Brian O'Driscoll: Joe Schmidt knows some Ireland players disliked his methods and he'll use that as fuel
Ireland great Brian O'Driscoll felt that he always had a point to prove to Joe Schmidt when he was a big success as Leinster head coach and then as Ireland's supremo
Brian O'Driscoll says that Joe Schmidt will be fully aware of the criticism made by some Ireland players of his final period in charge around the 2019 World Cup - and will use it to get an edge for Saturday's final Autumn Series game.
Current senior players such as Peter O'Mahony and Iain Henderson have made a point of saying the environment under Andy Farrell, Schmidt's successor in the Ireland hot-seat, is the best they've experienced.
Others have gone further. Former Ireland lock Dan Tuohy described Schmidt as a "scary character", adding: "I didn’t react well to being belittled or feeling scared. It wasn’t a good thing for me."
READ MORE:Brian O'Driscoll tells Cian Healy to play on as prop overtakes Ireland legend's caps record
First choice loosehead Andrew Porter has said that he used to count the number of speed bumps coming into camp at Carton House, such was his level of anxiety.
On the flip side, the likes of Johnny Sexton and Paul O'Connell totally bought in to the Schmidt gospel. Yet for a great like O'Driscoll, his relationship with Schmidt was about feeling that he was rated - and he was kept on his toes in that regard.
"I always felt I had a point to prove to him," said O'Driscoll. "I never fully knew if he really rated me as a player so I was always trying to not get his approval but prove that I was to be reckoned with and to be selected, first of all. The memories that really were left were trying to feel as if, 'Do I have him?' - like, getting him onside, rather than 'I have him'."
He still remembers the shock on some of the Ireland squad who weren't used to Schmidt's methods. As a Leinster player, O'Driscoll was up to speed. "We were used to it, the pressure at training and the expectation, and the ability to pick things up immediately," he said.
"He was the first to say something once and you've to get it, and I think some people definitely struggled with that at the beginning and the harshness of his putdowns when you didn't, I think that was a shock, whereas I think we were a bit more accustomed to it.
"We knew the drills, we knew what was coming at us. There was no surprise to that. Whereas for a lot of the Ulster and Munster lads there was a bit of a jolt to the system, 'Oh, OK, this is where we're at'.
"He was very demanding of incredibly high standards immediately, and rightly so at international level. Maybe that was the catalyst for a massively improved training across the board workload from everybody."
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Schmidt's way worked wonders for Ireland - a first-ever win over the All Blacks, a first Test win in South Africa and a first southern hemisphere series win in 39 years by beating Australia, plus back to back Six Nations crowns and a Grand Slam that involved winning in London and Paris. It worked until it didn't, with the world's best team falling apart in 2019, a World Cup year - and the Kiwi's last one in charge.
"He does feel an awful lot of love from the general public at large, but I think there's definitely a faction that would suggest that when it came to the crunch he didn't deliver when we had the capacity to do so," said O'Driscoll, who retired during Schmidt's reign in 2014.
"In (World Cup) 2015 we did the hard yards, we beat France in the group stage and then couldn't get past Argentina and actually got beaten quite badly by them.
"And then in 2019, all the talk of number one in the world, won the Slam in '18, building, and then something went awry and it got away from him, it got away from the team and the management.
"The buttons being pushed were pushed too far and pushed too hard. An element of the love came away with the success and obviously it was in the Six Nations in 2019 when England came over and beat us in Dublin against expectation and it felt like there was a bit of an unravelling thereafter and they never quite got it back.
"Ultimately it was no great shock in New Zealand beating them in the quarter-final because things had got a little bit sour at that stage. Joe probably feels the residual effects of that, of course he does.
"There's disappointment, of course, because you judge yourself from a criticism point of view on results, on the success of the team, and he was trying to do something that we hadn't done previously. He did that by beating the All Blacks and won the Grand Slam in 2018 the hard way by beating England and France away. But the one thing he wasn't able to do was get semi-final, final of a World Cup with Ireland."
Speaking on Off The Ball, O'Driscoll recalled the moment early in Schmidt's Leinster reign when the centre dropped a ball thrown at his ankles. Schmidt stopped the session. "He stopped everyone and he said, 'Drico, good players take them'," O'Driscoll remembered. "It was a scene setter for everyone that no-one was untouchable. It was a smart thing to do - whether it was intentional or not.
"I never found it unfair. I enjoyed the challenge because I was coming to the end and sometimes when you get some of the best coaching at the end you're thriving and I was loving it, and I was sad that my talent was leaving me and wasn't able to see it through for another while because I knew good things were going to come of that team.
"I didn't anticipate things to sour the way they did, I'd have to say, but you'd have to be fully a part of the environment to understand the depth as to why that transpired.
"It's striking a balance that you don't feel like you're back at school, that your every move isn't being scrutinised - that you can still relax and it's OK to still occasionally make a mistake."
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There was a story told of Schmidt giving out to the Ireland squad when he found a dropped room key in a corridor, that he said if the players were sloppy off the pitch then they would be sloppy on it.
"Jeez, I've lost enough room keys in my time to not point fingers at someone losing theirs, I feel that's a bit over the top - that really feels like it's quite pernickety and picking on someone and unnecessary," said O'Driscoll.
"So I can understand how a tenseness could come on the back of those sort of actions happening, and if they were layered upon and if there was a louder volume at training, more finger pointing, which it sounded there was - I can understand how people tightened up and rather than this excitement about coming into camp it became this tense environment.
"You'll say you're playing international rugby, grow up, but if the majority of people are feeling that way, obviously the shift has gone too extreme one way and you have to row it back. I think the slide just happened too much in '19 and I don't think it was a very happy environment at the very end.
"And no shock that ultimately it told in their performance. They were also beaten by Japan, they limped into the quarter-final and then didn't feature in that game.
"So they were a fraction of where they'd been at in the 18 months beforehand, so there had to have been something to it more than just quality of rugby.
"You can't be unhappy and miserable in camp and play great rugby. They don't coexist. You have to have some happiness and enjoyment, for that consistency of performance that environment has to be really good and I think it just got away from them in the end, unfortunately."
O'Driscoll, 45, said that Schmidt had a reputation for reading everything written about the Ireland set-up, and that he will know well how the last history of his last year in charge has been portrayed.
"He knew everything that was going on when he was in Dublin," said the legendary centre. "I had heard that he had a dossier put together of all the clippings that had been written and reported over the weekend on a Monday. Whether or not it's true I'm not entirely sure.
"I'm sure he has heard or read through the grapevine of guys saying that the happiest environment they've ever been in (is Farrell's); counting the speedbumps on the way into Carton House.
"Of course that stuff is going to land and impact you. You hear murmurings, but then when guys come out and say it in the press and talk about then and now, Iain Henderson was another one who was pretty vociferous in his praise (of Farrell), and there was a little bit of reading between the lines.
"Maybe you don't have to be overly obvious around what was going on in the past but it's very apparent that 'this is great, this wasn't great towards the end'.
"So I'm sure he'll store all of that, like anyone who has a point to prove does. You've got to bring it up and try to channel it in a positive way. And he's going to try to channel it this weekend with his new team."
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