A photo from early 2018 presents a nostalgic opportunity for a game of ‘Where are they now?’
The Ireland coaching staff takes in a training session at Twickenham. Joe Schmidt, the boss, is holding court. Andy Farrell, Schmidt’s defensive guru, looks serious but soft, like he agrees with his boss. Simon Easterby, then Ireland’s forwards coach, looks at kicking specialist Richie Murphy to get his reaction to the instruction.
We’ll never know whether the conversation centred on last-minute preparation or the evening’s dinner plans. Whatever happened at that captain’s run clearly helped put Ireland in a good place 24 hours out from an infamous snowy St Patrick’s Day Grand Slam. That was just one of several Irish achievements under the tutelage of their 2015-19 coaching group; a first away win over South Africa, a maiden victory of any kind over the All Blacks, a first series win in Australia.
The NFL is awash with chatter of coaching trees, assistants working under one particular guru before earning success elsewhere when recruited by rivals looking for some of the special sauce. Rugby doesn’t do such talk but if we did, Schmidt’s Ireland from 2015-19 would be up there alongside Rassie Erasmus’ South Africa for the title of most influential.
Farrell and Easterby have brought Ireland to even greater success post-Schmidt. Greg Feek, scrum coach on that Ireland ticket, followed his fellow Kiwi to the All Blacks staff which reached the most recent World Cup final. Even Richie Murphy, Schmidt’s kicking and skills coach with Ireland, won Grand Slams at U20s level before earning his first senior head coach gig with Ulster.
This tree doesn’t extend just to coaches. Andrew Goodman, the Lions’ attack coach, has Schmidt to thank for his professional playing career. A semi-pro with Tasman, Schmidt plucked him from a job as a rugby development officer to join Leinster as a utility back.
“That changed the pathway of my life to come over here and be a part of a fully professional outfit,” said Goodman. “My first Heineken Cup game was against Clermont. I was playing alongside Brian O’Driscoll, Gordon D’Arcy and Johnny Sexton against Wesley Fofana, Rougerie, guys like this.
“The way Joe does, he watches rugby from all over the world, gave me a call and changed my life.”
What I loved about Joe was he challenged me. He made me look at things differently and he wanted me to be a better coach.
Sexton, Schmidt’s former on-field general, has also found a way onto the Lions coaching staff. “We used to call him Joe’s son,” jokes Feek, now on scrum duties at the Blues.
Though the 2019 World Cup was a disappointing end, Schmidt clearly had a profound impact on Irish rugby. To the extent that four of his former lieutenants line out in the opposite coaching box during the sport’s quadrennial showcase.
Feek, one of the rare few not involved – his replacement at Leinster and Ireland, John Fogarty, will look after the Lions scrum – recalls that time fondly. Even if Schmidt was renowned for his hyper-critical feedback.
“What I loved about Joe was he challenged me,” he says. “He made me look at things differently and he wanted me to be a better coach. Sometimes it probably put me in a bit of a hole, he would challenge me on things I didn’t have solutions for at the time.
“He’d come to my [scrum] meetings, he’d stand there and he’d go, ‘Hey yeah…’, and I thought here we go. Whenever he pulled out the ‘Hey yeah…’ I knew something was coming. It might be the language I’m using. It might be how I’m standing, my presentation. I loved it.
“Some of it was harsh, but most of it was getting me better. I learned so much around the wider game, the breakdown, how he broke things down to score tries off set-piece, whether that was first, second, third ruck. Those things live with you.”
Faz brought in a style of defence that Joe was like, ‘Oh my goodness, this is a different way.’ I think Joe was a little bit unsure.
It is no surprise to hear Feek organically bring up set-play strikes and the breakdown. There is an argument that, had he not ruled himself out of the running due to a self-perceived lack of experience, Paul O’Connell could have been another former Schmidt disciple on the Lions ticket. He still coaches the Irish breakdown based on the principles learned under Joe.
Goodman himself says Schmidt influenced the way he constructed set-piece moves, an area where he has impressed since working with Ireland.
Not that the learning wasn’t reciprocal. “Faz [Farrell] really complemented Joe,” says Feek. “He brought in a style of defence that Joe was like, ‘Oh my goodness, this is a different way.’ I think Joe was a little bit unsure. It took him a little while to really learn and understand it.
“In New Zealand our defensive system was watch the man. Faz was more about watching the ball so if the pass went out the back you could follow that pass up and stay square, even spacing, all the rest of it. Most teams I think now are doing it.
“For Joe it was a big shift, probably like driving your car on the right hand side and then you go on the left. It was cool seeing that unravel and how Joe bought into it. Getting Faz in was a masterstroke.”
Easterby for his part fell into the Schmidt mould of dedication to his craft. “Simon did as much work as the analyst,” says Feek. “You’d barely talk to him without him holding a laptop. He was a workaholic. He had the detail.
“The biggest thing I was concerned about with Simon was making sure he ate at least one meal a day. My job was to go get him, ‘Mate, come for lunch, will you?’”
This tour won’t be the first time Schmidt has taken on his old friends since leaving Ireland. Working with Feek and the All Blacks, that coaching staff masterminded a display which shut down the famed Irish attack enough to win a World Cup quarter-final, Ardie Savea and Sam Cane doing a demolition job on the breakdown.
This tour will be one of the few occasions where rugby’s Lions showcase is almost wholly influenced by one coaching tree. Those Irish sessions must have been quite the place for thinkers on the game.
Last November, with Australia, Schmidt lost to his old charges but not before sending forwards to disrupt Jamison Gibson-Park, or Fraser McReight to once again target the ruck. Plenty in Ireland point to the master still having the edge.
“That’s the thing around Joe, he’s generally a step ahead,” says Goodman. “He watches a lot of rugby. That’s why we want to be as unpredictable as we can.”
Predictable or otherwise, this tour will be one of the few occasions where rugby’s Lions showcase is almost wholly influenced by one coaching tree. Those Irish sessions must have been quite the place for thinkers on the game.
“You can’t manufacture something like that,” says Feek. “It is pretty cool to see how everyone has gone on, and we all haven’t finished yet.
“They talk about timing but it’s the people you are with that creates good timing. Get with the right people and you can create something special.”
