Laurie Fisher and Joe Schmidt’s time in Irish rugby overlapped for one season only in 2010/11 when they both notably won a trophy with their provinces.
While Schmidt led Leinster to the Heineken Cup in May 2011 in his first season as boss, Fisher signed off his three-year term as forwards coach at Munster with a Magners League Final win over the Blues the following week.
Perhaps the pair come with a win-win vibe.
After Schmidt was announced as the new Australia head coach in January, the first key appointment he made was naming the experienced Fisher as assistant coach.
It’s Fisher’s second stint with the Wallabies and the first time he’s ever worked with Schmidt.
The pair are now back on Irish soil working together ahead of Australia’s final Test of the year on Saturday.
“He really is a great guy to work with. He’s got an insane amount of knowledge about all aspects of the game,” Fisher says about Schmidt.
“He sees things in the moment, which is what makes him a better coach than most. You don’t waste time going back and reviewing to see stuff that you shouldn’t have been doing. His eye for detail and his ability to coach in the moment is second to none.
“I know Joe from day one said that he sought permission to be 100 per cent honest with the group about what they did well and what they’re not doing well. Players always say, ‘Yeah, give me the truth, give me both barrels’, but they don’t necessarily mean it!
“But listen, we’ve got a generally good group of players, and Joe is honest with them about what we’re doing well and what we’re not doing well.”
How does Schmidt challenge him then as his assistant coach?
Fisher adds: “It’s not so much that he challenges you; he’s throwing ideas at you, but you just know you’ve got to give your best.”
Australia coach Laurie Fisher will hope to get one over Ireland when the sides meet
Fisher isn’t just familiar with people like Paul O’Connell from his time at Munster. Mack Hansen is the Irish player Fisher most recently worked with.
He said they would have loved to have kept his fellow Canberran at the Brumbies, but the winger decided to leave for Connacht in 2021.
“I think he just had the freedom to play and be himself over here and maybe felt there was more of a straitjacket on him at home,” Fisher explains about Hansen.
“He’s a free spirit, a wonderfully talented player and, given the right environment, he’s shown what he’s capable of producing. He’s definitely one that got away. We made a good offer to Mack at the Brumbies, but there was no guarantee that he’d start here or play there.
“Yeah, we invested a lot of time in Mack as an 18-year-old coming in through the Academy system to developing him to have the capacity then to come here to perform for Connacht and then Ireland.
“So, yeah, disappointing to lose him but, again, you’ve just got to smile when you see people succeed in whatever environment on the world stage.
“It’s wonderfully rewarding to see a kid who spent four years in our system excel where he’s excelling.”
Do they still keep in touch?
“Aw, not on a regular basis,” he admits. “He might send me a note when he’s had one Guinness too many, a little message or something, or a picture!”
Fisher admits they “lost a little bit of our composure” in their 27-13 defeat to Scotland last Sunday when they ran up 34 missed tackles. He sees the basis of Ireland’s game as “their capacity to score from the lineout and their capacity to score once they get into the ‘A’ zone”.
“There’s no real weaknesses. You’re not one of the world’s top sides in the last eight years and have too many weaknesses,” he says.
“Our challenge is just to turn up and put them under pressure, try to bang the door down for as long as we can and see where we end up.”