Joe Schmidt on his 'least desirable job' as Ireland coach

Ireland coach Joe Schmidt concedes that informing the members of his squad who will not be part of the 31-man group selected for the Rugby World Cup is "the least desirable part of my job".

"Many of those players will have worked hard for the past eight or nine weeks, but also for the last four years, to try and make the World Cup and they are desperately keen to be involved."

"You have to tell them as honestly as you can. That's all you can do. I'd like to meet them face to face but that is not practical, so it's going to have to be phone calls."