In the aftermath of Ireland's second Six Nations win, my thoughts have turned to the World Cup in 2015. With the retirement of Brian O'Driscoll, the management are faced with the unenviable task of replacing Ireland's greatest ever player, and with a limited amount of games in which to do it before the World Cup kicks off. The forthcoming summer tour to Argentina
will be the first opportunity to do so, but after a long season is not
the best time to evaluate weary players.
This leaves us with the
autumn internationals and the 2015 Six Nations championship to unearth a
new thirteen. Is that enough gametime to adequately prepare for a World
Cup?
While this season's championship has provided Brian O'Driscoll a far more fitting ending to his international career than the 2013 Lions tour, had he retired then we would already have identified this player, and he would be facing into the World Cup next year with two championships behind him, instead of one.
Although Schmidt's reign is still very much in its infancy, I have noticed one troubling statistic - his team score very few points in the second half of games against stronger opposition. Against Australia, Ireland only troubled the scoreboard with a single penalty after half time, against New Zealand we failed to register a single point in the second 40 minutes. Against England and France, we only scored 10 points after half time in both games, and only two tries. Indeed, the boys in green failed to register a score after the 55th minute in both games, while the opposition ran in 13 and 10 points, respectively.
While Jonathan Sexton finished the championship as top points scorer, the abiding memory of the final game against France was a missed conversion and penalty that, while not having an impact on the final score, brought back memories of the infamous missed penalty against the All Blacks in Aviva stadium in November which would have given Schmidt's side a win against the only team Ireland have yet to register a victory against in test rugby. These misses have again raised questions about his mettle in high pressure situations.
Compare that with England, who have a settled side, a victory over New Zealand in November, beat the Six Nations champions Ireland, and would have won the Grand Slam, were it not for a late try and conversion by the French. For these reasons, along with home advantage, I believe England are going to win the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
