Talk of Ireland being favourites to retain their Six Nations championship crown is a distraction head coach Joe Schmidt is doing his best to ignore.
The holders, who open their campaign against Italy in Rome on Feb. 7, have won seven matches in succession, including November victories over southern hemisphere big guns South Africa and Australia.
But Schmidt said that, with this being World Cup year, every team in the tournament are likely to have improved.
“Being labelled a favourite? We were unaware of that until this morning to be honest because you do live in a bit of a bubble,” Schmidt told reporters at the Six Nations media launch on Wednesday.
“For us to be favourites is a distraction, it’s somebody’s speculation...,” he added.
Ireland have been installed as joint favourites to win the Six Nations championship by several bookmakers, including William Hill who have them at odds of 15-8 along with England.
“We try to stay focused on one game at a time. If I was to speculate I might come up with a different favourite,” added Schmidt.
Ireland have risen to third in the world rankings, behind world champions New Zealand and South Africa who they beat 29-15 in Dublin in November.
“You just try and get better at what you are doing, the peripheral things that occur... rankings, or tag of favourites I don’t think either of those are going to tangibly add value to performances,” added Schmidt.
Ireland flyhalf Johnny Sexton is almost certain to miss the Italy game because of concussion protocols and Schmidt said he would not be risked until he was fully ready to return.
The Racing Metro player must observe a 12-week lay-off period but Schmidt hopes he could be available when France visit Dublin on Feb. 14.
“Johnny is feeling great. He’s been training with Racing Metro doing everything but full contact.
“Bearing that in mind, he should be back but with it being a big year... anything to do with concussion, we want to make sure he is as well looked after as he can be and that the right sort of opinions have been sought.
“It’s really important to be patient and to make sure he’s fully recovered and we adhere to the 12-week period.”
Schmidt is hopeful that scrumhalf Conor Murray will recover from a neck injury in time to line up against Italy.
“He’s feeling really good. We’re quietly confident. He’s got a few further things to tick off. Hopefully he will be ok,” sadid Schmidt.
Following the clashes with Italy and France, Ireland host England before trips to Wales and Scotland as they seek to win back-to-back titles for the first time since 1949.
