Joe Schmidt: Ireland's greatest coach, before current one

Ian Foster has been relegated to the status of a mere frontman. As far as the Irish media is concerned, whether true or not, Joe Schmidt will be treated as the de facto New Zealand coach this week.

For a coach who was hailed as an all-knowing rugby genius during his time here, Schmidt's Ireland reign has aged poorly in the public mind.

The notion would have seemed inconceivable at the end of 2018.

Ireland were Grand Slam champions and had just beaten the All Blacks for the second time in the Schmidt era, having beaten them exactly zero times in the previous century.

They'd won a series away to Australia, at a time when that was still considered something to boast about. The previous year, they'd swatted away South Africa like they were a Tier 2 outfit.

He was plainly the greatest coach in Ireland's rugby history. To argue otherwise was contrarian silliness.

There was occasional cribbing about Ireland's repetitive, attritional approach in attack, although during the good times this primarily came from neutrals. Joe had crunched the numbers and decreed that offloads weren't worth the trouble, except in very particular circumstances or as part of some orchestrated manouvere.

The flashes of thrilling and extravagant rugby usually came, on closer inspection, from pre-ordained set-piece plays. Prime examples included Jacob Stockdale's winning try against New Zealand and the second try in the Grand Slam game in Twickenham, created by a Tadhg Furlong no-look pirouette pass.

By contrast, the 41 phases that preceded 'Le Drop' in Paris 2018 was Schmidt's Ireland at its most characteristic and effective.

Ireland were perfectly primed heading into the World Cup year. Having won back-to-back Six Nations titles in his first two years, Schmidt's