Joe Schmidt sets regular homework and springs pop quizzes on his players

Another insight into a beautiful, driven mind.

Keith Earls is hoping to break into Ireland's Six Nations squad for the final trio of Tests and, he swears, he has all of his homework done. Earls reveals Ireland coach Joe Schmidt sets his squad a hefty heap of 'work-ons' and video analysis tasks each evening and can spring a pop quiz at any time. No surprise, really, ass the former Leinster boss was an English teacher during his time in New Zealand. Earls says, 'It’s fairly intense. Joe is constantly switched on and you regularly find yourself working up until 9:30pm at night, doing video work because Joe wants you to work on your detail. 'As you see against Italy with guys going down injured in the warm-up and things, if you don’t know your detail you're going to let the team down. It’s been fairly full-on but it’s been great because he’s an unbelievably intelligent coach, especially around the backs as well.' Earls adds, 'It is like [being] back studying – something I didn't do in school. 'All coaches have their detail, and I suppose we have a lot more time around camp, being away from our families, so you can get in an extra hour or two for video and things like that.' There is no point setting homework, of course, unless someone is going to go around and collect. Earls remarks, 'In the mornings Joe will catch you off guard, but we're fairly good [for study] at the minute.' Hat-tip: Word in Sport