WHAT NEXT FOR Joe Schmidt?
The Ireland head coach’s future beyond this year’s World Cup remains something of a mystery, although we do know now that the New Zealand native plans to take at least 12 months out of coaching.
It’s quite clear that Schmidt’s initially-stated intention to “finish coaching” does not mean permanent retirement from the game and the fact that his wife is joking about him lasting only 12 days before he gets the coaching itch says it all.
All Blacks boss Steve Hansen confirmed last month that he will step down after the World Cup too and New Zealand Rugby has yet to make an announcement on his successor.
Schmidt, as a Kiwi and one of the leading coaches in the world, is an obvious contender next year or further down the line, but he insisted yesterday that he doesn’t have a great interest in coaching the All Blacks.
“Not really,” said Schmidt at the Six Nations launch in London. “I don’t want to bore you with the whole history of it but I’m an incredibly accidental coach. Even when I started coaching, it was when I first started teaching.
“I’d been playing a bit of basketball and obviously as a point guard I’m not the biggest man but when I first started at Palmerston North Boys’ High, I got asked by Dave Sims, the rector.
“Well, I didn’t really get asked, I got told that I needed to be involved in the co-curricular life of the school and I said, ‘Look, I’d love to coach basketball’ and he said, ‘That’s brilliant, that’s on Friday nights, it won’t affect your rugby coaching on Saturday mornings.’
“At the time I was playing on the wing for Manawatu, the provincial team, and it kind of went from there.
“So I love the game, I’ve played it from the time I was four years old.
“It’s not that I don’t love the game, I just think that it wasn’t an intended career and I just have a few priorities that just kind of re-shaped my thinking a little bit.
“At the same time, to be honest, you can’t keep riding your luck. I’ve had an unbelievable time in the game, whether it be with Bay of Plenty in the Ranfurly Shield or even when we finished up with the Blues with that last [Super Rugby] semi-final, I thought it was a really good step and the Bouclier de Brennus in France and with Leinster, and now with Ireland… I think you’ve got to run out of luck at some stage.”
- Originally published at 06.45
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Can we make him Taoiseach?
@Bungee Aky: I’m not sure the opposition or front benchers would take too kindly to the intense video analysis!
@Alan Hughes: go back to the telly you
@Alan Hughes: “Varadkar! You didn’t fulfill your role!”
@Bungee Aky: He doesn’t deserve that.
Isn’t it great that we don’t have a clown like jones in charge, a guy who can’t handle losing and thinks people are unable to see through his Trumpesque prematch nonsense, is happy to cheat and will do anything for an advantage. Joe is a classy guy, hard working and humble, doesn’t take an ounce of the credit that he should and oozes class. He is as magnanimous in defeat as he is in victory and as a rugby fan results are important but they are not everything. Form is temporary, class is permanent, people need to remember that when Their team has a bad run of results.
@Bungee Aky: I quite enjoy Eddie, how boring would the rugby world be if everyone was like Schmidt…no one would bother watching
@Jimmy Boots: Rugby is perfectly enjoyable on the field and the excitement of rugby doesn’t have anything to do with a coach trying to unsettle individual players from opposition teams in the lead up to a game in a schoolboy attempt at mind games. Maybe you just identify with the lack of class that Eddie Jones brings to the table.
@Bungee Aky: He is like the Trump of rugby because he knows the things he says will get everyone talking. These people feed off of everyone getting riled up over their comments, and it works every time.
@Jimmy Boots: The recent obsession with the coaches antics constantly distracts from the actual rugby – take the antics away and you would have rugby, and lot less lazy journalism where they can just talk about the coach, rather than actually analyse the game, in preview or review.
@Bungee Aky: If people are able “to see through his prematch nonsense” then I don’t think we need to worry about professional players being “unsettled”. Jones clearly rubs people the wrong way. Have you met him? I did, on a field after Japan hammered Korea in Seoul. He stayed around for hours on the field chatting to people from all over who’d come to see the game just to see him. He’d see whatever jersey you were wearing and lead off into a conversation. Jones was just back in rugby after suffering a stroke. A couple of Aussies even abused him over 2003. These are not the actions of a “clown” and someone who doesn’t understand class. I’m willing to believe the Jones away from a mic is a decent bloke.
@Sam Harms: not really, it’s the media that love him because he gives the rugby correspondents something to write about 10 days before a game when there is nothing to write about.
@Bungee Aky: Eddie is perfect Pantomime villain. I really want us to smash England even moee because of him!
A great and humble man. What a successful career he’s had, accidental or not. Can’t say enough about him, except to wish him more success for the future, perhaps as Lions coach?
The man talks about luck but he makes his own through hard work
How is the man not wrecked and drained out, coaching at the highest levels for so many years, my nerves would be shot
I listened to Schmidt on the Sky Sports podcast when the 6 nations KO was taking place and it was clear that he wants to spend more time with his young son who suffers from epilepsy.
It was an articulate interview and fair play to him for making the call.
I really hope he doesn’t coach the All Blacks. No one would stand a chance of beating them.
@Gustave H: Ireland would stand the best chance.
Phew
Anyone else think they went to Portugal with one eye on the world cup in Japan? Similar heat and humidity. I know they’re preparing for the six nations but I wonder was that the reason they went there for training camp and not carton house
Another world cup flop and NZ wont want him