THE FINAL WHISTLE went and the gentle digs began. “This is your fault,” a friend joked to Keith Wood last Saturday evening. “You put him there.”
The listless manner of Ireland’s performance against Australia was as disappointing as the try count, four-nil in favour of the visitors, and the final score, 32-15.
But mercifully Joe Schmidt was spared the knee-jerk reactions. It was his first defeat and only his fourth game as head coach since he answered the call and left his Leinster dynasty to succeed Declan Kidney.
The looming spectre of the All Blacks, bearing down on Dublin with 13 wins under their belt and in search of perfect calendar year, injected a degree of urgency into the post-match analysis.
But even Schmidt’s harshest critics held their fire, fully aware that it will take time for his ideas and his philosophy to take hold.
The jokes aimed in Wood’s direction were equally as harmless. Back in April the IRFU reached out and asked him to join a four-man panel that would oversee the recruitment process.
Since his retirement in 2003 the former international hooker has stayed in the public eye, largely through his media appearances on the BBC, and kept busy with his consultancy work, but this was “a bolt from the blue.”
He plunged himself into the job with all the diligence and intensity that marked his playing days in the front row. He rang a handful of his good friends and picked their brains for business acumen. What strategies did their companies use when they were filling top jobs? What should he expect?
“I put a lot of effort into it because otherwise I’m just a past player who is called in just to give a view. That’s not what I wanted it to be. I needed it to be a proper businesslike, recruitment process.”
But after doing all of his homework, when he came face-to-face with Schmidt, he found that the checklist almost took care of itself.
“I was struck by how few questions I asked him. Really.
“For me he had proven with Leinster that he was a very serious operator so I think you’re taking it for granted that yes, this guy knows what he is doing.
I was very encouraged by the manner in which he spoke, his philosophy and the idea and ideals that he had. I liked them and it would be what I would like in a coach. He had an attention to detail and an attention towards challenging players that I really liked. I was very impressed.He obviously interviewed very well. He got the job.
Beyond their interview meeting, Wood admits that he doesn’t know Schmidt particularly well, but asked how he imagines the Kiwi is feeling this week, he answers immediately.
“Dreadfully, I’d say. I know from conversations with other players, he is very exacting. He would want everything to be done right and it wasn’t done right.
“I’m sure he’s looking at how he did things in the week coming up to it and he’s looking at how he dealt with players and he’s looking at how players dealt with it. And he’ll be looking for a solution.”
Dan Carter meets young Irish YouTube star George Morgan, 13 (INPHO/Morgan Treacy)
The prognosis for Schmidt and for Ireland this week has been bleak, not only because of the Australia defeat — “you can turn that around in an afternoon” - but because of the opposition on Sunday. The All Blacks probably won’t hit up Dublin’s Harcourt Street for their €1500 worth of free booze but in all of their media outings and PR gigs, they have seemed relaxed and that, you sense, is when they are at their most dangerous.
History is within their grasp, a 14th win and the chance to become the first country in the professional to go through a calendar year winning every game. Another irrefutable statement of their dominance.
Wood knows New Zealand’s might only too well. His first time to face them, a 1997 Test in Lansdowne Road, he was the captain and ran in two tries in the first half-hour.
That was as good as it got.
Wood watches the second half of that 1997 defeat from the sideline with his ankle taped up (INPHO/Patrick Bolger)
“It was a tough game. I got smashed by Andrew Blowers and Zinzan Brooke, they got me in a pincer tackle and ruptured my ankle ligaments.
“I stayed on until half-time but I couldn’t get down the steps. The steps into the old Lansdowne Road dressing room area they were like urinal tiling… I was like Bambi on Ice, I couldn’t actually get down them. My ankle had swelled up like a balloon.”
Ireland lost 63-15 that day, and Wood lost three more Tests before hanging up his boots.
“You can reflect when you’re retired a long time like I am and say personally were you able to stand up and do it. You can get elements of comfort in that, that yeah you were able to mix it with them at different times.
The lingering thing that we didn’t beat them totally sticks in my craw. They were great games and big occasions and there’s enjoyment in those, definitely, but you want to win.
“Most supporters have a different perspective on it from a player. You have to play a game next week so you can’t be on the floor. You’ve to get up and play again next week and that’s very, very hard.
“Yes, you’ve to feel the pain but I don’t think you can feel it for that whole week. It’s trying to get the balance right of how you deal with all those games.”
The Guinness Plus App is giving rugby fans the opportunity for them and three friends to enjoy a pint and talk all things rugby with Irish International legend Keith Wood at their local pub. For a chance to win people simply need to download the Guinness Plus App and ‘check-in’ to their local participating pub before 11.59pm on Sunday 24th November.
