Surely a man of Joe Schmidt’s track record could find something better

It can’t be the money?

Surely a man of Joe Schmidt’s track record, contacts and acumen could find a cushier role than this?

A nice number advising a club from afar or a backroom high-performance gig would have to be better than this?

I get why Rugby Australia wanted him as Wallaby coach, even if the initial two-year term isn’t as easy to fathom.

I just can’t understand why Schmidt would be interested.

If he’s as keen as he says he is, in raising the level of rugby in Australia, then the Wallabies isn’t the place to do it. It’s on the Rugby Australia staff, installing and overseeing participation programmes at community level and coaching coaches so that the SOS doesn’t have to be sent for a New Zealander every few years.

Until then, as countrymen such as Robbie Deans and Dave Rennie can tell Schmidt, every Wallaby coach is doomed to failure.

There’s a part of me that says good on Schmidt. Coaching rugby is in his blood and has been for decades.

Long before he came to coaching prominence with Ireland, Schmidt was a revered schoolboy coach with seemingly little interest in the limelight of the professional game.

That’s one of the curiosities of him choosing to throw his lot in with Australia.

Schmidt, as he’s mentioned many times, has a son with health problems. In declaring he would retire as Ireland coach after the 2019 Rugby World, Schmidt said his family needed to come first.

The same upon his return to New Zealand. He was coaxed into helping out the Blues and then the All Blacks, but not in a forward-facing role. He didn’t want to be the front guy and be doing media and glad-handing sponsors.

Head coaching no longer suited him or his family’s circumstances.

Am I glad Schmidt will now coach the Wallabies? Yes, on the whole.

He’s a terrific coach and I would support any recruitment decision that made that team more competitive.

I don’t know if Schmidt can do that, but I’m sure he’s more likely to than any of the Australian options out there.

But I don’t get what’s in it for him.

Just take the Andy Farrell factor for a minute. Farrell, Schmidt’s longtime assistant with Ireland, succeeded him as head coach and arguably did a better job.

Farrell’s now coach of the British & Irish Lions team, who tour Australia in 2025 which, unless there is a contract extension, will be Schmidt’s Wallaby swansong.

Is Australia going to win that series? It’s hard to imagine right now.

Equally, what better way for Schmidt to bow out than beating Farrell’s Lions? Maybe that had an appeal.

I hope Schmidt can do well with the Wallabies. Just as I wished Deans, Rennie and Eddie Jones, for that matter, every success.

I think New Zealand rugby is better when Australian rugby is too. If Schmidt can achieve genuine parity between the Wallabies and All Blacks, then accepting the position will have been a masterstroke.

It’s just that, for the time being, I really don’t understand why he’s done it.