The Irish Rugby Football Union are poised to announce that Joe Schmidt will succeed Declan Kidney as head coach. From New Zealand, Schmidt is currently calling the shots for Leinster and doing it well as his team captured a Heineken Cup in 2011 and 2012.
Schmidt met with the IRFU last week and explained, “I have had a really good chat with the Irish Rugby Football Union. We know each other pretty well and it is a super job, one of the biggest in the game and one of the things for me at the moment is that I have a seven-day working week.”
Schmidt, whose son Luke suffers from epilepsy, went on to say, "When a national team is in camp it is very busy but it is a job that would give me some flexible time to help and support Luke and my wife."
When asked further speculatory questions Schmidt simply replied, “There’s nothing to add there really.”
An announcement regarding Schmidt is expected at the end of this week.
Responding to speculation Schmidt said, “I know it will be soon because I’m under pressure here at Leinster as well. I think that once there’s clarity, everyone can move forward and I’m pretty keen to do that.”
Leinster has an upcoming tough matchups against Limerick and Biarritz.
“To be honest it’s not too distracting for me. When you’ve got a team like Biarritz coming to town it’s not too much of a distraction because you’ve really got to keep your focus on what’s immediately in front of you,” Schmidt explains.
The Leinster coach added, “It’s good to have the bulk of the squad available and training. It was a little bit damp out there this morning but the accuracy was still not too bad. Certainly the enthusiasm was there and there is a bit of an edge at the moment.”
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