Joe Schmidt still had Wayne Barnes on his mind at today’s team announcement

The poor man is driven to distraction by Wayne.

Ireland coach Joe Schmidt attempted to move on from the controversy surrounding Wayne Barne's performance, during his team's 23-16 loss to Wales, last weekend. However, try as he might, the New Zealander had to argue his point. SportsJOE has extensively covered the refereeing debacle that was the final scrum at the Millennium Stadium, when Ireland were penalised despite numerous Welsh infringements. Schmidt was asked, at today's team announcement, about that crucial set-piece call. He said, 'For us it's about going forward now.' Schmidt paused momentarily before continuing:

'Obviously Wayne was on the touch [judge duty] against Italy and made a scrum call in that game. He was refereeing in the French game and he'll referee us again. We've seen a fair bit of Wayne during the championship and I think it's important that we keep trying to work with the referees so they understand what we're trying to achieve and at the same time we try to work on what they're doing as well.'

Schmidt added, 'The only conversation I've had with referees is trying to make sure we keep working together to try to get a really consistency and understanding about those facets.' Asked if he had concerns about the scrum, heading into the Scottish game, Schmidt opted to glance back at the Welsh encounter. 'We don't believe that there are concerns,' he said. 'We believe that Jack McGrath is very correct in the scrum. He tends to keep his hip in, tends not to take the angle. It's difficult for any loose-head if they're dominating that side of the scrum, it's inevitably going to come up. There's pressure on two shoulders on the tight-head, only one on the loose-head so there's a natural tendency that the axis of the scrum will turn up on the loose-head side. If you're dominating on that side it's very difficult. 'We just challenge ourselves to keep the axis balanced and try to power through both sides, but it's difficult when the opposition are moving around in front of you.' We have a feeling, here at SportsJOE, that Schmidt's referee report to the Six Nations - posted/emailed off today - makes for an interesting read.