England defeat would be 'crushing' for Ireland's Grand Slam hopefuls, says Joe Schmidt

Cautious approach: Joe Schmidt is well aware of the threat England will pose
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Chris Jones16 March 2018

Ireland coach Joe Schmidt has admitted that having their Grand Slam dream ruined by England on Saturday would be “crushing”.

Ireland are chasing only the third Slam in their history and arrive at Twickenham on St Patrick’s Day with a massive weight of expectation behind them.

But Schmidt is wary of an England backlash after Eddie Jones’ men suffered sucessive defeats to Scotland and France and said: “I wouldn’t say that you can control that emotional rollercoaster that preparing a high-level sports team engenders, because there are times where you imagine the worst-case scenario.

“Worst-case scenario is that England hit the ground running and they actually win with a bit to spare. That would be a crushing scenario. It would be a crushing way for us to finish a year of being unbeaten.”

Of their Grand Slam hopes, Schmidt added: “A potential opportunity that has only been done twice before, I would be more motivated and scared by that than thinking about how fantastic it would be to do something that would be another step for this group into stretching themselves beyond what they’ve done before.”

Schmidt has brought in the combative Iain Henderson for 6ft 10in Devin Toner to try to negate the expected English onslaught and is taking heart from Ireland’s win in Dublin a year ago that ruined their opponents’ bid for a second successive Slam.

“Those characters who demonstrated that are still heavily involved,” said Schmidt. “We’re missing some of them but the guys who’ve come in have demonstrated a similar level of commitment, of the ability to be accurate and stay tuned in during those real pressure moments that happen in these really big Test matches. So that gives me a bit of confidence, but it’s always tempered in these really big games.”

England   Ireland
Anthony Watson 15 Rob Kearney
Jonny May 14 Keith Earls
Jonathan Joseph 13 Garry Ringrose
Ben Te’o 12 Bundee Aki
Elliot Daly 11 Jacob Stockdale
Owen Farrell 10 Johnny Sexton
Richard Wigglesworth 9 Conor Murray
Mako Vunipola 1 Cian Healy
Dylan Hartley (capt) 2 Rory Best (capt)
Kyle Sinckler 3 Tadhg Furlong
Maro Itoje 4 James Ryan
George Kruis 5 Iain Henderson
Chris Robshaw 6 Peter O’Mahony
James Haskell 7 Dan Leavy
Sam Simmonds 8 CJ Stander

Schmidt’s opposite number, however, has insisted he thrives under intense pressure.

“I love it,” said Jones. “This is what we get paid for as coaches. It’s the best time in rugby, when you are under the pump and you have got to produce it. And the team feels the same way. We are out there to prove that we are still a very, very good team and we will prove that.”

Meanwhile, World Rugby have cleared England of any blame for having Marius van der Westhuizen refereeing their training sessions this week. The South African was wrongly assigned to England by the governing body, even though he was due to be an assistant referee tomorrow. He has been replaced by Nigel Owens.

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