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Standing ovation as Schmidt signs off from Dublin with eye-watering home fortress statistics
Not bad for a Kiwi working overseas, not bad at all. There was Joe Schmidt on the Aviva Stadium pitch at one minute past four on Saturday afternoon, taking a rapturous standing ovation from the crowd who gustily roared their approval for all the transformative work he has done for Irish rugby these past nine years.
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It’s quite the story. He arrived a stranger in 2010 but is departing a household name, as Dublin as any feted local you’d like to pick, from Bono to Behan and every other colourful character in between.
It won’t be until the World Cup in Japan when his epitaph is written. Ireland aspire to create some history at the tournament in the Far East and Schmidt, still smarting from how it all fell apart at England 2015, knows he has it all to do to get that gigantic task over the line.
But his legacy in Dublin is secure, Saturday’s win over Wales seeing him depart with some eye-watering figures to his credit for matches held in the Irish capital, not just with his adopted national team these past six years but also from his time at Leinster from 2010 to 2013.
Between Ireland green and Leinster blue, Schmidt has been in charge for 86 matches in Dublin, emerging victorious on a thunderous 75 occasions.
In Pics: An emotional farewell for Joe Schmidt and Rory Best on their last game in Aviva Stadium. Tale a look at the photo gallery of the day.#ShoulderToShoulder #IREvWAL https://t.co/OOEuKlXrgB
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) September 7, 2019
He’s a serial winner, knows what it takes and it’s no surprise Warren Gatland sounded cheesed off in the aftermath of Saturday’s last hurrah. Yet another visiting coach had just been forensically turned over, an outcome that on this occasion lifted Ireland to the No1 World Rugby ranking ahead of the World Cup.
His fellow Kiwis might scoff at that status arriving just a few weeks following that embarrassing record low suffered at Twickenham, but no one can question the consistency of his work at Fortress Aviva.
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In Schmidt’s 34 Test matches in Dublin, Ireland have only given second-best five times. Australia, New Zealand twice, Wales and England. There has been one draw and 28 Tests win – a buoyant 83.8 per cent success rate. Move the dial on to Leinster and the figures are even more impresisve. Just five times in three seasons were Schmidt’s Leinster defeated in their Aviva Stadium/RDS back yard, a success rate of 90.3 per cent.
The situation routinely became that when you went and watched a Schmidt team at home there was every likelihood that you would leave with a smile, depart with the sweet taste of success. That is quite an achievement, especially at Test level as that wasn’t always the case at the Aviva Stadium.
Ireland won just six of their first 15 matches at the redeveloped ground when it initially reopened for business in 2010, a run of results that led to Schmidt succeeding Declan Kidney.
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The all-seater Aviva had been a shadow of the rough and ready, old Lansdowne Road it had replaced, its atmosphere limp and the crowd more interested in where the next beer was coming from rather than anything happening on the pitch.
Schmidt wasn’t naive enough not to notice the disconnect and repairing that relationship has been one to his biggest successes. “Supporters want an emotional attachment,” he said on taking the reins six years ago.
“It’s what competitive sport lives and dies by and you get an attachment because of the effort you see, the excitement that is created, the tension that exists. All those things go together.
How the winning Ireland players rated in beating Wales in Dublin https://t.co/4aTyv3LblV
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 7, 2019
“I don’t have the answer to all that [the disconnect some Ireland fans felt] but that is as honest a perception I can give about supporters and my emotional attachment to rugby… we want people to get excited about getting along to Test matches.”
This he did in spades, the rumbustious roar that greeted him on the pitch on Saturday a fitting send-off from Schmidt’s home from New Zealand home. His voice croaked in accepting the acclaim. “The last nine years I have been lucky to be involved with such a fantastic bunch… I’ve great people around me.”
That might be true, but they wouldn’t have achieved greatness without Schmidt leading the way. Not bad for a Kiwi working overseas. Not bad at all.
SCHMIDT BY NUMBERS
With Ireland in Dublin – P34 W28 D1 L5 83.8 per cent success rate
With Leinster in Dublin – P52 W47 L5 90.3 per cent success rate
Overall in Dublin – P86 W75 D1 L10 87.7 per cent success rate
WATCH: The RugbyPass trailer for the new World Cup documentary with the Tongan national team
Comments on RugbyPass
It’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
2 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
27 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
1 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
1 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
27 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
2 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
14 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
27 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
14 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
24 Go to comments