WHEN FIGURES OF the standing of Brian O’Driscoll and Isa Nacewa come out and offer critiques about a coach they respect as much as Joe Schmidt, one must sit up and take notice.
Nacewa is a long-time disciple of Schmidt’s, under whom he enjoyed major success. Indeed, Nacewa played a central role in the New Zealander coming to Ireland in the first place to take up the head coach role with Leinster.
They went on to win back-to-back Heineken Cups together in an unprecedented period of success in provincial rugby before Schmidt moved on to the Ireland job to enjoy even more glory.
Nacewa has repeatedly and strongly praised the qualities that made Schmidt a world-class coach and a proven winner.
Nacewa certainly won’t have enjoyed analysing the downfall of Schmidt’s Ireland but he is always honest and his comments on Will Greenwood’s Rugby Podcast on Sky Sports this week were jarring for that very reason.
Nacewa has never come across as someone who seeks headlines or looks to stick the knife into someone he is fond of.
Similarly, O’Driscoll enjoyed an extremely close relationship with Schmidt in Leinster and then into Ireland as they won Six Nations titles. Schmidt’s impact on him was part of the reason the legendary centre played on for one more year before retirement.
Again, O’Driscoll is unlikely to have enjoyed reflecting on Ireland’s World Cup exit when speaking to Off the Ball this week but he did offer some honest insight into why things may have gone so badly wrong for Schmidt’s Ireland in 2019.
No one can argue that Ireland were not hugely successful under Schmidt before this year, even if some had misgivings about the style of play, but surely no one could disagree that Ireland declined in 2019 and failed to perform at the World Cup.
Schmidt’s 15-minute press conference immediately post-match last weekend after the heavy defeat to the All Blacks was never going to provide the answers as to what had gone wrong.
Schmidt opted not to have another media briefing before departing Japan, instead speaking to a small bunch of reporters for a few minutes in Dublin Airport when the squad arrived home on Tuesday evening.
So Nacewa and O’Driscoll’s theories are worth listening to, especially given that both remain in touch with players in Schmidt’s squad.
Nacewa was critical of what he perceived to be Ireland’s conservative playing style, suggesting that Leinster’s more unstructured focus under Start Lancaster and Leo Cullen in the 2017/18 season had a fleeting influence on Schmidt’s Ireland before the national team head coach fully reverted to his more familiar, more structured style.
O’Driscoll offered an opinion along similar lines, expanding on the point even more.
“I wonder – I’ve been thinking about this – I wonder with Stuart Lancaster coming in [to Leinster] and his focus being very different to Joe’s, did that upset the apple cart a little bit?” said O’Driscoll on Off the Ball.
“Because he was very much about unstructured play rather than Joe’s focus around set-piece and did that cast a few doubts into the players’ minds as to what way they needed to train and what they needed to focus on? I wonder did that dynamic change things a little bit.
“You can’t stop a coach’s personal beliefs on how the game should be played. Leinster players, you hear under Leo Cullen and Stuart Lancaster, everything is about unstructured chaos and the launch plays are used to get into that unstructured play and that’s the vast majority of the game.
“Whereas Joe has been very much a set-piece orientated guy… They’re not as effective off broken-field play.
“It’s just a dynamic that I’ve been thinking about over the last couple of days as to where it might have all gone wrong and that’s just maybe an opinion. I don’t necessarily think that is true but I just wonder is there something in it.
“When the Leinster lads in particular always focused on what Joe was doing with total, 100% self-belief in that and then, all of a sudden, you get another version of success and you think ‘this is really good as well,’ I wonder if there something in that.
“Does that detract from the former? I don’t know, you’d have to ask the players.”
Ireland’s players won’t be available to answer any such questions for some time, of course, and will by then be back in provincial colours, keen to focus on games of a different sort.
Peter O’Mahony spoke very briefly to the media at Dublin Airport on Tuesday and was asked for his general view of Ireland’s defeat to New Zealand but confessed that he hadn’t watched it back and wasn’t in a position to comment on anything in relation to the game.
In truth, it would be very difficult for players in Schmidt’s squad to deliver any honest opinions or facts on this World Cup or Ireland’s 2019, and we may have to wait for the autobiographies for that.
Those same books will also likely include much deserved praise for the Schmidt reign and the impact the Kiwi coach has had on so many of the players who travelled to Japan to the World Cup to give it their best shot.
There can be no doubting the sheer effort and commitment that went into this World Cup but if Irish rugby is to finally improve in this competition, the review process has to be as honest as possible and the opinions of heavyweights like Nacewa and O’Driscoll are worth listening to.
On the latest episode of The42 Rugby Weekly, Andy Dunne tells Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey about where it all went wrong for Joe Schmidt’s Ireland
