'I played with his voice in my head' - Schmidt's influence on Ireland

Joe Schmidt will be an opposition head coach in the Aviva Stadium for the first time on Saturday

It has been more than five years since the curtain came down on Joe Schmidt's tenure as Ireland head coach when a 2019 World Cup quarter-final defeat by New Zealand provided the full stop to one of the great chapters in the nation's rugby history.

On Saturday, as his Australia side come to Dublin to mark the Irish Rugby Football Union's 150th anniversary, the 59-year-old will make his first coaching return to the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

Famously averse to fuss and anything that could distract from the 80 minutes at hand, the man widely considered Irish rugby's greatest ever coach is likely to find aspects of the week uncomfortable.

The player most readily associated with his successes at both Leinster and Ireland is expecting quite the ovation come Saturday.

"Being with Joe, walking around Dublin, being in a coffee shop with him, every single person comes up and greets him warmly, says great things about him, and anyone who has ever met the guy says the same," said Johnny Sexton.

"With him, I think he'll get an amazing reception when he walks into the Aviva and I think the Irish crowd will acknowledge him for all the things he achieved."

That list of achievements is certainly lengthy.

Ireland's first back-to-back Six Nations titles since 1948-49, a first Grand Slam in a season featuring trips to Paris and London, a first win on South African soil, a first southern hemisphere series victory in 39 years and, most memorably of all, ending the 111-year wait for victory over the All Blacks - Schmidt's sides regularly broke through Irish Rugby's glass ceilings.

One thing they could not manage, however, was making it to a World Cup semi-final.

In his first tilt in 2015, an Ireland side ravaged by injury were thumped by Argentina in Cardiff at the quarter-final stage.

Four years later, Schmidt had already confirmed his intention to "finish coaching" by the time of the tournament and his great side were on the wane in a campaign that featured a pool defeat by hosts Japan before a humbling loss at the hands of New Zealand in the last eight.

Given how it ended, and the success enjoyed by current head coach Andy Farrell since taking up the baton, some have since downplayed Schmidt's contribution to Irish Rugby.

"I think sometimes people, and when I say people, a lot of it is the media, they would change it in a certain way that focuses on the six months that didn't go well rather than the eight years he gave to Leinster and Irish Rugby when he had remarkable success," said Sexton.

"I'd add [success] no other coach has really had. I'd hope that Andy goes on to achieve it but Joe won a Grand Slam, two championships, Heineken Cups, Amlin Cup, league titles, he won [before] with Clermont.

"You've got to look at the facts when you're talking about a person's career.

"That's the greatest thing about winning. You always have opinion, and you've got to respect people's opinion, but when you win, you can't argue about that. No one can say you didn't win what you did."

Schmidt was on the coaching ticket for the All Blacks side who knocked Ireland out of the 2023 World Cup

Even after Schmidt departed in 2019, and still after he took up a post with the All Blacks for the 2023 World Cup, Sexton says his former coach's influence extended on, adding he still had "his voice going through" his head in what proved to be the final game of the fly-half's career.

"He was a massive influence on me through that middle part of my career. It stayed with me," he said.

"I played games and I had his voice in my head. Even when we're playing New Zealand and he's coaching them, I have his voice going through my head and that shows the legacy that he really leaves and the influence he had on me.

"I can also say that he laid the foundations and Andy would say the same. Andy worked with Joe for four years. He would have learned a lot, he'd acknowledge that himself. They remain great friends as well."