Former Ireland coach Joe Schmidt, right, with his captain Rory Best at a press conference at the World Cup in October. INPHO/DAN SHERIDAN
Former Irish rugby coach Joe Schmidt admits that he is missing the adrenalin rush that comes with being a coach. The Kiwi stepped away from the sport after Ireland’s World Cup quarter-final loss to New Zealand in Tokyo late last year. In his original announcement in November of 2018, Schmidt said he was quitting coaching, not just the Irish role, to prioritize his family. But he remains a man in demand. Schmidt spent two-weeks in an advisory role with Franck Azema at his old club Clermont Auvergne in February.
He said: ‘‘We spent a couple of weeks in Clermont where I was just helping the coaches as a bit of a sounding board and it was nice to be involved on the periphery of a club rugby environment again. So, I haven’t got right away from it but I haven’t got back into it either.”
Schmidt, who still lives in Dublin, expressed his sadness at the “sobering toll that the coronavirus is having” here in Ireland. But he is grateful that he has been able to spend time at home in Dublin with his family when he had been originally due to fly to Hong Kong, London and Lisbon.
And former England Rugby International Bill Beaumont reckons that it’s a “distinct possibility” that we won’t see any more international rugby this year. Beaumont is now chairman of World Rugby
