Schmidt ‘very motivated’ to find the fine margins

This time last year, Joe Schmidt was giving his best ‘aw shucks’ performances in talking at length about the pressures that come with being Ireland’s new head coach.

As we know, the Kiwi fared just fine.

After four years of largely disappointing performances and results, Ireland delivered a Six Nations title and, in total, eight wins out of ten. Even the two defeats, to New Zealand and England, saw Schmidt’s side go down by a penalty or less.