Peat's points are fair, apart from Italy not counting for anything, that's bull****. I haven't blindly defended Schmidt, I've called him out on a few calls this championship. But to ignore the type of rugby we played yesterday and to discard all the debuts as being down to injury is wrong and a sign of people being set in their ways about Schmidt.
He failed to win four in a row, two of those were in France and London, all with a banjaxed team. It's not good enough but it's understandable in the time that it came. What Schmidt is doing is exactly what Eddie Jones is doing, altering the style of play and slowly giving new guys a shot, luckily for Jones he didn't have injuries to three of his best forwards.
Calls for youth just for the sake of youth are panicky too, calls for Gilroy are a prime example, Schmidt doesn't rate him as highly as Trimble and possibly McFadden too although that can be down to versatility. Waiting to comeback this summer we have Bowe, Fitzgerald and Kearney with Earls already around, there's three options there who are, in Schmidt's and my opinion, better than Gilroy and will be available for the next World Cup. Work on them, get them settled and then bring in the back up in a couple years time.
At the moment Schmidt is building the core of his team and the style of play he wants to use going forward and he's doing it without his best second row and back row who'll be available in four years, not an easy task. He's still played McGrath, Furlong, Dillane, Toner, Stander, Ruddock, Van der Flier, Murray, Marmion, Madigan, Henshaw, McCloskey, Earls, D Kearney and Zebo who will all almost certainly go to the next World Cup. Four of those guys are new caps, another one didn't go to the World Cup. He's got another 10 international windows to bring in fifteen more, and he's had at least three probables in his squads this year too, I half fancy his chances of doing that.
Its not all right obviously, if Ross Byrne doesn't quite turn out to be Sexton mk 2 and Madigan continues to be consistent in inconsistency Jackson will be our 10 in the next World Cup, he should have got game time. Nathan White is 34 years old and about as pleasing on the eye as the sock groundhog keeps under his bed, the young and sexy Furlong should have been in yesterday and next week. Reddan should never have been on a bench either. That and not winning is what he's got wrong while he is doing a lot right too. As I've said previously it takes a while for Schmidt's gameplans to click, in the past it's always been three games, we've got a team high in confidence that they can score tries off of yesterday's game, if they can win and run in a few next week things will be looking a whole lot better going to SA and show that this new style of play, that absolutely everyone wanted, has legs.
