Joe Schmidt will temporarily return to coaching next week - reports

Joe Schmidt is reportedly back in rugby in a very different place to what was reported earlier this week. 

Premiership club Bath poured cold water on reports that the former Ireland boss had been offered the role of head coach at the Rec. 

However, while that link appears to have cooled, Schmidt is set to don the tracksuit on the training ground next week for the first time since the Irish were eliminated from the recent World Cup with their quarter-final trouncing by New Zealand. 

Schmidt claimed at the time he would be taking a break from the sport. There were even suggestions that he might not coach again professionally.

However, having busied himself on the after-dinner/conference speaking circuit in Ireland in recent months, he is now set to give a dig out at one of his former clubs. 

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French newspaper La Montagne are reporting that Schmidt is due to spend two weeks leading technical coaching sessions at Clermont, the club he helped to breakthrough Top 14 glory in 2010.  

La Montagne state that the link-up is at the request of Franck Azema. He has guided Clermont into this year’s Heineken Champions Cup quarter-finals but they are currently only in seventh in the Top 14, 17 points behind leaders Lyon after 14 games. 

It had been claimed at the start of this week by French rugby newspaper Midi Olympique that Schmidt had been approached about joining the Bath set-up under the director of rugby, Stuart Hooper. 

However, the club moved quickly to insist there was no truth in this rumour. 

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