Schmidt ‘brought coaching here to the next level’

So how did a mild-mannered English teacher from a tiny village in New Zealand become one of the most respected and innovative rugby coaches in Europe and now the new supremo of the Ireland rugby team?

Joe Schmidt’s journey from the floodlit back pitches of high school rugby to the upper echelons of the professional game has been more than 20 years in the making.

Schmidt was born and bred in the small village of Woodville in Palmerston North, a city of approximately 80,000 people situated on New Zealand’s central North Island.