Nov 30,2024
There's an old story from Joe Schmidt’s first stint in Irish rugby, as a player-coach with a Midlands League club in the early 1990s, that hinted that he was always going to change the game in this country.
The then 25-year-old asked the coaches at Mullingar RFC if there were enough balls for a training session. Yes, plenty, came the reply, one for the backs and one for the forwards.
But Schmidt wanted a minimum of one ball for every two players. They even half-joked that this could be some sort of scam where he might rush off back to New Zealand with a bagful of balls.
His philosophy was strong back then and by the time he departed after his second stint in Ireland in 2019, everything was different; he not only changed how the game was played in Ireland but also how the game was thought about.
While his final year in charge was memorable for all the wrong reasons, it’s always worth recapping what happened beforehand.
He twice won the Champions Cup with Leinster, and claimed a Celtic League and a Challenge Cup before joining Ireland as head coach.
Schmidt led Ireland to back-to-back Six Nations titles in his first two seasons, a series win in Australia, a first-ever Test win away to the Springboks, and a historic victory over his native New Zealand in 2016.
Ireland were valedictorian Grand Slam champions in 2018 after beating France and England away from home, and the first home victory over the All Blacks at the end of the same year was another memorable achievement.
As the team departed for the 2019 World Cup, Ireland were number one in the world for the first time. That was as good as it got.
Despite the disappointing manner in which his tenure finish, his immediate legacy was obvious and tangible.
The 59-year-old Kiwi returns to face his old team tomorrow for the first time as a head coach, as Australia provide the opposition for the IRFU’s 150th anniversary match at Aviva Stadium.
He was, of course, part of Ian Foster’s New Zealand set-up when the All Blacks knocked Ireland out of the World Cup in France, his fingerprints all over the game plan that night in Paris.
Numerous players and coaches have this week spoken about the influence of Schmidt on the current Ireland team how his legacy lives on.
"Joe deserves all the accolades and probably more so when he comes back to Ireland because what he did for Irish rugby, not just here at the IRFU but over the road there at the RDS, was phenomenal," said Andy Farrell yesterday.
It wasn't just the pro game that benefitted from Schmidt's teachings with his methods and principles filtering down to all levels.
Emmet MacMahon was the head coach of St Michael’s College for seven years.
Past pupils of the Dublin school include Ireland internationals James Ryan, Rónan Kelleher, Ryan Baird, Dan Leavy, Ross and Harry Byrne, Luke McGrath and Max Deegan.
MacMahon, who also coached Terenure College, is now UDC RFC director of rugby and well placed to observe the Schmidt influence away from the professional side.
"At Michael’s, we would have heard about what Joe is doing at Leinster.
"I would hear people talk about 'feet, fight, finish’.
"A lot of that trickles down from players who would have worked under Joe, or in schools.
"He had those amazing [launch] plays but his level of detail on what would have been perceived as small parts of the game became the key part of the game.
"You’d hear things about the ball carrier being the 60% man, the most important thing and then your two bullets [supporting players], that terminology, the bullets being 20% importance after that.
"When we are playing against other schools, you’d hear that language and see other teams doing little things on micro details on the carry.
"Rather than just throw in the ball and say, 'we’re just going to play', it wasn’t just 'that guy is a good ball-carrier', it’s 'why is he a good ball-carrier'?
"Or 'why is that team playing with quick ball?' It’s because the carrier is doing a good job when he presents the ball."
Then there’s the more obvious stuff.
"Every team you are playing at a high level, at AIL or Schools Cup, they have power plays they are trying to run," he adds.
"The ball back inside, plays off dropouts, lineout-launch, there’s two or three of them a game and it would remind you of Joe’s era.
"You are just expecting that now, and you are preparing for it.
"That all probably wasn’t there 10 or 15 years ago. Now it’s a given.
"If you went into any team and you didn’t have them there would be players going mad."
The three head coaches at the Irish provinces have all worked with Schmidt.
Ulster boss Richie Murphy was a coach with Leinster and Ireland under Schmidt, Leinster’s Leo Cullen was captain for the two Champions Cup wins under the New Zealander.
Pete Wilkins (below) was a later arrival to the Irish system but after joining Connacht in 2017 as an assistant, he benefitted from Schmidt’s tutelage.
"Joe invited me to the national camp to observe for a couple of days. That was my first time seeing behind the scenes in terms of the environment he runs.
"Andy Farrell was there as a defence coach at that stage, and Joe was very open to the provincial coaches, even though I was just in the door, and wanting them to feel welcome and get aligned with how they were seeing rugby up there.
"He helped breed a winning mentality and to enable Irish supporters to genuinely believe that we’ve got as much right to success as anyone else.
"That belief came with trophies and a legacy but on the back of that there becomes an expectation and standards raised.
"That was tremendously important from his time here in terms of the detail and sophistication of the type of rugby that Ireland started to play under Joe and have since continued.
"You are seeing all four Irish provinces now with a version of that, we’ve all got our own stamp on it but there’s a genuine buy-in and belief in how the game can and should be played.
"Now, for young Irish players coming through the system, forwards are expected to be able to handle the ball, they are expected to be able to make decisions in attack and defence, in unstructured scenarios and to be able to absorb information and execute well on game day."
There’s no perfect game, Schmidt used to say, and there was no perfect tenure either.
For all that Josh van der Flier, Johnny Sexton, Paul O’Connell admired about Schmidt’s approach, there were players like Luke Fitzgerald and Andrew Porter who found the former schoolteacher’s methods overwhelming at times.
But that itself has a legacy and Farrell, who spent three years as defence coach under Schmidt, recognised that, as much as detail was vital, a player losing his hotel room key was not the end of the world, letting the lads off the leash now and again, not the worst thing that could happen.
The current players, now in a less regimented and more holistic programme, feel better able to express themselves on the field and that's part of the evolution under Farrell.
Schmidt’s legacy and influence is secure in Irish rugby and all that inside knowledge is now part of his arsenal as he bids to beat Ireland tomorrow and set up a fascinating teacher versus student three-Test Lions series next summer.
