Former Irish rugby coach Joe Schmidt “ran out of road” during the team’s disastrous performance at the 2019 World Cup, Ireland and Leinster great Brian O’Driscoll has said.
“I was hearing murmurs of, not discontent at the World Cup – but things unravelling,” O’Driscoll explained to writer Paul Howard at the Irish Times Winter Nights festival. Ireland crashed out following a humiliating defeat to Japan and a trouncing at the hands of New Zealand. Schmidt departed shortly afterwards.
“I think Joe would admit to it as well – that his game plan ran out of road,” said O’Driscoll. “There wasn’t an evolution from when they beat the All Blacks in 2018 to the World Cup a year later. They literally just tried to play the same game plan and teams knew how to defend against it.”
Joe Schmidt did an awful lot. But looking from the outside in, I think sometimes people don't know where their blindspots are
O’Driscoll, who scored 46 tries for Ireland and won a Grand Slam in 2009, added that he was never entirely sure whether Schmidt really “rated” him before his retirement in 2014. “Did he really rate me? He never tried to convince me not to retire. I said, ‘Joe I think this is my last year’. He said ‘aw mate, you’re probably right’.”
Schmidt had done a great deal for Irish rugby (including leading Leinster to two Heineken Cups) but perhaps was not aware to his “blind spots” as a coach, said O’Driscoll. “This isn’t a Joe-bashing episode. I have so much to be thankful for with him. He did an awful lot. But looking from the outside in, I think sometimes people don’t know where their blindspots are. And I think Joe had one or two blindspots that he could not see.
“And I don’t know whether people felt they could properly voice – or whether their voice fell on deaf ears when they did confront it. Sometimes a true belief in what you are doing can be fantastic. But it can also be a major negative. Because if it’s a little bit off and someone tries to steer you back on track and you don’t want to know about it, well then not only do you lose that direction – you also lose part of your team. I felt as though that probably happened in the World Cup in 2019.”
O’Driscoll has become a successful pundit since hanging up his boots. He told Howard he never seriously considered going into coaching – and that he was now probably out of the game too long for it to be a realistic option.
“I never really wanted to get into the coaching piece as a full time gig. It would have completely limited me to the things I now do. I wanted variety. I wanted my weekends back. I wanted to work in a couple of smaller jobs to understand ultimately what I wanted to do. And, as importantly, what I didn’t want to do… It probably wouldn’t have suited our family lifestyle. I have a wife [actress Amy Huberman] that is pretty busy most of the time. The prospect of moving around the family with me, job to job... that just didn’t interest me greatly.”
O’Driscoll and Howard looked back over the outside centre’s 16-year professional career. He recalled throwing up on the Champs-Élysées after too many kebabs and cheap wine on the night of his historic hat-trick of tries against France in 2000. He also spoke about Leinster’s bitter rivalry with Munster.
“There was an… I don’t know if animosity is the right word… There was a huge build up tension between the teams. We definitely did use it. We used them as a big piece of motivation. Particularly in ‘09 [when Leinster defeated Munster in the European semi-final] there was nowhere for us to go if we didn’t beat them that day. When your backs are against the wall and you play scared it can sometimes bring out the best in you.”
The 2022 Irish Times Winter Nights online festival – supported by Peugeot – continues on Thursday, January 27th. Still to come are poet Paul Muldoon and writer and feminist Caitlin Moran. For tickets, go to irishtimes.com/winternights
