No sign yet of Schmidt applying the brakes

He has admitted to being tempted into the Ireland role, in part, by the carrot of a less hectic pace of life, so it was ironic yesterday to hear Joe Schmidt talk about being whisked through the suburban traffic of Paris on a motorbike at 140kph.

This was supposed to be the type of week where the Kiwi’s more measured workload kicked in, one spent standing back from the gritty coal face of rugby as the four provinces inhaled collectively before the gut-busting start to the Heineken Cup.

It hasn’t quite worked out like that given he found himself chasing his tail after a late-night return from France blurred into a guest speaker slot at the Irish Management Institute (IMI) and an afternoon meeting at IRFU HQ.

“I had to fly into Roissy-Charles de Gaulle and then get down to Marcoussis south of Paris,” he told a room full of the country’s finest business minds.

“I went across on the RER [train] to get there and then they organised a ‘taxi-moto’ to get back.

“I was on this motorcycle taxi going about 140km and they don’t drive in the lanes, they drive on the lines, so we are going between the cars and the trucks. It is pretty skinny at times but it was exhilarating.”

Schmidt’s week isn’t about to get any calmer.

Ravenhill is expecting him tomorrow night for the Ulster-Leicester Tigers clash while Munster’s meeting with Edinburgh, Leinster’s trip to Swansea to face Ospreys and Connacht’s hosting of Saracens in Galway will all have to be digested in short order too.

The former Clermont assistant coach spent just over 20 minutes sharing his concepts of leadership and core beliefs built up in his time as a schoolteacher and a coach and he gave a fascinating insight into what it is he prizes in a player as he runs the rule over the latest Irish crop before next month’s Guinness Series.

Schmidt spoke of a player from his coaching past, Wayne Ormond, who in 2004 became the first Bay of Plenty captain to lift the Ranfurly Shield after a century without success when he inspired the outsiders to an unlikely victory against an All Black-laden Auckland side.

“He got to play Super Rugby for a few years in New Zealand and a few years in Japan before he retired. When I met Wayne Ormond he was a forestry worker in New Zealand. He was working 12-hour days, six days a week and he got picked up early in the morning, dropped back late at night just in time to eat, sleep and do it all again in the morning.

“His opportunity to play rugby, he was never going to give it up easily. There were times when the going got tough that you knew Wayne Ormond wouldn’t give it up. He became a little bit iconic in the Bay of Plenty as a guy with more grit than anybody else had.”

It was that same work ethic and leadership that persuaded Schmidt — who had spent time in Mullingar in the early 1990s — back to Ireland for a second spell when Leinster came knocking on his door in France where he was happily ensconced as assistant to Vern Cotter at Clermont Auvergne.

Isa Nacewa had crossed his path when they were both earning their dollars at the Auckland Blues and the full-back had briefed his colleagues on their next potential boss when Schmidt agreed to a whistle-stop inspection tour of the Leinster set-up during the courting phase.

Schmidt thought he knew how it would all end.

“One of the things that struck me about coming to Leinster was when I met with a few of the players and chatted to Brian O’Driscoll, Leo Cullen and Jonathan Sexton. At the time I can honestly say I wasn’t going to come. We were pretty happy in France. We had spent three years there and I could finally speak the language.

“I said, ‘look, I’m not sure what you’re looking for’ and they told me and I said, ‘well, I’ve never really led a group of men in a professional rugby environment’. Jonny Sexton immediately said, ‘you don’t have to worry about that, we’ll do that’. And I thought, ‘who is this young fella, he is obviously driven’.”

Just like Schmidt.