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'He wasn't a warm character... I do believe he did stifle some creativity'

By Ian Cameron
(Photo by Getty Images)

While unquestionably Ireland’s greatest head coach in the professional era, Joe Schmidt’s coaching style was as famous for its rigid authoritarianism as it was for the results it produced on the pitch.

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While Schmidt was all smiles and softly spoken for the media, players saw a different side to the New Zealander. Since his departure from the Ireland set-up in 2019, a steady stream of players have described something close to a ‘culture of fear’ in Ireland camps under Schmidt.

Retired Ulster second row Dan Tuohy played 11 times for Ireland between 2010 – 2015, but failed to win the former school teacher’s affections.  Now Tuohy, who is heading up Malone Rugby Academy, has given a further inset into his relationship with Schmidt and what it was like playing under him, in an interview on The Telf Rugby Podcast

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“He [Schmidt] is a pretty scary character… I didn’t react well to being belittled or feeling scared. It wasn’t a good thing for me. I didn’t enjoy that. I know a lot of other players didn’t as well.

“Some people thrive on that. But he wasn’t a warm character. He wasn’t making you scared or making an edgy environment on the training pitch, but afterwards, he’d be quite personable, he’d be interested in you. He was like that [scary] non-stop.”

“I’d use Chris Henry as an example. A lot of time that was in shape but he didn’t look in shape. He was fit as anything, but he looked like a bag of s***. Chris was not sure if he could have ketchup with food. There was always an element of hiding things or having a desert and wondering if Joe was watching you.

“One thing I will say is that he prepared his teams incredibly well. I’m sat here and I haven’t achieved five per cent of what Joe has achieved. He prepared his teams to the Nth degree incredibly well but I do believe he did stifle some creativity.”

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Tuohy believes that Andy Farrell’s Ireland are still enduring a hangover from the Schmidt era.

“I think you’re probably seeing that now with a painful period for Andy Farrell, but I think there is a trust in the process of creativity and ultimately putting the onus on the players. Always felt Joe would say no.

“I remember at one meeting he said ‘You do not offload. You haven’t got the skills to offload. And this is not me. This is the whole squad. You can’t offload, unless it’s 100 per cent, don’t bother doing it. Just get the ball back and we’ll keep the ball.

“So guys were just petrified to offload the ball. It just stifled creativity.

“It’s such a weird thing for me, as I lived and died by getting that email for Ireland selection, but when I got it, and I’d almost go ‘I’ve got to go down again.’ I’d know for eight weeks he was going to torture me about something.

“Before long he’d be on my back and I’d just be beaten down. I think he wanted to make me stronger, but in actual fact I needed a bit of space. I didn’t work well with that, but everyone’s different. Brian McLaughlin [former Ulster head coach] or Mark Anscombe, would put an arm around my shoulder, and they’d be like ‘I believe in you mate. You can do this’. And I’d feel like I was 10 feet tall.

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“I think Joe wanted to see me come out and be fighting and he was telling me all these different things.

“I remember a World Cup warm-up match in 2015 and I was absolutely dreadful against Scotland, because I was trying to do things that other locks did, but I thought that he wanted me to do. It was a shambles for me.”

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Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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