Joe Schmidt, the new coach of Leinster rugby, showed this week he had not forgotten his midland connections as he brought the entire Leinster panel to Mullingar rugby club for a full and rigorous training session on bank holiday Monday.
Stars such as Brian O’Driscoll, Shane Horgan, Rob Kearney, Jamie Heaslip, Johnnie Sexton, and Devin Toner were put through a full, two-hour session in front of the biggest crowd seen at the Cullion venue in at least 30 years, before generously offering their time and signatures for the hundreds of awestruck fans.
An estimated 1,200 people turned up for the training session, and at least two pitches were used for overflow car parking.
South African Schmidt (45 ) cut his first management teeth as player-coach with Mullingar between 1991 and 1993, reaching a Towns Cup semi-final in his second season.
Having learned everything he needed on the Castlepollard road, his career in coaching followed the usual path out the Mullingar gates as he went first to the Auckland Blues and then Clermont Auvergne, before his arrival this season at Leinster as replacement for Michael Cheika.
His bringing of the panel to Mullingar is part of the Leinster branch’s “de-D4-ification” policy, which will see the Leinster panel visit Tullamore, Edenderry, Kilkenny, Boyne, Wicklow, Navan, Portlaoise, Malahide, Wexford, and Clondalkin in an effort to shake off the team’s elitist tag and engage with the province beyond Donnybrook.
