“We felt that Keith played well last week among a pretty flat effort and while Jared got through training completely on Wednesday, we do feel if we put him back into the game on Sunday, he would aggravate the foot”, said Schmidt at that team selection press conference.
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Northern Ireland reached their first major tournament in 30 years and their neighbours south of the border beat world champions Germany to take a big step towards joining them at Euro 2016 in a memorable night for Irish football on Thursday. Schmidt has opted with a usual back-row of O’Mahony, O’Brien and Heaslip to provide that well organised consistency against their toughest opponents so far. Iain will add value and, again, it is a case of making sure that we have a few things covered for next week as well. “I’ve changed”, he said.
Schmidt warned that this pool decider would be a very different proposition from Six Nations meetings with the French because they have had proper time to prepare, which is why they regularly seem to defy previous form at World Cups.
Flanker Thierry Dusautoir will captain France for the 55th time, joining Australia’s World Cup-winning skipper John Eales in seventh place on the all-time list, while Nicolas Mas will equal Sylvain Marconnet’s France record of 84 caps for a prop if he comes off the bench.
“We have spent energy looking at both of them but who we want to play, well we’ll wait and see”.
They’ve had 10 days to prepare for Ireland after beating Canada 41-18 and say they’re ready for whatever the next two weekends bring. “Application, determination and concentration will determine the outcome of this match”.
Louis Picamoles and Noa Nakaitaci, both rested against Canada are back – Picamoles at the base of the scrum, shunting Damien Chouly to the openside as Bernard Le Roux drops to the bench, and Nakaitaci a straight swap for wing Remy Grosso. “It will be a match with an enormous amount of intensity”.
“We don’t mind. The team you’re going to face in the quarter-finals is potentially a team that could go all the way and win this World Cup”, he said.
“The pressure is increasing as the kick-off approaches, we’re just thinking about being as efficient as possible as soon as it starts”. One passage in the 58th minute highlights the good and bad of the Irish kicking game on Sunday.
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Argentina already have a place in the quarter-finals against France or Ireland.
