Don’t be fooled, ‘late-gate’ definitely had an effect on the Irish players

Just one of many things that went wrong on Saturday.

There were a multitude of factors which led to Ireland's demise against the Scots in Murrayfield at the weekend. A malfunctioning lineout, losing the collisions, a narrow defence, poor communication between players, Paddy Jackson playing too deep, ineffective ball carrying.....the list goes on. Even before matters on the pitch played out, Ireland were on the back foot from the off, as they arrived at Murrayfield fifteen minutes late. The reason for this seems to be that the roads were not cleared prior to the team bus travelling from the hotel to the stadium. Although the bus had a police escort, there were delays due to crossing pedestrians, traffic, red lights etc. Now, this may seem insignificant, but in the world of elite sport, preparations are carried out to the minute. Scratch that, to the second. Former Leinster and Ireland forward, Kevin McLaughlin, was speaking on The Hard Yards, where he recalled in 2011 that his Leinster side were affected by a late arrival to the stadium, in a European Cup game against the Scarlets.

"I remember playing Scarlets in the European Cup in 2011 when Joe (Schmidt) was coach and we were beating everyone by lots of points at that stage and we were on our way to the ground and caught in traffic on the way to Parc y Scarlets...We scraped a win that day against a Scarlets side we planned to get a bonus point against. "The guys have to say it's not going to impact on them because they're pros and they have to do their job but for me it has an impact and it adds an extra layer of complexity to what is already a really, really tough game. "Seven minutes doesn't sound like a lot but he would have had everything planned out to the last 30 seconds."

This sentiment was also backed up by Munster and Ireland legend, Donncha O'Callaghan.

"So when things get kicked out a little bit, you're talking about elite sport here, it's not like small margins don't count, these are big, big things. You know you have to look into everything, the Irish team have a new management in place, Mick Kearney is gone... "I remember when I was involved, Dave the bus driver would drive the route the morning of it to time it and make sure everything was right. It's not like your local rugby team or GAA team where you just rock up, this is the national team and everything that goes around it." 

Now we are not saying that the late arrival to Murrayfield resulted in the lethargic opening 25 minutes, but it couldn't have helped. It must have been an incredibly frustrating moment for Joe Schmidt, considering that the 51-year-old prides himself on the level of detail and meticulous planning which goes into all facets of his management and coaching. Looking ahead, we can't imagine a situation like this happening again. For Schmidt and the rest of his coaching staff, they have plenty more important things to concentrate on this week as they look to best prepare their side for an improved performance against the Italians this weekend.