Joe not yet ready for Ireland’s call

Leinster coach Joe Schmidt has left the door ajar on coaching Ireland in the future — but says his current job “is pretty fulfilling and all-encompassing”.

The hottest coach in European rugby is being widely tipped as Declan Kidney’s successor on the national ticket but in an interview with Donal Lenihan is a special 48-page Heineken Cup season preview, with tomorrow’s Irish Examiner, Schmidt reveals: “I’m not saying that if the Irish job came up I wouldn’t entertain it. I’d be flattered if they [the IRFU] thought I had something to offer, but I’ve got a super playing and management staff at Leinster. We complement each other and I have benefited from that.”

Schdmit was asked by Lenihan would he make himself available if the union came calling: “Not at the moment. [But] it would be a super opportunity as there is a good group there; Declan has a good group of coaches, especially Less Kiss and Gert Smal. I don’t set goals and the immediacy of what I am doing is pretty fulfilling and all-encompassing.”