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Schmidt's frustration over injured Ireland stars

Ireland and Munster's Peter O'Mahony (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Joe Schmidt has admitted Ireland’s six-day turnaround to face hosts Japan at the World Cup is a “frustration” that leaves head injury doubts Peter O’Mahony and Bundee Aki struggling to be available for selection.

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Flanker O’Mahony and centre Aki failed Head Injury Assessments (HIAs) in Ireland’s stunning 27-3 bonus-point win over Scotland in Yokohama on Sunday.

Head coach Schmidt revealed neither Ireland star was showing any concussion symptoms after their opening Pool A encounter – but was left to lament the coupling of a six-day return-to-play process with the same length of time to his side’s next match.

Johnny Sexton, Josh Van Der Flier and Tadhg Furlong were all brought off early but Schmidt said none had sustained injuries, leaving the concerns over O’Mahony and Aki to rankle with Ireland’s Kiwi head coach.

“Tadhg is fine, Johnny is fine we just decided to bring him off and Conor (Murray) off,” said Schmidt.

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“We had two HIAs, in Bundee and Pete. They are both symptom-free at the moment, that’s reassuring, but we’ve got to go through the process.

“They failed HIA one, so they’ve got to go through HIA two and three to determine whether or not they have a concussion.

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“Beyond that, the minimum time you can turn around a player is six days. So we’ll look at how that pans out over the next probably 48 hours when they do their HIA two and HIA three.”

Asked if the short gap between Ireland’s opening two World Cup matches could now become problematic, Schmidt continued: “It’s a frustration for everyone, because everyone knows they are going to have some tight turnarounds.

“I know for the Russians they are back out on Tuesday (after playing Japan on Friday night), so that is a real difficulty for them.

“I thought they were incredibly good on Friday evening, the way they threw themselves into the game, and a couple of their players really impressed.

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“So for us we’ve just got to accept it’s a six-day turnaround and manage our squad as best we can.”

James Ryan, Rory Best, Furlong and Andrew Conway all crossed in Yokohama as Ireland made good on all their pre-tournament pledges to hit form at the perfect time.

Ireland made a mockery of their record 57-15 loss to England at Twickenham just last month by tearing through sorry Scotland, who were left to lick their wounds and staring down a tough battle to reach the quarter-finals.

Conway and Jordan Larmour impressed in Ireland’s re-jigged backfield, with experienced duo Rob Kearney and Keith Earls missing through injury.

In the wake of victory, Schmidt was able to point to the positives of Kearney, Earls and playmaker Joey Carbery all inching back to match fitness.

“It was great what happened this week (with injuries) to a degree, because Rob Kearney, Keith Earls, Joey Carbery; they’re all training really well,” said Schmidt.

“So we’ve got them hopefully on an upswing for Japan. But you never take anything for granted, we’ll only get two trainings – Tuesday and Thursday – because we travel tomorrow.”

Dejected Scotland boss Gregor Townsend was left to chart his side’s way back into this tournament, that must start by finding greater accuracy and physicality.

“We would have needed to win our next three games, whatever the result today,” said Townsend.

“We can bounce back and play a lot better against Samoa, then carry that into Russia and especially Japan, who have started the tournament well.

“This was hugely disappointing; we didn’t start with any of the energy, accuracy, and aggression required to beat a team like Ireland.

“They started very well and took their chances when they got into their 22. If you give them a 15 to 20 point start it’s going to be very difficult to come back.”

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Hellhound 1 hour ago
Scotland's Gregor Townsend confirms Tom Jordan Glasgow exit

NZ lost a great player there. Played brilliantly for Glasgow and against SA was the best player on the pitch. Caused the Boks some headaches. Slot him into the current AB's team, and they would be very dangerous, especially broken play.


However, the Scots isn't stupid and their recruiting from the SH countries is starting to pay off. They don't have the player pool the SH countries have, nor that of their neighbours even.


I applaud them for being so open-minded as giving those players who have loyally played their rugby in Scotland for years a chance. SA for one have such a vast pool of players that's so talented and could be world class given the smallest chance, but will never get a look in because there is just so many stars in the country.


I don't mind that Saffas play for other countries to further their own careers. Besides, it makes Scotland better and makes for one more team to step up to the big stage and make rugby more exciting than just the top 4 that usually wins.


Scotland may have lost by 17 against a rusty Bok "B" team, but that score is not a true indication of that match. The Scottish biggest mistakes was kicking at goal the entire time, instead of going for the jugular. If they tried to go for tries, they may have been stopped and the score might have been bigger, but the game was on such a knife edge, that if they did go for it, they might have scored a couple of tries or more and we very well might have seen a Scottish upset.


It was by no means a bad effort at all. Tom Jordan is one of their best new talents coming through. He should've stayed with Glasgow. What a loss for the URC Champs. Going to Loftus and getting one over the Bulls is something that not even the so called best team in club rugby could do. Leinster keeps losing at Loftus. For Glasgow to do that in a Final was phenomenal and Tom Jordan was no small part of that feat.


Rugby is truely becoming a global sport now, where the eligibility rules is making rugby a much smaller world, but a much bigger global game. The Scots is most likely the team with the most aliens in their team. They welcome players with open arms. I applaud that. They are a sleeping giant, and if they continue playing like they did against the Boks, despite the results, they will become a real threat for 2027.


I admired how they played. They impressed everyone. I say good on them. Results will come if they continue on their upward trajectory. I wish them and Tom Jordan all the luck they deserve.

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