Schmidt not giving anything away

Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt has offered his players little indication of who is in line to play against Wales in Cardiff next weekend.

Ulster lock Iain Henderson says Schmidt is "keeping us in the dark" about selection ahead of one of four World Cup warm-ups that Ireland will play.

They play Wales at the Millennium Stadium next Saturday (8th August), before facing Scotland, Wales again in Dublin and England.

Schmidt has so far refused to reduce his training group with 30 days to go before he must name a 31-man squad for the World Cup.

"Joe is so hard to predict when it comes to selecting squads," Henderson told Press Association Sport.

"He keeps us on our toes at all times, so it's typical of him to be keeping us in the dark and that's what's happening now.

"It's making everyone work harder and harder all the time, and that in turn probably puts more pressure on him just to make those selections decisions.

"We're not even sure what the squad will be like for next weekend's game yet: Joe has kept us in the dark on that, and no doubt that's deliberate."

Ireland will go into the World Cup expecting to perform well and have their best chance yet to reach a World Cup semi-final.

They take on Canada on 19th September, before also playing France, Italy and Romania in Pool D.

They are double RBS 6 Nations champions and Schmidt has recently signed a contract extension keeping him on board until June 2017.

And he could be expected to hand fringe players an opportunity to impress during the warm-ups, and Henderson expects the players to continue to be kept guessing until the early part of next week.

"Joe wouldn't be doing anything if he didn't have a logical explanation for it," said Henderson.

"If you were to take the time and ask him why we were doing specific things then he would always have an answer for that.

"He's meticulous in his planning - everything we do is for a reason.

"Again, that's just another way of everyone staying sharp and on their toes.

"It builds that competition again - there's absolutely no chance of anyone thinking they can have an easy week expecting not to play next weekend or anything like that.

"In a way it allows you to focus completely on what is happening day by day."