It's not all that surprising to us, given how well what Joe Schmidt can do. He turned Leinster into one of the most highly-skilled, entertaining, and all encompassing teams in Europe - claiming two Heineken Cup titles and a Challenge Cup; and he's moulded this Irish team into an intelligent unit that has claimed famous victories over France, Argentina, South Africa, and Australia.
But what is surprising is that Schmidt is being considered to be New Zealand head coach Steve Hansen's direct replacement. That's coming directly from the horse's mouth. All Black chief Steve Tew has been discussing the potential replacements for Steve Hansen, and gave four names.
Unusually, three of those are in northern hemisphere jobs - Joe Schmidt, Warren Gatland, and Vern Cotter. That's unusual because it has been expected that the NZRU would recruit someone from within New Zealand rugby, and that those three names would have to be already in the Super Rugby set-up to be considered.
The other name mentioned was Ian Foster - the current All Black assistant coach to Steve Hansen. Hansen was promoted from assistant coach when he took over from Graham Henry in 2011. Wayne Smith and Dave Rennie were considered to be the leading runners, but Tew did not mention them; instead he had Foster at the front of the queue.
Clearly we want to make sure we’re in good shape when Steve leaves, as we were when Graham Henry left.
We’ve got Ian Foster flying under the radar with an unsurpassable record at international level. He’s the assistant coach and may or may not be a candidate.
Then we’ve got other New Zealanders that are coaching at international level in Vern, Joe and Warren.
Gatland is currently facing New Zealand in a three-test tour with Wales, and is the favourite to take the Lions down their next year. He'll be the head coach that the New Zealand public would be most aware of.
