Schmidt makes the right moves

Amlin Challenge Cup semi-final

It may not be the most obvious career path but it is devoid of wrong turns or dead ends and the expectation is that the graph will curve sharply skywards yet again in the coming days when the IRFU announce the results of their deliberations over a new coach for the national side.

Schmidt’s success since his arrival in Dublin in the summer of 2010 when he took over from Michael Cheika as the province’s head coach has been rightly lauded and — as the accompanying panel attests — he will likely clear out his office at the season’s end as the most successful coach ever of a professional provincial Irish side.

Statistics aren’t a whole lot different to a Hall of Mirrors in that the reality they represent is distorted dependent on the way you look at them but, in fairness to Schmidt, he has always been quick to acknowledge that his numbers have been constructed on the rock-solid foundations left behind by his Australian predecessor.

Declan Kidney’s record with Munster is arguably more impressive than both, given the trailblazing nature of his tenure, particularly in his first spell between 1998 and 2002 when Munster broke glass ceilings in England and France before the Cork man left his post on the back of a 72% win ratio.

Yet times are different, of course, and so are people.

Schmidt brings his own abilities and traits to the job. Isa Nacewa once famously described him as ‘Mr Rugby’ and his attention to detail and love for the game are legendary. If Ireland captain Jamie Heaslip has often spoken about how he can take or leave rugby away from the training paddock or pitch then the man expected to be his next boss at national level is his polar opposite.

A genial character who is renowned for his man management skills, any fears that he may lack the requisite steel to be a head coach after successful assisting roles with the Blues and Clermont dissipated as soon as rumours of his infamous Monday morning, no-holds-barred video review sessions began to filter out of D4.

“I don’t think I’ve changed,” he says. “I don’t think I’ve changed since I started (at Leinster). Since I’ve arrived I’ve continued in the same vein. I try to be innovative and challenge the players. I did the same things in Clermont, I just couldn’t say it because I didn’t speak the language.

“After the first six months it was pretty much the same. Obviously, here I have more responsibility with selection and leading the team because Vern (Cotter) was obviously well able and well capable and he was pretty scary when he had to be as well.”

Lest we forget, it hasn’t all been champagne and cake.

Schmidt could have been forgiven for just keeping a steady hand on the tiller after Cheika left. After all, the majority of the players he inherited possessed a Heineken Cup medal, had reached the semis the season before and were pipped to a Celtic League title by Ospreys in the final.

Instead, he chose to push boundaries by adding a more fluid attacking edge to a side that Rocky Elsom had admitted played a pretty basic brand of rugby in conquering Europe in 2009 and he persisted with those changes despite a rough beginning when three out of four games resulted in defeats and premature calls for his head. It is a point worth remembering if and when he is handed the reins of a national squad that is lacking for little in the way of talent, application and ambition but which has looked desperately in need of fresh thinking and consistency of performance after the early successes under Kidney.

“It always takes a bit of time to bed in,” Schmidt explains. “When you do change things it always brings a risk: change in selection, an element of risk, a slight change in the way of playing, but you’ve got to balance risk and reward.”

Schmidt himself has come to promise far more of the latter.