LIFE AFTER JOE. It’s coming down the line, although Ireland don’t know exactly when.
It may be at the expiration of his current contract on 30 June 2017, or it may be after the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
Perhaps Schmidt will stay on for even longer than that, building an era of leadership like that of Alex Ferguson – a man the Kiwi has referenced often – at Manchester United.
It’s difficult to imagine another coach in charge of Ireland at the moment, such is the influence Schmidt has on all levels of the game in this country.
The 50-year-old has altered the very lexicon of this rugby nation. We speak about accuracy and work-ons as though these were things we grew up focusing on and even the way Irish rugby players are assessed and credited has shifted in Schmidt’s time.
There is still delight taken in moments of pure skill and flair, or in the try scorer’s actions, but the rugby punter increasingly looks at players’ off-the-ball running, their ruck contributions and work rate as the vital factors too.
Who made life easier for that try scorer? Lengthening a ruck or subtly blocking a defender to give a teammate space is as satisfying as dotting down behind the tryline for most Irish players.
Sure, we still all clamour for all-out attack from time to time, but Schmidt’s influential way of viewing the game has filtered through the national team, the province and the support base.
Many would bemoan any Schmidt departure – his players most of all – though there is some fascination in pondering what Ireland would look like and how they would perform under a different coach.
One viewpoint ventures that they might not have won two Six Nations titles in three years. Others might suggest Ireland would have performed better at last year’s World Cup.
“If Joe did move on, it would be sad,” says his Ireland scrum coach Greg Feek. “Certainly we’d miss the video review meetings and things like that, but I can’t see it happening in the short-term anyway.”
Schmidt underlined again on Thursday that his family comes first and that element of any decision will rule over all others, something that must be respected. Until he makes his decision post-the tour of South Africa, Ireland must be patient.
The Kiwi head coach himself pointed out that a decision this summer is best for everyone, given that the search for a high-quality head coach to replace him will need to begin. The summer of 2017 will be just over two years out from the 2019 World Cup, so the players will need clarity on who the man leading them to that tournament will be.
“From a player’s point of view, you want to know what’s happening,” says captain Rory Best. “I don’t know if you can necessarily plan accordingly. I think for us, we really do go game to game and camp to camp.
“I don’t think there are too many players in this squad at the minute that are planning the next World Cup, certainly I’m not. Even the young kids, if you start to look too far ahead you start to lose focus on what’s important and what’s important is [today against Scotland] and then after that, from an Ireland point of view, it’s the summer tour.
“It’s probably more important for the IRFU and the coaching structure themselves that they get that. From our point of view, no matter what Joe does, we will enjoy and love playing under him until such time as he goes.
“Then after that it will be whatever coach comes next, you’ll adapt and you’ll take the positives and negatives from that and move on. Unfortunately, that’s the way it is. We would love Joe to stay, but whenever he moves on it’ll be, ‘Right, who’s next in charge and what can I do to impress him?’”
Such is the way in professional sports; life moves on quickly and with little sentiment. Emotional reflection is for the retired rugby player.
If Schmidt goes in 2017, he will leave a genuine legacy. That much is evident in the expectations around young players coming into the Ireland squad nowadays. Long gone is the era when an uncapped player was given leeway to take their time becoming familiar with how the national camp operated.
Young Irish players coming into the set-up now must be willing to work harder than anyone else.
“I think there’s a really, really good attitude about them,” said Best of Irish rugby’s emerging stars. “You look at, probably the easiest one because he’s been there the whole time, someone like Josh van der Flier.
“It’s almost got to the stage where you’re expecting to come down for breakfast in the morning and he’s going to be in a sleeping bag in the corner of the video room, because he just doesn’t leave the place. He just wants to continually work and improve and get better.
“That’s the sort of attitude that you get from these guys. Jack O’Donoghue came in and him and Josh were sitting with each other for an hour or an hour and a half in the video room, Josh getting him up to speed with what he needs to do in the back row.
“For me you could see it when somebody like Conor Murray came in. He wasn’t the best player there but there was just something about him. He had time on the ball and a mentality that he wanted to work hard to improve.
“And that, with the younger players we’ve got at the moment, that’s the attitude they have and if you’ve got that attitude it goes a long way to making a very good player as you can probably see with Conor now.”
Schmidt had never directly worked with van der Flier or O’Donoghue until this campaign of course, but the standards expected at the provinces have been fed down from the very top of Irish rugby.
Schmidt himself is famous for a relentless and sleepless approach to analysis, preparation and review, and never has it been so obvious that a leader sets the tone.
Not everyone loves all things about Schmidt and his Ireland team, and the Kiwi should absolutely not be exempt from criticism. This Six Nations has shown how quickly the tide of popularity can turn if results aren’t at a constant peak.
Who the hell would be a coach?
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