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Joe Schmidt is not easing his way back into All Blacks camp
By Tom Vinicombe
According to senior players, new assistant coach Joe Schmidt is already making his mark on the All Blacks.
Schmidt, who coached the Irish national side for the seven years up to and including the 2019 Rugby World Cup, was initially set to take on the responsibilities of a selector and analyst for the All Blacks during the Rugby Championship.
He was temporarily thrust into a more hands-on role when head coach Ian Foster and a number of his assistants were struck down with Covid in July and Schmidt has now permanently taken over as attack coach following the recent dismissals of John Plumtree and Brad Mooar.
The 56-year-old's first challenge will be ensuring the All Blacks remain as penetrative against Argentina this weekend as they did against the Springboks at Ellis Park in their most recent encounter in South Africa.
With that edict on his mind, it's somewhat no surprise that Schmidt has quickly got stuck into his work with the New Zealand national side ahead of Saturday's match-up with Los Pumas in Christchurch.
"We got a little bit of an insight into Joe and got to know him a wee bit that first week against the Irish so to have him in camp full-time is a real privilege, we're excited to work with him," said All Blacks captain Sam Cane on Tuesday.
"He's already stamped his mark in a couple of areas. He'll be predominantly looking after attack and attack structure. We've had a few sessions in the classroom with him already and it's good to have him on the field."
Fullback Jordie Barrett noted that while Schmidt was only two days deep into his time with the All Blacks, he'd been clued into how the well-travelled coach operates by some of the members of the Blues side in the squad who had spent the season under Schmidt's tutelage.
"It's only been 48 hours but it's been positive," Barrett said. "It's early doors and I'll be looking to pick his brain like the rest of the coaches and help prepare the best I can.
"He certainly hasn't eased his way back into training. He's a confident coach and he watches a lot of clips from what I've been hearing. I've got a little bit of a tip-off from the Blues boys where his strengths are so I'll be looking to get the best out of them."
While coach Foster took charge of the attack for the two-week trip to South Africa, he'll now move back into his regular overarching role. Jason Ryan was also brought into the set-up ahead of the Rugby Championship as forwards coach while Greg Feek and Scott McLeod have maintained their positions as scrum and defence coaches, respectively.
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I guess the other option would be to start ALB, he's looked good in the 12 so far when he starts and sets up those outside him. But that would mean putting the vice captain on the bench, which is unlikely. Another option would be to drop Reiko to the bench and play Proctor, though he's gone home so that's not going to happen either.
Both of those players just offer more of the soft distribution skills good centres learn from playing their careers there. Unfortunately that's what's lacking with the current combo.
Go to commentsWhatever let's see if this load of waffle is still valid in 2 years time. ABs will rise we have a lot of new talent coming through. The NPC was the highest standard for years. The game is changing to suit the fast pace we like to play. We get to play the Springboks more, including the franchises, which will make us better! Overall I am optimistic. I will add having watched the England game multiple times we made most of the play. England are an awesome physical team, but you can expect the All Blacks to get better and better at executing the chances. It could easily have been 5 tries to one instead of 3 to 1.
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