Homebird John Plumtree misses those road trips with Joe Schmidt

If things had worked out a little differently, John Plumtree might possibly still be Ireland’s forwards coach, and still accompanying Joe Schmidt on unscheduled detours on the way home from Ulster matches.

One of the abiding memories of his short but productive spell in Schmidt’s coaching set-up is being driven by the head coach from Dublin to Belfast for a Friday night game at Ravenhill and unexpectedly veering off course on the way home. It is a tale he recalls with fondness now he is back in his native New Zealand, and plotting the downfall of the British & Irish Lions as forwards coach of this morning’s opponents the Hurricanes at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium.

“We had a lot of fun,” Plumtree said of those road trips with Schmidt during his 2013-14 campaign in Ireland. “The first one we went on we went up to Belfast and of course, you know Joe chats away and I thought he knew how to get back down to Dublin but we missed the turn-off.