Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies coaching choice is loss for New Zealand Rugby and All Blacks - Gregor Paul

New Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt, flanked by Peter Horne and Phil Waugh, speaks to media during a press conference about his appointment in January. Photo / Photosport

OPINION

This time last year Joe Schmidt was keeping an intense watch on Super Rugby in his role as All Blacks assistant coach.

Over the weekend, he was in Melbourne keeping an intense watch on Super Rugby in his new role as Wallabies coach – a job he officially began a few days ago.

This is, seemingly, part and parcel of professional rugby – coaches are in demand, they have no restrictions on where they can ply their trade and so they move about.

Coaches have mortgages, they have ambition and a little bit of ego, too.

They chase opportunity wherever it comes, and Schmidt has found in Australia the sort of challenge that appeals.

But the question that has arisen now that he has his feet under the desk in Australia is not why he took the Wallabies job but why he didn’t have any interest in applying to be the All Blacks head coach.

It’s an important question because however much New Zealanders want to convince themselves that it’s good for Southern Hemisphere rugby to have a coach with a depth of experience and proven calibre redirecting and rebuilding the Wallabies, it can’t be glossed over that a year ago New Zealand Rugby ran a process to find an All Blacks coach for 2024 and Schmidt didn’t apply.

There was a flurry of media speculation that he was going to make a late bid but he never did, leading to supposed well-informed analysis that he didn’t want the pressure of a head coaching role; that he wasn’t keen on the media commitments – he’d negotiated that he wouldn’t have to do any press conferences in his assistant role with the All Blacks; and that he didn’t want to be locked into a job which required him to be away from his home in Taupō for extended periods.

But here he is now in a job that will come with ample pressure because Australian rugby is facing an existential crisis as it battles for fans, income and credibility.

The game across the Tasman won’t survive if the Wallabies don’t improve and recapture the faith of a fan base that has been left to feel unloved and unrewarded, so not only does Schmidt have to deliver results, he also has to front TV cameras and reporters to give the sport the media exposure it needs to win hearts and minds.

And while he’s going to split his time between New Zealand and Australia, he’ll be away from home as Wallabies coach as much, if not more, than he would have had he been appointed All Blacks coach.

What makes his Wallabies’ appointment yet more worthy of examination is that Schmidt was a high-value chess piece when NZR considered the fate of former All Blacks coach Ian Foster two years ago.

The board was ready to sack Foster in August 2022 and approached Scott Robertson to see if he could assemble a team to take over at a week’s notice.

When he pitched his likely set-up, NZR asked him if he could find room for Schmidt – who had just started as a selector and technical adviser with the All Blacks.

The two met, but Schmidt felt a loyalty to Foster and said he wouldn’t be part of Robertson’s set-up, leading to the board deciding to stick with the incumbent.

Schmidt, who was persuaded by Foster to upgrade his selection role to assistant coach shortly after meeting Robertson, was the kingmaker because he brought in-depth knowledge of the Northern Hemisphere and an ability to see forensic detail.

The only logical conclusion, therefore, that can be reached about why Schmidt didn’t apply to be head coach of the All Blacks last year is that he lost confidence in NZR and most likely lacks trust in the national body.

It’s a safe assumption that he didn’t like being asked to meet Robertson while Foster was in South Africa with the All Blacks.

That he didn’t like that former NZR chair Stewart Mitchell made a public proclamation in August that Foster was being backed all the way through to the World Cup, only to then begin searching for the next coach in February 2023.

That he didn’t like that NZR’s executive unsettled the incumbent All Blacks coaching and management group just months before the World Cup, by effectively sacking some of them while asking others to reapply for their jobs.

And he most likely really didn’t like that having mostly given the incumbent coaching group a giant vote of no confidence, NZR then tried to argue that it was all part of a valid and recognised high-performance strategy to get the best out of them.

The argument appeared to be that alienating the incumbent team would prove a powerful source of motivation for them come the World Cup.

And if this is way off the mark, then it would be interesting to know why Schmidt, a proud New Zealander with a passion for the All Blacks and who established relationships with the players, who held him in the highest regard, said yes to Australia and no to New Zealand.

Gregor Paul is one of New Zealand’s most respected rugby writers and columnists. He has won multiple awards for journalism and has written several books about sport.