“I’m not sure how good a coach I am, but I know I’m very bad at retiring from coaching.”

When last officially involved in Irish rugby, Joe Schmidt was apparently bringing the curtain down on one of the great coaching careers in ill-fitting fashion at the 2019 World Cup.

The decision to, in his own words, “finish coaching” had been flagged a year prior.

For a man who had legitimately changed the way Ireland were perceived in the rugby world, a 46-14 defeat by his native New Zealand in the quarter-finals felt no way to say goodbye to the game.

As it turned out, of course, it was no such thing.

Some seven years into “retirement”, and the 61-year-old has since held roles with World Rugby, the All Blacks, Australia and, now, Ulster Rugby.

What keeps him coming back?

“I think anywhere that I have been, I’ve been involved with really good young men who are trying to improve what they deliver,” he said.

“I’m just a schoolteacher, and I’m just still trying to teach people as best I can.

“That’s irrespective of where I am at any particular time.”

After serving as a selector with New Zealand and head coach of the Wallabies, Schmidt describes his current role with Ulster as one that is “more for the future than the present”, with an official title of coach development advisor.

The “pretty flexible” arrangement in Belfast will see him spend this month offering support and guidance to coaches through all levels of the province’s pathways before returning again in April for another stint.

In between, there will be remote work. With stories of his rugby obsession well-worn, it will surprise few that such study has already started in earnest, even during his downtime last week while working with Australia A in America.

Despite enjoying such successes with Leinster before taking the Ireland job in 2013, with one of his two Heineken Cup successes coming thanks to a thumping final victory over Ulster, he does not feel strange now being associated with a different province.

“It’s funny, I’m just coaching, so it’s often not about the tracksuit top [you’re wearing],” he said.

“It’s just about trying to do a good job, trying to develop understanding, improve technique, and that doesn’t really change. I don’t think I change.

“But it’s doesn’t feel foreign. I’ve spent plenty of time in this stadium. In fact, before this stadium was built [in 2014], I spent a fair bit of time in an old wooden one that was here. It’s not something I’m uncomfortable with.”

Indeed, it was in part those pre-existing relationships at what is now the Affidea Stadium that helped pave his way for the surprising switch.

Rory Best, Ireland skipper for some of Schmidt’s best days in coaching, is now general manager at the province, while head coach Richie Murphy was part of the Kiwi’s ticket with both Leinster and the national side.

“I think it builds trust,” Schmidt said.

“I think [Best] trusts that I’ll work hard and try to help people as best I can, and I trust that Bestie will make sure that I get to do as much as I can when I’m in the windows that I’m on deck.

“I’ve known Richie, coaching with him for 10 years, and that was part of why I was comfortable coming in and working on the pathway so that when [players] get handed to Richie, hopefully they’re in a good place.”

While Schmidt ruled himself out of a return to Leinster to replace Leo Cullen in July, he has not closed the door on going back to frontline coaching some time in the future.

“I don’t really see too far in advance,” he said.

“A lot of things that have happened insofar as coaching is concerned are just sliding doors where people have phoned up or come and seen me. Even when I was teaching at Tauranga Boys College and the CEO of Bay of Plenty came in and said, ‘hey, would you be prepared to do the attack for the Bay of Plenty Steamers [in 2003]?’ It wasn’t something that I’d set out to do, so I’ve never really planned.

“I’ve just coached as best I can, tried to develop the best environment, and I’ve tried to learn along the way. And so those accumulated learnings, they’re not answers, but they are experiences and ideas that can help build a coaching perspective and capacity in the people that are here in Ulster coaching in the pathway at the moment.”

Still, given past form, few will really believe we have seen the last of Joe Schmidt the head coach.

Having had such key involvements with Ireland, New Zealand and Australia across the past 13 years, will he, for instance, really be content just watching next year’s World Cup from afar?

“I’m hoping to be sitting in the stands,” he laughed.

“I’ll be supporting three teams, so I’m thinking that I’m going to have a good chance.”