Schmidt rules himself out of Blues job

Two time European rugby championship winning coach Joe Schmidt is ruling himself out of the running for the Blues job next year.

Schmidt, a former assistant at the Blues, has collected his second straight Heineken Cup as coach of Irish side Leinster.

He says he's got another year to run on his contract, and intends to see that out.

"For me it just doesn't fall at the right time. I'm on a contract here and there isn't one situation in the 10 years, or whatever, I've been doing this sort of job that I haven't filled my obligation to a contract."

"I'm a useless victim of non-planning really, I don't really make any plans, I just do what I do day to day and sometimes my wife makes a decision and we go somewhere else really."

He says the fickle nature of the job has taught him not to plan things much in advance.

"We used to have a sweepstake at the start of each season to see which coach from which club was going to be fired first. I thought it was a bit of a joke until six weeks in, the first coach got fired and I thought gee, that's pretty ruthless."

Schmidt says he may return to New Zealand some day, but it may not even be as a coach.

Photo: Joe Schmidt (Getty Images)