Today marks the beginning of the Joe Schmidt era in Irish rugby and as ever, RTE have done a brilliant job of ramping up the anticipation ahead of the clash with Samoa this evening.
Schmidt will take charge of an Irish side looking to restore some pride in the jersey after a fairly disastrous Six Nations campaign earlier this year and if he thought he was in for a nice, comfortable start he has another thing coming as the men in green face into three tests against sides who are all placed above them in the World Rankings.
Naturally, there is a bigger buzz surrounding the meetings with Southern Hemisphere giants Australia and New Zealand later this month, but Samoa are no mugs either and the management and players have been at pains to stress that this evening’s clash at the Aviva won’t be a walk in the park. Far from it in fact.
The fact that it’s Schmidt’s first game in charge adds an extra layer of excitement and RTE have added to that excitement with a typically brilliant montage covering the state of rugby in Ireland at the moment, with the November series coming on the back of a period of great uncertainty regarding the future of European club competitions and the potential demise of the Heineken Cup.
All provincial concerns will be set aside this evening, however, when Jamie Heaslip leads Ireland out at the Aviva in what will hopefully be an emphatic start to the Joe Schmidt regime. Give ‘em hell lads
Video via YouTube/RTE Sport
