Rory Keane reports from Johannesburg
JOE SCHMIDT INSISTS he has made no plans over his long-term future after reports in New Zealand linked him with a potential move to the Highlanders in 2018.
Highlanders chief executive Roger Clark told Newstalk ZB earlier this week:
“I’ve gone round and deliberately contacted coaches like Schmidt overseas and talked to all of them to see what their thinking is around coming back to New Zealand and also coaching the Highlanders.”
Schmidt’s current contract with the IRFU ends in June 2017 but the Kiwi, who coached at Bay of Plenty and the Auckland Blues before making his name in Europe with Clermont and Leinster, has denied that he will taking up a job with the reigning Super Rugby champions.
“No, that was on the back of one conversation that Roger Clark had with me and I have made absolutely no commitment to the Highlanders,” said Schmidt at the Irish team’s base in Johannesburg yesterday.
I’ve made no commitment to anyone other than my current employers.”
The Highlanders appointed attack coach Tony Brown as Jamie Joseph’s short-term successor for the 2017 season. Joseph is leaving to take up the head coaching
role with the Japanese national team after this season’s Super Rugby campaign.
Brown, who will link up with Joseph at Japan in 2018, was initially reluctant to take up the top job but has agreed to take charge at the Highlanders for one season with assistant coaches Scott McLeod and Mark Hammett providing support.
The Otago franchise will be seeking a new head coach after Brown leaves leading to the recent speculation that Schmidt would be coming on board.
“I think it happens to a lot of coaches every so often, because I think that the clubs are always forward planning,” Schmidt explained.
“Provinces, clubs, franchises know when their staff are coming off contract and therefore they often become aware of when other coaches are coming off contract. They find out whether there’s any interest or not.
I haven’t had any more than a very light conversation with Roger and I think they’ve done a super job down there at the Highlanders. I watched their semi-final and final last year, I don’t want to go in and muck them up anyway, they look like they’re doing just fine anyway by themselves.
“Tony Brown is a guy I know a bit and Scott McLeod and those guys are still going to be around there next year and I don’t think, for me, that it’s a distraction. I haven’t even given it any thought to be honest, because the conversation was just before the tour and I’ve very much got my hands full right now.”
Schmidt is currently trying to mastermind a third successive victory against the Springboks and an historic series-clinching win at Ellis Park this weekend.
His future is uncertain, but Schmidt hopes his impact on the Ireland set-up will reap dividends for seasons to come:
“Whatever happens, this is the full focus of my attention and the one thing I want to do no matter what happens in the future is I want to leave Irish rugby in as good a shape as possible.
“If that’s this time next year or if it’s in three years’ time, I’m not sure. All I know is that this is something we’ve got to try to do and we’re investing a lot of time and effort into, are the players, into trying to be as good with a broader group as we possibly can be.
“Hopefully, there’ll be some evidence of that this weekend. That evidence might not be sufficient to get over the line, but if we see some growth… I challenge anyone to say that they didn’t see growth and opportunity in the Stuart McCloskeys, the Josh van der Fliers, the guys who made their debuts through the Six Nations like Finlay Bealham, they’ve now gone on.
”A couple of them aren’t here, but they’re still a massive part of what we believe is the future of Irish rugby. This was always a chance for us to broaden that and no matter what happens, the coaching group as it is, are in great shape. I have less and less to do with it.”
Schmidt named an exciting and much-changed starting line-up yesterday with Craig Gilroy, Stuart Olding, Tadhg Furlong, Quinn Roux and Rhys Ruddock all earning promotions.
It was certainly another gutsy selection and Schmidt has backed his new-look side to make a big impression in the Johannesburg cauldron.
“I firmly commit to the decisions that we made and the players that we’ve selected and I trust that they’re going to go out and perform,” he added.
“But until you’ve actually got knee deep in the water and then waded out a little bit deeper you’re not quite sure whether you’re going to be able to swim or not. They’ve been knee deep for a while, they’ve had the opportunity to train and probably calibrate themselves within the system. Now they can calibrate themselves within the system in that really physical environment that trying to live with the Springboks is like.
“I think it’s really important that, for a number of reasons, we find out. I know and I fully accept the criticism of the World Cup. I’m not sure what people expected, losing our five most influential players the week before, and one of them two days before that quarter-final. And as I’ve always said I take nothing away from an outstanding Argentinian performance but I don’t want to go there again.
“I don’t want the team to be caught in a situation where we’ve got players who haven’t been in that white hot environment. And it’s throwing out the opportunity, dove-tailed with the challenge, [to find out] can they live there? And if they can that’s got to be good for us.”
