Donal Lenihan: Having Joe Schmidt pick holes in Ireland's game could be of long-term benefit

In the aftermath of that defeat, All Blacks coach Ian Foster was quick to acknowledge the role Schmidt’s in depth knowledge of the Irish players, the Irish system and game plan, played in that result. One super power play off a four-man line out which resulted in a try for Will Jordan after Richie Mo’unga exploited a chink in the defensive line, after Ireland had closed to gap to a single point having fallen 13 points in arrears over the opening quarter, was proof positive of that.

The challenge for Schmidt is this Wallaby team, despite that last minute defeat of England in Twickenham and thrashing of Wales in Cardiff, remains vulnerable in a number of key areas. Scotland’s controlled performance in their impressive 27-13 win in Murrayfield last Sunday provided ample evidence of that.

Schmidt has already exceeded expectations on this tour given the limitations in the squad he inherited from Eddie Jones and the weaknesses exposed in the Rugby Championship. Despite losing five of their six games in that tournament, he has spread the net far and wide and will cap a 19th debutant since coming on board when Ted Edmed is sprung from the bench in order to create some depth in his squad prior to the Lions tour.

When they get on a roll, as they did against Wales, they can be devastating. When things start to unravel, as was the case in an embarrassing 67-27 thumping by Argentina in Santa Fe and against the Scots in the second half last weekend, they can be made look very ordinary.

One of Schmidt’s key points of difference is not only his ability to spot even the most minute of vulnerabilities in an opposition but his genius in devising a power play to exploit that potential vulnerability on the scoreboard.

From that point of view alone it will be both fascinating, perhaps even revealing for the Irish coaching staff, to see what specific areas of Ireland’s game Schmidt seeks to expose. Who knows but in a different way, Schmidt may still be capable of adding value to Ireland’s overall effectiveness down the road.

Schmidt would love nothing more that to get one over Andy Farrell before the two go head to head in one of modern day rugby’s biggest spectacles when Lions arrive Down Under next summer.

Farrell’s last stand - for now 

While subconsciously, Farrell will be looking the visitors from a Lions perspective, he will be even more keen to finish his last official involvement with the Irish set up until next season’s Autumn series on a high.

While Ireland’s polished performance with a much changed side against Fiji will have helped lift the mood after a stuttering start to the series against New Zealand and Argentina, Farrell will be keen to see those improvements, especially in attack, ratchet up another level.

Fiji’s indiscipline, both in terms of the massive 17 penalties and two yellow cards conceded along with a systemic naivety in defense was manifest in the 13 line breaks, 33 defenders beaten and 12 offloads Ireland delivered in attack despite having out half Sam Prendergast banished to the bin for ten minutes.

With so many attacking opportunities presenting themselves, if anything, it served to highlight Ireland’s profligacy in converting scoring chances into points on the board. Most specifically, having three tries chalked off due to forward passes displayed a skill deficiency under pressure. Put another way, the likelihood is that, put in a similar situation, both New Zealand and France would have converted those chances.

The degree to which Farrell has been influenced in his final Irish selection for the foreseeable future by the three performances to date is incapsulated best in the call to start Prendergast against Australia. Farrell has not only read into those positive attacking stats against Fiji but has clearly been impressed by what he has seen of Prendergast up close and personal in training over the last three weeks and is now keen to see if he can be as impactful against a Tier 1 nation.

What we don’t know is, if this was the opening game of the Six Nations against England would he make the same call? While Jack Crowley has every right to feel aggrieved by his demotion to the bench, there’s no getting away from the fact that this is exactly what these autumn games - as South Africa have shown by regularly altering their line ups - are all about. We have been critical in the past for not exposing young talent in games of this nature and there’s no doubting that Ireland’s stock of No 10’s will be strengthened as a consequence.

Prendergast apart, the big change from the New Zealand game sees the return of Bundee Aki at the expense of Garry Ringrose, who never has a bad game, with Gus McCarthy being rewarded for his excellence on debut against Fiji with a place on a bench that Farrell will expect a greater impact than was the case against the All Blacks.

Brutality with beauty 

Ireland need to be brutal on both sides of the ball to control this game and play in the right areas of the field. Even the normally flamboyant Finn Russell recognized the need to contain his running instincts with a more pragmatic approach that paid dividends against the Wallabies last Sunday for a highly talented Scottish back line.

On the back foot against a voracious Scottish defense, Australia’s famed attack failed to function. Schmidt likes to build his phase play by launching powerful runners close to the ruck initially, building a momentum that forces the opposition to either concede a line break, the space to chip into no man’s land behind the first line of defense for his midfield to regather or a penalty that results in either points or a foothold in the opposition twenty two.

Like Scotland, Ireland need to bring a brutal physicality to the ruck and man the trenches on either side to stifle any opportunity for the Wallabies to get their carriers on the front foot. That task has been made slightly easier by the fact that giant second row Will Skelton is unavailable as this test falls outside the international window and has returned to La Rochelle. His second row replacement, Jeremy Williams, carries nothing like the same physical impact at the scrum or breakdown.

The visitors' back line can be sublime from broken play with real quality counter attackers in Tommy Wright, Andrew Kellaway and Len Ikitau while the unexpected recovery from injury of Joseph Sua’ali’i offers us a first glimpse of the new Aussie wonder kid who already appears to be carrying the hopes of a rugby nation on his young shoulders.

Outside of that key breakdown battle, the return to force of Ireland’s line out coupled with a vastly improved effort on the discipline front with only eight penalties conceded against Fiji, place Ireland in a far greater position to seize the upper hand in this one.

Ireland’s best attacking ploys are still launched off line outs in the opposition twenty two and, with the clever running lines and decoy runners employed by attack coach Andrew Goodman, proved the source of multiple tries against Argentina and Fiji.

The battle of wits between Farrell and Schmidt will be fascinating. While there’s no doubting Schmidt has already succeeded in making this Wallaby side far more competitive since coming on board, I suspect they haven’t made a sufficient enough leap to be able to cater for what Ireland will throw at them.