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Joe Schmidt reveals the blueprint to Ireland's success over the All Blacks

By Sam Smith
Ireland coach Joe Schmidt chats with and All Black coach Steve Hansen in Dublin in 2016. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

Former Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt has detailed how he planned the country’s first-ever wins over the All Blacks.

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After 111 years of failing to register a victory over New Zealand, Ireland broke their long-standing duck in 2016 when they shocked the world to beat the Kiwis 40-29 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

The Irish replicated that feat two years later when they beat the All Blacks on home soil for the first time in their history, clinching a 16-9 win at Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

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Schmidt was at the helm of Ireland during both wins over his homeland, which he has returned to this year after having left his post as Ireland boss following their World Cup quarter-final exit at the hands of the All Blacks in 2019.

Now involved with the Blues as a support coach, and set to join the All Blacks as a selector after their three-test series against Ireland in July, Schmidt has revealed how he prepared the Irish for two of their most famous rugby victories.

Speaking on The Breakdown, Schmidt said he regarded the All Blacks as the world’s best transition team when he first joined the Ireland set-up as Declan Kidney’s successor ahead of the 2013 November test window.

During that window, Schmidt’s first assignments as Ireland boss were tests against Samoa, Australia and New Zealand.

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Ireland only enjoyed success against Samoa as they fell to a heavy defeat against the Wallabies before coming up agonisingly short against the All Blacks in a test they lost after Aaron Cruden converted an injury time try scored by Ryan Crotty.

Schmidt pinpointed those defeats to Ireland’s looseness with the ball, which he told The Breakdown was detrimental against an All Blacks team that he described as a ruthless attacking outfit.

“The very first time we played them in 2013, I’d had the team for two weeks and we’d played Samoa and then got thumped a bit by Australia, and we were loose with the ball,” Schmidt said.

“I’ve always felt that New Zealand were the best transition team in the world. If you kicked loosely to them or you’re loose with the ball, they will really go after you.

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“We decided we’d just try to make sure that New Zealand were forced to make every tackle, that we weren’t going to give them anything that was loose and that they couldn’t get any real counter-attack against us.”

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The lessons Ireland learned from that missed opportunity to score an historic win over the All Blacks were implemented when the two teams next squared off in the United States three years later, and in Dublin two years after that.

Even in the wake of Schmidt’s departure from Ireland, the Andy Farrell-coached side has gone on to pick up a third win over the All Blacks, beating Ian Foster’s men 29-20 in Dublin last year.

The defeat was one of three New Zealand suffered last year, resulting in fierce criticism of Foster and the national team as a whole, and the subsequent recruitment of Schmidt as a selector.

However, Schmidt told The Breakdown that he would still be concerned about coming up against the current All Blacks side if he was still the head coach of an opposition team.

“You look at who was available for the All Blacks, they still think they’re a really dangerous transition team if they get loose ball or loose opportunity. That would worry me if I was coaching against them,” he said.

Schmidt also shed some light into how he managed to achieve success against the Wallabies and Springboks during his reign as Ireland head coach.

He noted the importance of shutting down former Wallabies fullback Israel Folau and returning veteran Kurtley Beale as key factors in their dominance over Australia during his time in charge of Ireland.

“We had really good success against South Africa during the time that I was with Ireland, and the Wallabies. I think we probably won five out of seven against the Wallabies,” Schmidt told The Breakdown.

“They were a team where you could suffocate them a little bit, and as long as you could win the battle in the air against Israel Folau and try to contain the likes of Kurtley Beale, then you could get your own game going.

“We had a fantastic series there and some great games in Dublin. It was really looking with a really broad lens around the world at who you’re playing, and it was really exciting.”

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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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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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