The most wanted man in Europe

WITH THE 2012/13 Heineken Cup to climax at the Aviva Stadium, only a few miles from where Joe Schmidt is chewing over the prospect, coping with the hype of an unprecedented third successive crown is one of many challenges facing the Leinster coach at present.

Donal Lenihan: What were your expectations when you arrived? Were you disappointed in any way with what you inherited from Michael Cheika or were you pleasantly surprised with what you found?

Joe Schmidt: “I was pleasantly surprised because you don’t know what’s beneath that top veneer and that top veneer, you cannot have it too thin. If it’s too thin you are in trouble given that a rugby player spends 17% of his time injured and therefore you don’t have to lose too many players to suddenly be under the pump.”

What surprised you when you started working with the squad?

“The set-up itself. Compared to what we have today, it was a very blue collar set-up. The weights room was very small and cramped and the platforms were squeezed in. There wasn’t a lot of room in there but there was a real atmosphere and an energy for work and an interesting odour obviously as well.

“Clermont had super facilities and in general the facilities for teams in France are spectacular, so facilities-wise it was a little bit different but work ethic wise it exceeded my expectations. The amount of effort that the players put in, they were continually looking for something that was going to improve and progress their game.

“One of the things that impressed me most was the top level player who came to me and said I want to improve this or that in my game and were demanding from you as a coach some help in finding solutions.”

Up to that point you were always a number two, a real hands-on coach. Did you feel now was the time to make the leap?

“No, it was the reason that I said no a couple of times. I was really happy being a number two. I am hands-on.”

Would it be fair to say, now that you know the system better, that you can step back and delegate a bit more?

“I am less involved this year in particular. I think that the other coaches are taking more of a role and that is fantastic as you need to keep on growing and giving your management group more responsibility.”

One of your ambitions was to make Leinster the best passing side in Europe. Myth or reality?

“I never meant for that to come out. It was one of the first things I said but I’m an incredibly poor goal setter. I don’t really have goals, we don’t even have season goals. Just like everyone else, what we would like to do is get silverware but we make targets for the week only and they tend to be performance based. We don’t tend to get too focused on things we can’t control.

“We did sit down at the start and got some things that we wanted to make sure that everyone bought in to. We wanted to be able to play across the park as well as up and down the park and one of the ways that you can play across the park is if everyone can handle the ball and deliver a pass. We try to play positively, regardless of whoever might be at second or third receiver, that they can still deliver a pass and play. Players need to adapt and play in different roles. I think that is very important.”

Is there an implication that you were disappointed with the skill levels you inherited?

“No it wasn’t that I expected them to be better, but one of the things with Clermont in that quarter-final at the RDS the year before, I felt that we played with a bit more width than Leinster did on that evening. I had studied and watched a lot of Leinster prior to that game and they just played differently and so I was just keen to grow the way they played. Just tweak it a little bit because they have the kind of guys who can multi-task very well.”

In your third season at the helm now, do you feel a necessity to change things in order to keep them fresh?

“I’m as driven as ever but I have delegated a bit more. Because I’m not a long-term planner, I’m a short-term thinker and a short-term doer. I like to get things done. I like to get out of bed and start things early and make sure that I’m really well prepared. I guess if things become stale they just become stale but it’s still really motivating.

“At the moment I’m driven by fear, now that there is this massive expectation level on the team and I want to buffer the team from that. I don’t want them to think in terms of expectation but to think in terms of what they need to do and action by action how they can influence a result.”

You can’t escape the fact that a hat-trick of Heineken Cups has never been achieved and that is going to be an unavoidable theme for your season.

“It’s probably less about three in a row than where the final is and wouldn’t it be great to be there? It’s in the Aviva Stadium. It’s become a home away from home but as soon as think about that, you can be distracted from what needs to be achieved right here, right now. You are always looking for progression and that happens with little steps. Honestly we wouldn’t be looking beyond Munster (today) and Exeter in the opening round of the Heineken.”

Where are Leinster in terms of their evolution? Munster left it a bit late to tweak things when they were at the top and Leinster also have a few players who have given massive service but are pushing on a bit.

“One of the plusses over the past few seasons has been able to keep the team together but that team includes people like Rhys Ruddock, Dominic Ryan and Andrew Conway who has finally been able to put a few games together. They are all 21. Dave Kearney is also a young player and there are a lot of very good young ones in amongst the more experienced and recognised Leinster 23. Ian Madigan is still a young player and while Jonny Sexton is in and out of the team due to the demands of the national team, you have to grow the depth of your squad. In the opening three games of the RaboDirect Pro 12 we used 38 different players and used fifty odd players over the last two seasons.”

Could vulnerability in the second row be an issue for you this season? After all Brad Thorn came in and did a brilliant job in the knockout stages last season but he is gone.

“Because Devin Toner didn’t go on the tour to New Zealand, he is probably in the best condition he has been in for a couple of years, so we are really hoping that he builds momentum and kicks on this season. Over the next two seasons he needs to cement himself as a top liner. We are pretty excited about new signings Tom Denton and Quinn Roux. We feel that there is some up side there while Damien Browne was a great soldier for us last year and is a big, strong man. He put a hole in a few guys for us when it was required. You know what you’re going to get from him. So we are reasonably comfortable with our second rows.”

Your Monday morning video review sessions have assumed legendary proportions at this stage. Just how brutal are they?

“They are blown out of proportion. On a Monday morning there is often a lot of positive stuff. I think what you can’t do is hide on the field because the opposition will hurt you. So you have to be honest and up front about how you performed and a lot of the review is system based and technique based and we are not looking to say that this is not good enough or that is not good enough.

“I guess you are not wishing to mention names but what you are saying is if this player hits this line and he can hold this space and if the quality of pass is right then we can get into this space and that’s where we can get that one on one that we are looking for or whatever.

“These ‘legends’ are all part of the fun of it. It’s a bit like Jonny Sexton’s half time talk in the 2011 final against Northampton. Jonny spoke really well but if you ask the players what he said, I’m sure not too many even knew. He was emotional. He was passionate and really believed in what he was saying. The reason it struck such a chord was that he went out and he did what he was demanding of others. He led from the front.”

With your New Zealand hat on, if you could nationalise one Irish player for the All Blacks, who would it be?

“I was talking to Jerome Kaino after the opening test between Ireland and New Zealand in June and Sean O’Brien would be right up there, while Cian Healy wouldn’t be far behind. Those two played really well. I have to say that I’m a bit of a Keith Earls fan and I think he is a really good player.”

Where would you play him?

“That’s a problem. I’m not sure because I don’t know Keith. I only see him on the screen or in a game playing against us. I think that he has a really good set of attributes to bring to a game. One thing that is hard to do is give someone speed and balance and I think that he has both those things, but Kaino was really impressed with O’Brien.”

While we’re on the international theme, if the IFRU came calling at the end of the season with a view to coaching Ireland, would you be available?

“Not at the moment, to be honest. It would be a super opportunity as I think there is a good group there. Declan has a good group of coaches with him, especially in Les Kiss and Gert Smal.”

Yes but given your progression and everything that you have achieved to date, surely being an international head coach would be the pinnacle?

“I don’t know if you believe me but as I said I don’t set goals, I honestly don’t, and the immediacy of what I am doing is pretty fulfilling and all encompassing.

(There are pressing family issues that Schmidt admits take precedence at the moment in relation to the health of his nine-year-old son, Luke. When I suggest that he must lie in the bed at night and dream about one day coaching Ireland or New Zealand, he immediately puts things into context. “For me, if I could find a solution for my son, that’s what I dream about at night.”)

“I’m not saying that if the Irish job came up that I wouldn’t entertain it. I’d be flattered if they thought I had something to offer, but I’ve got a super playing and management staff here in Leinster. We complement each other and I have benefited from that.”

What about a potential involvement with the Lions?

“I think those opportunities would be fabulous but I try not to think about them because I am fully committed to what I am doing at the moment and I don’t know if those opportunities are out there or not.”

Off the field and over two years into your Irish sojourn, have you developed any habits that show you’re becoming more Irish than ourselves?

“I texted someone the other day and I wrote — we’ll meet then so. I thought, what is that? We’ll meet then so! I would never say that. Invariably you pick up little things like that. I did pick up a slight habit when I was here 20 years ago (Schmidt was player/coach of Mullingar for an 18 month period back in the early 1990s), so I don’t see that as a new thing. I was brought to the pub in Mullingar and bought a pint of Guinness and thought this stuff tastes pretty awful but it grows on you.”

What about the spuds, soda bread or the marmalade?

“I love the soda bread. That would be something that I never had before. I’d had brown breads but not soda breads. You don’t get that in France. You get the baguette which I got a real taste for as well. The variety of bread here is brilliant. I’m a big fan of toasted bread but then I’m a big fan of New Zealand honey.”

Gaelic football and hurling?

“I know Pat Gilroy a little bit and we’ve had a few chats, just about cross code improvements. We have had Bryan Cullen working with us and I have been to a few of the Dubs’ games. I went to the All-Ireland last year between Tipperary and Kilkenny — and I thought that little guy, what was his name Tommy Smith? (Tommy Walsh), what a player. That little red hat (helmet!), not a big guy but knows how to use the stick to get a bit of space but then up with the hand. Honestly, I thought he was the difference.”

Always the eye for the player, Schmidt recognises a good thing when he sees it. So do Leinster.