Joe Schmidt feeling the love and spreading the charm on his return to Ireland

The Wallabies boss is back in familiar territory this week.

HEY JOE: Australia head coach Joe Schmidt in Dublin on Thursday. Pic: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

Just like old times. Joe Schmidt walked into the meeting room in the Wallaby team hotel on Thursday afternoon and, though it was five years since he had ended his nine-year stint coaching in Ireland, it was like the guy had never been away.

This was vintage Joe. Genial Joe. The smiling assassin.

He sat there at the top table serving up his ‘aw shucks’ best and he only charmed the bloody life out of the entire place with his homely talk about popping down to old haunts in Terenure and Old Wesley and how the good people of Wanderers had looked after his lads so well the last few days.

Some of his players shared stories about how their Kiwi head coach had been mobbed by well-wishers ever since they arrived over from Scotland earlier in the week. One broadcaster joked that Schmidt was so popular here that there was a statue in O’Connell Street and James Slipper actually believed it.

You couldn’t blame him.

“It was a bit overwhelming at the airport on the way here, especially then the lads giving me a hard time,” Schmidt beamed shortly after taking his seat. “No, it’s actually comfortable. I feel comfortable here. Ten years is a long time. And obviously we still have a home here, my daughter.

“We’re probably one of the few loss-making landlords in Dublin but that’s just the way it is,” he laughed. “It's one of the funny things about Dublin: they talk about kids staying in the home longer, I think our kids just stayed until we left so it was a pretty good plot that they had.” 

We didn’t need a housing gag to know that Schmidt still ‘gets’ Ireland and, by extension, Irish rugby. His fingerprints were all over the All Blacks’ defeat of Andy Farrell’s side in last year’s World Cup quarter-final, not least in the strike play that produced Richie Mo’unga’s break and Will Jordan’s try.

He dodged any talk of this insider knowledge when asked directly but he is very much in Irish heads this week. Paul O’Connell, Josh van der Flier and James Ryan have all waxed on about his legacy and Johnny Sexton wrote in his book that it was Joe’s voice still in his head on the field until the day he retired.

“Ah, Jeez, I feel sorry for him if he had my voice still in his head! I mean, I worked with Johnny for 10 years so it's probably the longevity of the relationship, and also that we would bounce back and forward with ideas.” 

Schmidt’s depth of knowledge is legendary and it was on show again here when he rewound back to a Heineken Cup semi-final with Leinster against Clermont Auvergne 13 years ago as he described pass for pass and man for man a move that led to a crucial try.

This in-depth knowledge of his hosts this week extends to Sam Prendergast, the man Farrell has selected at out-half for only a second cap at the tender age of 21. A man who was still only a boy of 16 when Schmidt left these shores in 2019 for a return home to New Zealand.

"I was talking to Richie Murphy two years ago and he was saying, 'Wow, this kid can play'. Richie had that time with the U20s … so I still look at Ireland and think, 'Wow, there's all these kids coming through who were hugely successful in the U20s’.

“I think they won back-to-back Grand Slams in the 20s, which was a hell of an effort, and they got through to those top rungs in the Junior World Cup. So he's at the apex of that group of young players who are really exciting.” His take on Ireland, heavily censored as it must be two days out from the Test, was interesting. Not too different from his own side, was the general gist, but with the twist that Jamison Gibson-Park adds speed to a game that leaned more on Conor Murray’s kicks in his day.

You play to your strengths, said Schmidt.

This is his plan exactly for an Australian side that is clearly pointing in the right direction under his watch on the back of Eddie Jones’ disastrous stint in charge. Where there was desolation and despair, he has brought hope and progress, even if it is proving to be a steady rather than spectacular process.

“I feel like I’m paddling hard, but I’m not necessarily going forward! But I think we’re keeping our head above water. We’ve demonstrated that we can be competitive with some really top teams.” There is no-one hiding the fact that this is a medium-term project.

Schmidt has made six changes to the team that lost their first tour game to Scotland last week – former NRL superstar Joseph Sua’ali’i starts again despite the injury suffered in Edinburgh – as he bids to build depth in time for the British and Irish Lions visit next summer.

“That was always the brief for me coming into the job, because that’s a massive series for the Wallabies, and for the Australian public.”