Bernard Jackman believes the upcoming Nations Championship can be the perfect springboard for Ireland ahead of next year’s Rugby World Cup, if Andy Farrell’s side get off to a good start.
The new competition will be played cross the traditional summer and November Test windows, culminating in a finals weekend in London later this year.
Ireland take on Australia in Sydney this Saturday, before facing Japan in Newcastle and New Zealand in Auckland, while they host Argentina, Fiji and South Africa in November, before the finals take place at Twickenham.
“I think back to the last World Cup, and I know it ended in disappointment, but Ireland were in a really good place at the last World Cup, and the summer 12 months beforehand they’d gone to New Zealand and won a series,” Jackman told the RTÉ Rugby podcast.
“If Ireland beat Australia, it’s not going to be a gamechanger in terms of belief, but certainly to beat Australia and beat New Zealand, and obviously Japan, would be a real nice bolt onto what was a good finish to the Six Nations.
“I think, then, that confirms that this squad is in a really good place; age profile, style of play, everything is then bang on, and then you’ve got obviously the second part of this competition in November, and then you have the Six Nations, and then you’re leading towards the World Cup, so I think from that point of view, it could give us a real shot in the arm.”
While the third of the July fixtures sees Ireland taking on the All Blacks at Eden Park, a ground New Zealand haven’t lost a Test at since 1994, Farrell’s side arguably have a favourable touring schedule compared to the other Six Nations sides.
England and Scotland have to travel to both South Africa and Argentina, as well as a game against Fiji at home which creates an arduous travel plan, while France will be in New Zealand and Australia without some of their key players, including Antoine Dupont.
“From an Irish player’s point of view, I think it could be set up really nicely to beat Australia, beat Japan, and then go and have a crack off New Zealand who obviously will be three games in themselves,” Jackman added.
“They play France this weekend. So you’re going to get a good version of New Zealand. I think they’ll be primed and it’ll give us a real good barometer of where we’re at.
“I think it can give us a real boost to our confidence if we can go and have a really good three weeks.
“It’s very hard on the bodies, and I think we’ve been incredibly lucky. I know there’s a little bit of discontent in Japan that that game has been played in Newcastle in Australia, rather than in Japan, that they’re having to travel to play us there. We’ve certainly got the rub of the green on this occasion.
“You’d imagine in two years’ time, it mightn’t be as good for us, but it’s just part and parcel of it now. And as I said it’s the cash cow of the game.
“It’s going to be interesting how Ireland are physically for the first game because the provinces, three of the provinces were knocked out quite early. I mean, they had a little bit of rest and they were doing some training in the province.
“Then they’re coming up to the high performance centre to get some sessions in. So theoretically they should be pretty fresh, maybe lacking a bit of game time, if anything.
“So they’ve had effectively a week and a half in Australia to acclimatise, to get some sessions in, which is brilliant prep for the first game in Sydney.”
Irish Rugby performance directory David Humphreys and head coach Andy Farrell watch training in Sydney
In previous years, Ireland have started campaigns well under Farrell, but looked slow out of the blocks both in last November’s Tests matches, and in the Six Nations, where they were easily beaten by France.
And Jackman says there is no room for a similar stutter if Ireland have designs on becoming the Nations Championship’s inaugural winners later this year.
“I remember meeting Andy Farrell on a Friday in Chicago [before playing the All Blacks], and he was so confident that they were going to perform because apparently the training had been as good as it had ever been with Ireland.
“He thought they were locked and loaded, and then it was a big shock that they underperformed in November, the French game again came kind of out of the blue in terms of how we weren’t ready for that physical onslaught and a speed of mind that the French had in comparison to us.
“So I definitely think he’s taken note of that and he’d be making sure that they have tailored or maybe changed their prep to make sure that they actually are ready. And I think that’s why they went down a little bit earlier.
“It’ll be really important to them that they hit the ground running.
“He’d want us to have three really good performances back to back and start quickly.
“I’m fascinated to see how Ireland play,” he said.
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