WE ARE ALL shaped by the people we meet, the books we read, the experiences we have.
Joe Schmidt and every other rugby coach in the world are the same – each builds their own philosophy and belief system as they develop, but every fellow coach they interact with leaves a mark.
Schmidt worked under Cotter for years. Billy Stickland / INPHO
Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
Sometimes the learning coach will take away a lesson that informs their own work later in their career. At other times, the budding tactician might see in a more experienced coach an attribute or habit they themselves never want to possess.
For Joe Schmidt, the influences before he came to Leinster to truly make his name were multiple, but current Scotland boss Vern Cotter was chief among them.
Their friendship is decades old, and the pair first worked together in a coaching capacity at Bay of Plenty in their native New Zealand in 2003, when Cotter brought Schmidt into the provincial set-up as his assistant coach.
They parted ways in 2004 but were reunited as soon as 2007, when Cotter again asked Schmidt to be his assistant coach. This time the location was Clermont-Ferrand in France, with the duo eventually guiding ASM to their first Top 14 title in 2010.
Having had a stint with the Blues in Super Rugby [working as an assistant to Peter Sloane and then current IRFU performance director David Nucifora] between 2004 and 2007, Schmidt finally felt ready at that post-Top 14 title point to go his own way.
He has faced his former boss Cotter, four years his senior, on several occasions both as Leinster coach and now with Ireland. Schmidt has had victory in both of the meetings with Cotter’s Scots so far, but this time the Six Nations rivals feel better prepared than ever.
If Schmidt is to beat the Scots for a third time, it’s quite certain that some of the coaching expertise he calls on to do so will have been learned from Cotter at some point along the journey to here.
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When asked what the most important thing he learned from Cotter was, Schmidt paused for a long time to consider, initially joking about the Scotland head coach’s impressive knowledge of wine.
“There’s a number of things… most important?” says Schmidt.
“I just found that he was a fantastic foil for me and that we actually enjoyed each other’s company and that we offered different things to the team as far as coaching was concerned.
Cotter is a stern character. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
“I learned so many things from him, just about being decisive, just about trying to grow the key leaders in a team if you’re going to have a strong decision-making group on the pitch.
“I’ve never really understood the tight play, so he couldn’t really teach me that! But they seemed to be making really good efforts, that’s what forwards do. Between the two of us, I think that we really enjoyed coaching together. When you enjoy doing something with a group, you’re always learning.
“Just being decisive, being clear in what you deliver. Even being clear in what you deliver to a non-selected player versus a selected player versus the strategy for the weekend, or whatever.
“I just found that he had a real ability to crystallise messages and deliver them. There’s some things that I learned that I’m not, that I don’t try to do that he is. He drives an environment. Les yeux de glaces was his nickname in France, the eyes of ice.
“He didn’t have to say to much for you to know he was unhappy. I think that his presence is such that he does certainly drive a group incredibly well. He’d had some really good rugby experiences as well. He’d played in France a lot and had two incredibly successful years with the Crusaders when they were Super Rugby champions both years.
“That strategy and rugby intellect that he was part of, along with Robbie Deans, was something else. It’s probably hard to specify and quantify, because a lot of it is almost by osmosis. You spend a fair bit of time coaching together, you pick things up and you probably don’t specifically say, ‘Oh, I learned that today.’
“They just merge as part of your coaching character because you’ve absorbed lessons from other people. I absorbed a lot from VC.”
That Cotter should help Schmidt become a more decisive character has been vital to his success in Ireland. His players love him and the Kiwi is known to be a nice man away from rugby, but he can be as ruthless as anyone in making big decisions with Ireland.
One gets the impression that Schmidt, the former school teacher, gradually grew into that decisiveness, something he clearly saw and respected in Cotter. Now Schmidt might just be one of the most decisive coaches in the game.
His latest big call was to pull Josh van der Flier from his starting team after the Leinster flanker’s first two caps, sending Tommy O’Donnell out to face the Scots in Dublin tomorrow instead.
O'Donnell starts at openside tomorrow. Billy Stickland / INPHO
Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
“When he came into the environment at the beginning of the Six Nations; I said to him, ‘Josh, this is a great learning opportunity for you, a little bit akin to, say, Robbie Henshaw,’” says Schmidt when asked how van der Flier took the selection call.
“‘You’re here, have a look at Sean O’Brien and Tommy O’Donnell. This is a great window for you to train and learn from these guys, because we think you have a future with us’
“There was never any indication that he was going to get an opportunity to go out and start a Test match and I know he’s disappointed because he is a real competitor and he has played really well. So I totally understand his disappointment.
“I know that Tommy is fresh and enthused by the opportunity and when we announced the team this morning, he was really bubbling at training and that’s how you want people going into a Test match. You want them really excited about what’s coming up and there’s no doubt that Josh would have been excited, but he didn’t finish training on Monday.
“It has been a bit attritional for a young guy who, let’s face it, last year wasn’t playing a lot of Pro12 even during the Six Nations period. That’s when the couple of windows of opportunities emerged. Twelve months later, he has put back-to-back Tests together and he’s come a long way in a very short space of time.”
So too has Schmidt since leaving Clermont and Cotter in 2010. As the pair drink a nice bottle of Cotter-selected wine on Saturday night, the Scotland boss might reflect that he helped created this beast.
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'Les yeux de glaces was his nickname in France, the eyes of ice'
WE ARE ALL shaped by the people we meet, the books we read, the experiences we have.
Joe Schmidt and every other rugby coach in the world are the same – each builds their own philosophy and belief system as they develop, but every fellow coach they interact with leaves a mark.
Sometimes the learning coach will take away a lesson that informs their own work later in their career. At other times, the budding tactician might see in a more experienced coach an attribute or habit they themselves never want to possess.
For Joe Schmidt, the influences before he came to Leinster to truly make his name were multiple, but current Scotland boss Vern Cotter was chief among them.
Their friendship is decades old, and the pair first worked together in a coaching capacity at Bay of Plenty in their native New Zealand in 2003, when Cotter brought Schmidt into the provincial set-up as his assistant coach.
They parted ways in 2004 but were reunited as soon as 2007, when Cotter again asked Schmidt to be his assistant coach. This time the location was Clermont-Ferrand in France, with the duo eventually guiding ASM to their first Top 14 title in 2010.
Having had a stint with the Blues in Super Rugby [working as an assistant to Peter Sloane and then current IRFU performance director David Nucifora] between 2004 and 2007, Schmidt finally felt ready at that post-Top 14 title point to go his own way.
He has faced his former boss Cotter, four years his senior, on several occasions both as Leinster coach and now with Ireland. Schmidt has had victory in both of the meetings with Cotter’s Scots so far, but this time the Six Nations rivals feel better prepared than ever.
If Schmidt is to beat the Scots for a third time, it’s quite certain that some of the coaching expertise he calls on to do so will have been learned from Cotter at some point along the journey to here.
When asked what the most important thing he learned from Cotter was, Schmidt paused for a long time to consider, initially joking about the Scotland head coach’s impressive knowledge of wine.
“There’s a number of things… most important?” says Schmidt.
“I just found that he was a fantastic foil for me and that we actually enjoyed each other’s company and that we offered different things to the team as far as coaching was concerned.
“I learned so many things from him, just about being decisive, just about trying to grow the key leaders in a team if you’re going to have a strong decision-making group on the pitch.
“I’ve never really understood the tight play, so he couldn’t really teach me that! But they seemed to be making really good efforts, that’s what forwards do. Between the two of us, I think that we really enjoyed coaching together. When you enjoy doing something with a group, you’re always learning.
“Just being decisive, being clear in what you deliver. Even being clear in what you deliver to a non-selected player versus a selected player versus the strategy for the weekend, or whatever.
“I just found that he had a real ability to crystallise messages and deliver them. There’s some things that I learned that I’m not, that I don’t try to do that he is. He drives an environment. Les yeux de glaces was his nickname in France, the eyes of ice.
“He didn’t have to say to much for you to know he was unhappy. I think that his presence is such that he does certainly drive a group incredibly well. He’d had some really good rugby experiences as well. He’d played in France a lot and had two incredibly successful years with the Crusaders when they were Super Rugby champions both years.
“That strategy and rugby intellect that he was part of, along with Robbie Deans, was something else. It’s probably hard to specify and quantify, because a lot of it is almost by osmosis. You spend a fair bit of time coaching together, you pick things up and you probably don’t specifically say, ‘Oh, I learned that today.’
“They just merge as part of your coaching character because you’ve absorbed lessons from other people. I absorbed a lot from VC.”
That Cotter should help Schmidt become a more decisive character has been vital to his success in Ireland. His players love him and the Kiwi is known to be a nice man away from rugby, but he can be as ruthless as anyone in making big decisions with Ireland.
One gets the impression that Schmidt, the former school teacher, gradually grew into that decisiveness, something he clearly saw and respected in Cotter. Now Schmidt might just be one of the most decisive coaches in the game.
His latest big call was to pull Josh van der Flier from his starting team after the Leinster flanker’s first two caps, sending Tommy O’Donnell out to face the Scots in Dublin tomorrow instead.
“When he came into the environment at the beginning of the Six Nations; I said to him, ‘Josh, this is a great learning opportunity for you, a little bit akin to, say, Robbie Henshaw,’” says Schmidt when asked how van der Flier took the selection call.
“‘You’re here, have a look at Sean O’Brien and Tommy O’Donnell. This is a great window for you to train and learn from these guys, because we think you have a future with us’
“There was never any indication that he was going to get an opportunity to go out and start a Test match and I know he’s disappointed because he is a real competitor and he has played really well. So I totally understand his disappointment.
“I know that Tommy is fresh and enthused by the opportunity and when we announced the team this morning, he was really bubbling at training and that’s how you want people going into a Test match. You want them really excited about what’s coming up and there’s no doubt that Josh would have been excited, but he didn’t finish training on Monday.
“It has been a bit attritional for a young guy who, let’s face it, last year wasn’t playing a lot of Pro12 even during the Six Nations period. That’s when the couple of windows of opportunities emerged. Twelve months later, he has put back-to-back Tests together and he’s come a long way in a very short space of time.”
So too has Schmidt since leaving Clermont and Cotter in 2010. As the pair drink a nice bottle of Cotter-selected wine on Saturday night, the Scotland boss might reflect that he helped created this beast.
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