Joe Schmidt admits he is "very bad at retiring" from coaching

Joe Schmidt has a confession for someone who keeps saying goodbye to coaching: he is no good at it. "I'm not sure how good a coach I am, but I know I'm very bad at retiring from coaching," the 61-year-old told BBC Sport.

It is about seven years since he first stepped back. The New Zealander had said a year before the 2019 World Cup that he planned to finish coaching. His time as Ireland head coach ended that autumn with a 46-14 defeat by New Zealand in the quarter-finals. Before that, he had won two Heineken Cups (the main European club competition) with Leinster, including the final against Ulster.

The break has not been a quiet one. Schmidt has worked with World Rugby, served as a selector for the All Blacks and spent two years as head coach of Australia. That Wallabies stint ended before he took up his latest job, at Ulster Rugby.

His title there is coach development advisor, and the role is new. It is a consultancy, meaning he works on a contract rather than as a full-time employee, and it centres on the province's coaching pathway, the route that takes young players and coaches up through the age groups. Schmidt has described it as "more for the future than the present."

This month he is supporting coaches at every level of that pathway. He returns for another stint in April, with remote work in between. The 12-month arrangement was announced in late July.

Ulster's own coaching setup has some familiar faces. Rory Best, once a hooker (the player who throws the ball in at lineouts), is now general manager. Richie Murphy, the head coach, previously worked on Schmidt's staff at Leinster and Ireland.

Schmidt ruled himself out in July of returning to Leinster to replace Leo Cullen as head coach. He has not closed the door on frontline coaching in the future, though. For now, the Ulster role is the one on the table, and it keeps him close to the game without a return to the touchline.