Former Ireland coach Joe Schmidt will challenge established thinking and likely promote different athletes. Photo / Photosport
Former Ireland coach Joe Schmidt will challenge established thinking and likely promote different athletes. Photo / Photosport
OPINION:
Joe Schmidt's addition to the All Blacks management team is timely indeed. Analytical minds such as his do not sprout from common seed. They are rare, refined and in Schmidt's case lost to New Zealand rugby for too long.
It would be a stretch to suggest Schmidtis the magic wand that will suddenly solve the All Blacks' ills – those stemming from lack of consistent forward dominance and ongoing struggles against defensive line speed.
Assuming the selector's role vacated by Grant Fox, and taking on the broad backroom responsibility for analysing opposition, carries significant influence but it is not the same as a full-time assistant who attends all trainings and tours. There is only so much anyone can observe and achieve from afar.
Schmidt will, however, inject creative solutions from outside the box. Fresh ideas are certainly needed.
The former Palmerston North and Napier Boys' High School teacher and Tauranga Boys' College deputy principal is cut from a similar rugby cloth to Wayne Smith and Tony Brown, two figures widely recognised as cutting-edge innovators.
The nature of professional rugby is it remains largely defined by World Cup results. While two quarter-final defeats, the last in brutal fashion against the All Blacks in 2019, do not reflect kindly, in between times Schmidt guided Ireland to giddy heights. Three Six Nations titles, one Grand Slam, Ireland's maiden victory and then a first home win against the All Blacks speaks to his coaching calibre.
He also led Leinster to two European titles, a Pro12 championship and alongside long-time confidant Vern Cotter pushed Clermont to their first French Top 14 crown. Manufacturing such a record does not happen by chance. Schmidt's influence mentoring Blues coach Leon MacDonald in an informal capacity this year no doubt played a part in their breakthrough transtasman success, too. That he will fulfil a part-time support coach role for the Blues next year fits nicely into his progression to the All Blacks.
Joe Schmidt speaking at an event in Dublin. Photo / Getty
Schmidt is someone with a photographic memory and his attacking pet plays, particularly from set-piece where the All Blacks have lethal weapons to unleash, are second to none. From that perspective alone he is an incredibly valuable asset.
Having spent 15 years coaching in the Northern Hemisphere he possesses an ingrained knowledge of the suffocating styles that have, for the past four years, proven the All Blacks' kryptonite. In the brutal business of the test arena, where margins are increasingly fine among the top five teams, Schmidt has priceless intellectual property.
The perception of Schmidt's promotion will be that of a reaction to the All Blacks' 12-3 season that finished with two humbling defeats to Ireland and France. The reality is that change was coming, with Fox always intent on standing down as a selector after fulfilling that role for the past decade.
Ian Foster sounded out Schmidt about joining his team when he assumed the All Blacks head coach role but at that point, following the 2019 World Cup disappointment, he was not ready to have any involvement in test rugby.
Schmidt is an intensely private individual – he has never enjoyed media interactions or the profile attached to the coaching profession. Those traits are evident in him holding off joining the All Blacks until after their three-test home series against Ireland as he will be weary of being portrayed as dishing the dirt on a team he knows intimately. He does, after all, hold dual New Zealand and Irish citizenship.
The analytical, backroom role he eventually assumes with the All Blacks will, therefore, suit his desire to shun the limelight.
Joe Schmidt with Steve Hansen and Ian Foster during the All Blacks' clash against Ireland in 2016. Photo / Photosport
With New Zealand Rugby's review into the All Blacks season ongoing, and not expected to be complete until January, further changes to the coaching staff are possible. Schmidt joining the team is independent of that process.
Foster is locked in through to the 2023 World Cup but his assistants – John Plumtree, Greg Feek, Brad Mooar and Scott McLeod – are yet to be re-signed.
Schmidt's imminent inclusion may have Mooar (attack) and McLeod (defence) somewhat nervous – yet it's the forwards where most scrutiny sits.
Many of the All Blacks' issues seem attached to their inconsistent platform up front. While the set-piece was largely solid, their work at the breakdown, in the carry and clean, often left the All Blacks vulnerable to crippling defensive line speed with key playmakers being flustered.
Adopting Schmidt's lens to selection will challenge established thinking and likely promote different athletes, but a serious overhaul of the All Blacks' approach to forward play may be needed.
One way or another, the All Blacks must devise tactics to deliver quick, clean ruck ball because at times this year against the best defensive teams without it they were a muddling mess.
With one piece of the puzzle confirmed, New Zealand Rugby and the All Blacks must now ask themselves: Will Schmidt's inclusion provide enough of a transformational shift?
