Joe Schmidt does things his way, that's hardly any surprise at this stage. While the World Cup has put a bit of a dent in Schmidt's 'untouchable' status, the vast majority of fans are still very much on the side of 'Joe the Messiah' as opposed to the George Hook camp of 'Joe the chancer'.
Regardless of the worrying trend of players heading for England and France, when the Six Nations kicks off, the vast majority of Irish Rugby's problems will be quickly forgotten. Either that or it will be horribly exacerbated and the hyperbole will go into overdrive, but we won't think about that.
The point is that for all the worry and the World Cup fallout, the magnitude of going for three Six Nations' titles in a row is not lost on anyone. Least of all the players.
The likes of O'Driscoll and O'Connell may be gone but the desire to pull on a green jersey is as strong as ever, even for those that were born elsewhere. When Schmidt named Ireland's Six Nations squad last week, there were few surprises in store. Garry Ringrose aside, we largely knew what we were going to get. However that's not to say there weren't a few rumours to keep us on our toes in the build up to the announcement.
They turned out to be erroneous, but there was some suggestions that CJ Stander may in fact miss out on the final 35 man squad. It would have been unthinkable given his form for Munster this season but it was always a possibility until the final call was made. Ireland fans may have worried but at least the players themselves would have known. Actually no, they didn't. Including Stander who, having not been part of the setup until this point, may have been expecting some advance notice. Nope, he had to wait until the final moments before he knew, just like everyone else.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner today, it's fair to say he didn't really enjoy the wait.
We got an e-mail, like five minutes before the media knew.
I was stressed, very stressed, it was a difficult two or three nights before that because there’s a lot of questions in your head but just to get that e-mail... I worked hard to get there and now I want to put hand up and see where it goes from there.
We have absolutely no idea why Schmidt couldn't give the likes of Stander a heads up in advance but he's not exactly the kind of man who changes how he does things so Stander will just have to get used to that over the next couple of years. And if it results in a few more Six Nations titles, no one is going to complain about some of Schmidt's more quirky mannerisms.
