JOE SCHMIDT WILL make the toughest phone calls of his rugby career on Sunday afternoon. Or Sunday evening. Or Monday morning.
The timing of those heartbreaking conversations with the players who have missed the cut for Ireland’s final 31-man World Cup squad will depend on how long it takes Schmidt and his coaching team to select that elite group.
Schmidt has a difficult weekend ahead. Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO
Schmidt, Les Kiss, Simon Easterby, Greg Feek and Richie Murphy will go into a quiet room following Saturday’s clash with Wales and probably won’t emerge until the next day, a list of 31 players finalised.
Delivering the bad news to those who haven’t made it will fall to Schmidt, the head man.
“How do you tell someone that’s worked incredibly hard?” said the Kiwi at Carton House yesterday.
“I know they’ve worked incredibly hard for the last eight, nine weeks, but some of these players have worked incredibly hard for four years since the last World Cup and are desperately keen to be involved. You tell them as honestly as you can, that’s all you can do.
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“It’s probably going to be phone calls and as a coach, it’s probably the least desirable part of my job.”
There is a ruthless edge to Schmidt’s coaching approach of course, but as he sighed his way through the above answer we got a real glimpse of his human side too, the empathy he will have for the men to whom he brings an unwanted message.
Schmidt will at least be armed with a well-reasoned explanation for each of his decisions, particularly with the coaching team around him having considered all possibilities in the make-up of the final 31.
“I think the one thing I’d say is that it’s a really good coaching group and our discussions are pretty robust,” said Schmidt. “We have different areas that we specialise in but we are very much collective in the final decision-making process.
Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO
“I think the decisions will be thrashed out and well fought out, different perspectives will be taken into account. At least when those calls have to be made, the player can feel that we’ve tried to be as thorough as we possibly can be.”
There are multiple calls still to make. Three scrum-halves or just two? Marty Moore or Nathan White at tighthead, or both? Michael Bent to cover both sides of the front row?