the plot thickens .....

Wasn't Neily Jackson involved in the Gatland heave.

As far as I know, Gatland is also a good pal of Trevor Brennans

Sin é wrote:As far as I know, Gatland is also a good pal of Trevor Brennans

So it's true then - Gatland is a psycho?

Any news on the new forwards coach?

They'll play an unstructured attacking game at a high tempo, trying to run teams off of their feet, like Leinster. But still be vulnerable to teams playing the power game,teams like Wales I guess. Not saying we'd beat you in Dublin though.

Wow. Never saw this thread and appologies if it has been mentioned before. But in the OP it seems that people think that Sob will be moved from 7 by a coach who always starts him at 7?

What?

Hopefully you will maintain last year's 6N form.


I was getting fed up of being beaten by your lot.

The system in Ireland seems to be producing potentially very good players in almost every position bar props.

The match vs the ABs will have a very different feel for it this year with Schmidt at the helm. He's probably already targetted the match...interesting...

Taylorman wrote:The match vs the ABs will have a very different feel for it this year with Schmidt at the helm. He's probably already targetted the match...interesting...

If Ireland can raise the fury they do for England (and Wales ) they are a tough team.

6 finals and 4 trophies is pretty impressive for a 3 year stint at Leinster. But what I loved more is the style in which they won. Schmidt basically had Leinster playing like the All Blacks. Of course not as good as the All Blacks. But as close in style as you're likely to see a European team get. However the Leinster pack could dominate most club packs. The Irish can't do the same to test packs. But that said, Leinster came up against some monster packs at times and got dominated up front on occasions but still won thanks to lethal attacking play.

I hope Ireland are more clinical when they do get the ball. Because it was a trait of Scmidt's Leinster. And I also like the way he got it so right tactically so often. He was excellent at formulating a plan and selecting a team specifically to exploit the weaknesses he'd studied in the opposition. I definitely think we'll see better rugby than the last 4 years.

Hound of Harrow wrote:Hopefully you will maintain last year's 6N form.


I was getting fed up of being beaten by your lot.

The system in Ireland seems to be producing potentially very good players in almost every position bar props.

The prop issue comes down to poor preparation in youth rugby. Not enough props are really taught how to scrummage well when they're young, and so they aren't ready for pro rugby where scrummaging is near enough everything for a prop.

I played my last game of age grade rugby a few months ago, and without meaning to brag, in 5 years as a prop who primarily played loosehead, I didn't come across across a single tighthead who could out-scrummage me. I am not a big person in prop terms and was smaller than nearly everyone I came up against. I relied on technique which I quickly realised none of them had. Our coach was a former prop, so we trained and practiced scrums all the time. Our tighthead was useful, but because he wasn't a gym monkey he would never have got a look in to any kind of provincial set up. They seem to just look for gym monkeys who are strong in the loose and try to teach them to scrummage, whereas in professional rugby the best props are strong scrummagers who then try to improve in the loose, guys Adam Jones, Mike Ross, Euan Murray etc. Unless the alternatives are even worse than you are, you will never be a top level prop without being a good scrummager.

JmD

Too true that. Ireland could always send a few to English clubs for a couple of years.

JmD wrote:

Hound of Harrow wrote:Hopefully you will maintain last year's 6N form.


I was getting fed up of being beaten by your lot.

The system in Ireland seems to be producing potentially very good players in almost every position bar props.

The prop issue comes down to poor preparation in youth rugby. Not enough props are really taught how to scrummage well when they're young, and so they aren't ready for pro rugby where scrummaging is near enough everything for a prop.

I played my last game of age grade rugby a few months ago, and without meaning to brag, in 5 years as a prop who primarily played loosehead, I didn't come across across a single tighthead who could out-scrummage me. I am not a big person in prop terms and was smaller than nearly everyone I came up against. I relied on technique which I quickly realised none of them had. Our coach was a former prop, so we trained and practiced scrums all the time. Our tighthead was useful, but because he wasn't a gym monkey he would never have got a look in to any kind of provincial set up. They seem to just look for gym monkeys who are strong in the loose and try to teach them to scrummage, whereas in professional rugby the best props are strong scrummagers who then try to improve in the loose, guys Adam Jones, Mike Ross, Euan Murray etc. Unless the alternatives are even worse than you are, you will never be a top level prop without being a good scrummager.

Superlative post and sums up the issues to a tee. Good man yerself .

My main hope for Ireland under Schmidt is that he develops a squad.  Too often in the past Irish coaches would almost look as if they had only 1 chance in the very beginning to select their first XV and bench and then tried to play that starting side in every single game of the 6Ns, summer tours, RWC.

What Schmidt had with Leinster was better drilled styles of play.  If someone was injured, you could slot in a new player and hardly miss a beat.  Yet he still managed to give the players to freedom that if they saw a chance, they had the green light to take it.  But the team worked off of a standard base level which never faltered.

Also hoping for some new attacking plays and more phase 1 moves instead of bash it up the middle and having forwards in the back line taking the ball static.

I think it is unrealistic to expect Joe to do for Ireland what he did for Leinster. He simply won't have the contact time with the players, or be able to develop players skill sets in the same way.

What I hope is that he has a vision of how the team should play, allowing for tactical variations, and that he puts square pegs in square holes with regards selection and selects a team best suited to his game plan.

The second thing is that he gets the players confidence back up and gets them expressing themselves, unburdened of fear of mistakes and failure... to go out and win games rather than to try and avoid losing them. In this respect the performances are more important than the results.

It will be much harder for Joe as Ireland coach as loyalty and patience at provincial level is much greater than for Ireland, with regards both fans and media, and the knives will soon come out if performances don't quickly meet expectations.

Where previously we were losing many games, now we will be winning games  

Only change that matters and if it doesn't come about it will be the shortest love-in ever

Take the bones of the Leinster side and add in the best of the rest. You then have potentially a good team.


Its true that Schmidt won't have the time with the players that he had with Leinster but 3 provinces are coached by Kiwis and one by an Aussie so I reckon it might not be too difficult for the players to get to grips with Schmits style of play. Half the team are also used to it.


One things guaranteed.. Schmidt will greatly improve Irelands attacking play and he'll vary the gameplan.

Looks like he's already had a hand in the weather