Schmidt baby Josh van der Flier indebted to Wallabies maestro ahead of Ireland v Australia clash
There may be Ireland players who found Joe Schmidt's demands hard to deal with, but Josh van der Flier quickly learned what was required to thrive under the Kiwi and credits him as a major influence
Josh van der Flier is a Joe Schmidt baby and proud of it.
Schmidt's influence on Irish rugby lives on in players like the former world player of the year. The 31-year-old is one of the crew of top class players who came through at Leinster and Ireland in the last decade and more and he thrived under the Kiwi.
Schmidt, who is bringing Australia to the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, was a primary and vital influence on his career. “Joe gave me my first Irish cap," said the flanker. "When I came into the Leinster academy he was my first coach, so that was my first experience of fully professional rugby.
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"He helped me a huge amount. His emphasis on detail, he goes above and beyond in that way, and his focus on players getting good habits and being good as individuals is something I developed hugely from.
"That attention to detail he shows was something I tried to develop into my game. He's a brilliant coach. I learned a huge amount from him. He has played a huge role in my career. I found him very, very good."
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Yet it is certain that there are players who were not unhappy that there was a change of head coach after the World Cup in Japan. Brian O'Driscoll pointed out this week that the environment waned in 2019, the final year of Schmidt's reign.
"He does feel an awful lot of love from the general public at large, but 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," O'Driscoll told Newstalk.
"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.
"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. When guys come out and say it in the press and talk about then and now, 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 try to channel it in a positive way - and he's going to try to channel it this weekend with his new team."
O'Driscoll had retired five years before Schmidt's departure and Andy Farrell's succession. "I always felt I had a point to prove to him," admitted the 45-year-old.
"I never fully knew if he really rated me as a player so I was always trying to not get his approval. The memories that really were left were, 'Do I have him?' - like, getting him onside, rather than 'I have him'."
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Then again, the quietly-spoken van der Flier says that Schmidt encouraged him to become more of a leader. The Wicklow man was urged to become more comfortable within the group, a trait that he developed over time.
"That was probably the biggest thing for me," he said. "A lot of it with Joe was fitting into the system, trying to get really good with each area of the game which I found really helpful.
"So he pushed a lot at being very technically good with your tackling, being very technically good at the ruck, technically good at passing - it was the the real basic things that he made sure everyone was very good at. I developed hugely with those and on my journey as a rugby player it was a hugely helpful time.
"Even things like the discipline he brought, both on and off the field, was very, very helpful and I modelled a lot of how I do things on the way he coached us. So, yeah, he was very, very helpful to me throughout."
Van der Flier is expecting the Wallabies - much improved under Schmidt - to have some tricks up their sleeve. With Schmidt it is always the case. And, as for the narrative of Farrell v Schmidt with the Lions tour to Australia next summer in mind, van der Flier is dismissive.
"We're just playing against a proud rugby nation and we're getting excited for that," he insisted. "We know Joe very well. They'll be well organized. "We saw his trick plays from our side, and the way he sets up the team to beat the opposition. It'll be a bit different - we'll be expecting a few trick plays and a well-drilled side.
“The individuals as well, they've a lot of very good players so it will be a big challenge.”
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