San Francisco Frontiers - Schmidt not expecting hero's welcome on Ireland return

The 59-year-old former teacher won many plaudits for his coaching of Leinster and Ireland and on Saturday hopes he can engineer a win over the Irish.

Current Ireland coach Andy Farrell says New Zealander Schmidt deserves "all the accolades" he receives because "of what he did for Irish rugby".

"He's the most successful coach in Irish rugby when you look at his time overall in Dublin," said Farrell, who was his assistant from 2016-19.

"That experience that I've gained under Joe, seeing how he does it on the inside is invaluable."

Schmidt first came to global rugby's attention when he was assistant coach from 2007-10 to compatriot Vern Cotter at Top 14 side Clermont.

"Joe has a good brain, he can analyse the game but also the players. Their traits, skillsets, weaknesses and strengths," Cotter told AFP.

"He uses that to both analyse the opposition for opportunities but also his own team to improve."

Those abilities bore fruit with Leinster, landing successive European Cups, which secured him the job with a floundering Ireland side.

He engineered a remarkable turnaround, transforming their fortunes and instilling a different attitude.

Three Six Nations titles, including the 2018 Grand Slam, followed, as well as a historic home win over New Zealand that year.

However, the All Blacks brought the curtain down on his reign less than a year later with a 46-14 thrashing in the World Cup quarter-finals.

The manner of the 2019 World Cup defeat left its mark on Schmidt and he admitted he felt "a little bit broken".

Despite his successful stint with Ireland, he is not expecting a universally welcoming reception this weekend in the city in which he still owns a house and where his daughter still lives.

"I know the Aviva pretty well and that will be nice to get back there, albeit in a different changing shed," he said after Australia's loss to Scotland last week.

"I'm really excited about getting back, I don't know about being love-bombed.

"I coached against them a couple of times with the All Blacks and I think I was pretty unpopular there.

"I've swapped sides again and there'll be a degree of unpopularity."

- 'Important work' -

Schmidt also endeared himself to people during his time in Ireland by trying to raise awareness about epilepsy, from which his son Luke suffers.

"He is much appreciated in Ireland both for rugby and what he did in terms of giving a high profile to epilepsy as his son has it, like my boy," former Ireland fullback Hugo MacNeill told AFP.

"He has done some very important work for Epilepsy Ireland and he helped raise invaluable funds for it."

Schmidt was appointed Australia coach in January but oversaw a disappointing Rugby Championship campaign in which the Wallabies lost five of six matches.

But there have been signs this autumn that Australia could be on the way back to being a force in world rugby, with last weekend's loss to Scotland following impressive victories over Wales and England.

S.Hall--SFF