Rugby often travels in full circles. This week, there are several narratives coming back to where they began. Australia head coach Joe Schmidt returns to Ireland – the place where he threw down roots and made his name as an international coach.
Andrew Goodman, the Irish backs coach and former Tasman Mako captain,faces the man who first drew him away from New Zealand to come halfway around the world to Leinster.
Goodman was teaching physical education for six months of the year at Nelson College and also playing with Tasman. His phone rang in 2012 and on the other end of the line was Schmidt in Dublin asking him to come over to play and become a full-time professional for the first time.
Ireland’s unconvincing Japan job
“To get that phone call from Joe at that time and to come over here . . . it was my first time as a full-time professional as a player,” says Goodman.
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“I just think the detail that he coached with, the expectations he had around training habits and his famous thing was, we are what we do every day.”
Goodman is clearly influenced by the traits Schmidt passed on to his Leinster players. Those traits, and other information he picked up through his career, guide him in shaping the Irish attack.
“That would have been something that I’ve used in my coaching a lot,” he says. “You have to do things properly during the week if you want to see the results on the Saturday. It would have been a big thing with Joe – habits, accountability and the detail he drove in everything he did as a coach.
“I remember he used to run around and you used to hear his voice in your head the whole time around what you needed to do in terms of play or detail that he expected as a coach.”
By Goodman and the players’ own admission, Ireland’s backline detail has not been where it needs to be. Defeated by New Zealand and too often confounded against Japan, it has made for an underwhelming Autumn series thus far.
The fact that Schmidt and Australia are even further off their desired target at this stage of the series makes for a more loaded match on Saturday.
“It’s been inconsistent in the first two weeks, hasn’t it?” says Goodman. “I think again, when you look at Jack Crowley’s try at the start of the game, the phases that were put together, the bodies at the line, people running proper intent and skill sets at the line and through the line and keeping the ball alive. I thought, ‘that’s where we want to be as a team’, so we need to chase that down more.”
One issue is the continued absence of injured Hugo Keenan and Jamie Osborne at fullback. Keenan was always hungry for go-forward play and Osborne was growing into it.
On the upside, right wing Mack Hansen was back in training and took a full part on Tuesday, as did Ulster centre Stuart McCloskey. Josh van der Flier and Garry Ringrose are following their processes of return to play and were involved in some aspects.
But Goodman is confident with the options he has in camp.
“I think we’ve got some great options,” he says. “It’s a shame with Jamie and the progress he’s been making to get consistent time at 15 – such a talented lad with a massive future ahead of him.
“When you look at Jacob Stockdale, he’s had a couple of games there for little bits and pieces for Ulster this year and has played really well. We’ve got Mack back in the squad now, so there’s plenty of options there that are all training hard.
“There’s genuine intensity and competition at training. There’s 33, 34, 35 guys, depending on who’s fit, that are going at it, that want to impress each other, that want to impress the coaching group to get opportunities on the Saturday.”
Ireland are hoping to avoid a situation whereby the game ebbs and flows into their control and then out of their control.
The last three tries against Japan were scored in the last 12 minutes as their bench players wilted. The Australia team seen against the Lions in the summer won’t decline so steeply in the last quarter.
“If they get a swing in the game, we’ve got to make sure we’re calm enough and stay composed, to stay in the game for an 80-minute period,” says Goodman.
“The next couple of weeks are going to be big games that are going to go right to the wire. So we need to be ready for an 80-minute performance.”
