Schmidt said Ireland have not suddenly become a bad team because of one poor performance DAN SHERIDAN/INPHOJoe Schmidt expressed confidence yesterday, not just in his Ireland team, but also their capacity to recover from Saturday’s miserable defeat to England and remain contenders for this year’s Guinness Six Nations championship. While history would suggest that Ireland’s chances of success in this 2019 tournament are thin — Wales, in 2013, being the last team to overturn an opening day defeat and claim the title — it remains premature to write them off. To win a fourth championship in six years, though, they’d have to win their next four matches and hope France, Wales, Scotland or Italy beat England. Peter O'Mahony looks dejected after Ireland’s surprise loss in Dublin DAN SHERIDAN/INPHOYet even if they are not to become champions again, Schmidt is insistent that this team has a future, not just a past. “We’ve worked…

Source: The Times February 04, 2019 00:04 UTC