Green is new black
The Kiwi behind Ireland’s Cup romp
When Joe Schmidt took over from Declan Kidney as Ireland head coach in the autumn of 2013, they were still reeling from a 60-0 thrashing handed out by the All Blacks the previous summer.
It is just one measure of the extraordinary job that Schmidt has done that, as he prepares his team to meet the same opposition in Tokyo on Saturday, they have won two of their past three tests against New Zealand.
There can be no debate that the 54-year-old is the greatest coach in Irish rugby history. Schmidt’s impact — four titles in as many years with Leinster, three Six Nations crowns in six years (including the Grand Slam at Twickenham last year) with Ireland, an overhaul of the provincial system with Irish Rugby Football Union performance director David Nucifora — is well documented. He has raised a country’s expectations; completely changed their mindset.
But what drives Schmidt is less well known. Born in Kawakawa, he speaks little about his upbringing as one of eight children, in Woodville, near Palmerston North.
This is Smallville, even by New Zealand standards. After winning the first of his three Six Nations titles, he joked that it was “pretty hard [to imagine] when you’re born in Kawakawa, 1400 people and you’re shifted to the metropolis of Woodville — 1600 people. It’s huge.”
Rugby was always a potential escape route, and Schmidt desperately wanted to make it as a player. But he was too small. Former All Blacks scrum-half Mark Donaldson, who coached Schmidt at provincial club Manawatu, said he tried to break it to Schmidt as gently as he could that he was not going to cut it.
“He went away to the gym — no one was going to the gym in those days — and put on about 11 or 12kg. He came back the next season a totally different bloke. That is why he is so resilient and resourceful as a coach.”
Schmidt is clearly a frustrated player. He has been known to pull a muscle training with the Ireland team.
One of his brothers — whom he mentioned before the Samoa match — has a doctorate in Pacific Island history. Another is a very successful businessman.
They were clearly close as a family. Schmidt had planned to move back to New Zealand, once his Ireland role ended, to look after his mother, before she died this year. Schmidt played 29 games for Manawatu between 1988 and 1991, the highlight a narrow 28-23 defeat by France in 1989, in which Schmidt scored.
But it was clear, even before an Achilles tendon injury in his mid-20s finished him off as a player, that his talents lay elsewhere.
Schmidt’s drive, commitment and ability with people shine through in the story of how he first left New Zealand, and discovered his real calling. Aged 24, having trained as a teacher, Donaldson recommended the young winger to a player-coach role in Westmeath, Ireland.
Schmidt, who went with his wife Kellie, rapidly transformed Mullingar RFC’s fortunes.
“It was an eye-opener,” recalled Willie Macken, who played as a winger with the team. “All of a sudden, from just running with a ball, we had to play with a ball.”
There can be no better measure of his coaching abilities that seven survivors from that record 60-0 loss — Rory Best, Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray, Cian Healy, Rob Kearney, Keith Earls and Peter O’Mahony — are a core part of his impressive Irish side.