FORMER IRELAND HEAD coach Joe Schmidt will spend a day coaching the Spanish national team as they prepare for their crucial Rugby Europe Championship clash against Georgia this weekend.
Schmidt, who left the Ireland job after last yearโs World Cup, has not yet committed to a new permanent job.
He will visit Spainโs training camp near Barcelona tomorrow to work with head coach Santiago Santosโ squad.
Spain opened the Rugby Europe Championship with a win away to Russia last weekend and are now preparing for Sundayโs clash with Georgia, the reigning back-to-back champions who hammered Romania 41-13 in the first round of fixtures.
While confirming that Schmidt will visit Spain camp tomorrow in order to provide a โmaster classโ and coach alongside Santos, the Federaciรณn Espaรฑola de Rugby also revealed that Schmidt will coach the Classic All Blacks against Spain next May.
That fixture is set to take place at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium in Madrid on May 29, with Schmidt set to lend his expertise to the Classic All Blacks, an invitational team made up of former New Zealand internationals.
The Spanish federation say almost 40,000 tickets have already been sold for that fixture in Madrid.
Spain will hope Schmidtโs visit to their national team tomorrow can provide them with a boost ahead of Sundayโs clash with Georgia at the Estadio Nacional Complutense in Madrid.
According to a report in La Montagne in France, ex-Leinster and Ireland boss Schmidt is also set to link up with former club Clermont on a two-week consultancy basis this month.
Elsewhere, on Saturday in the Rugby Europe Championship, Portugal host Romania, while Russia visit Belgium.
The only table they have topped in quite a while
The glazers.
With such a loss they still pay out 33m in dividends, robbers !
And Casemeiro claims he didnโt move there for the money. Laughable.
Itโs the American way. God knows who they owe this โdebt โ to. Anyone thinking club is in any danger is kidding themselves. They have repeatedly refused to cash in on naming rights to OT. Man utd is still a licence to print money.
All this info really shows is how ridiculously overpaid a huge amount of average players are
@Shane Obrien: As interest rates head up the debt will get worse. They need to invest ยฃ1B in stadium.
They took a punt by paying well over the odds for this summerโs signings. If they donโt make top for CL money debit will have to be amortised over a longer period, and stadium investment put on long finger.
No CL and stadium on long finger will put them in competitive disadvantage compared with CL clubs.