For the second November in a row Joe Schmidt has come back to Dublin with his Australian side, and for the second year in a row he's been a man in demand.
Having spent a combined nine years as head coach of Leinster and then Ireland, not to mention his earlier days as a player in Mullingar, the New Zealander has laid a few roots in this country.
There’s been time this week to grab dinner with some of his family who are still in Ireland; his son, Tim, is living in Churchtown after returning from a few years in Melbourne, while his brother, Jamie, is based in Blackrock.
The Wallabies had a day off on Wednesday, and while some of his players braved the elements for golf in Portmarnock, he grabbed a cup of coffee with his former Ireland team manager Mick Kearney, and he’ll squeeze in a catch-up with his former captain Rory Best tomorrow.
Far from getting bogged down after a run of five defeats in six games, a few days in Dublin are releasing the pressure valve.
"That's part of the balance," he says, ahead of Saturday’s meeting with Ireland at Aviva Stadium.
"To go back to your question, how do you cope with pressure? Well, family is always a great kind of distraction and opportunity to just be able to step outside the bubble you're in, which can eat away at you a little bit and breathe for a few hours.
"I remember coming back last year and seeing familiar faces, so I guess there's always comfort and familiarity with a lot of the people, as much as anything.
"I got out of an Uber in town yesterday morning and I was with our manager Chris Thompson. The first three people walking past, 'Hey Joe, howya Joe?’
"It’s just a really nice feeling, like you're kind of home. So yeah, I'll miss that."
Schmidt (above) recently turned 60-years-old, and will vacate his post as Wallabies head coach in July to hand the baton on to his former Ireland assistant Les Kiss.
He doesn’t know what the future holds from a coaching perspective, stressing his reason to step away from the Australia job is to spend more time with his family, and in particular his youngest son Luke, who has had a severe form of epilepsy since he was a child.
And so, it’s possible that Saturday’s game will be his final as a coach in Dublin, although he has plans to return to the Aviva in a different capacity some day in the future.
"Maybe Terenure, but Carlos [Spencer] has got that job, and I’m so old I coached Carlos. No, I won’t be doing that," he laughs.
"I've always thought – and I know this may sound bizarre - but I've always thought when we used to go into the [Aviva] stadium and you drive past the Sandymount Hotel, I’ll look at all those people having pints and really enjoying themselves, and I'm feeling like I'm in this sardine can of pressure.
"I'll look out there and I think: ‘One day, I'm going to get amongst those people and then I'm going to drift into that stadium and I'm going to enjoy watching a game where I'm not so emotionally hanging off everything that happens'.
"I have been looking forward to finishing for a long time and it was a phone call from a mate of mine that had me end up here [with Australia]. I've got to say I really enjoyed it."
Of course, there was a time where he wasn't so popular in Dublin, as he recalled his inauspicious start to coaching Leinster in 2010.
"I'll never forget my start in Leinster. You talk about losing in Italy [last week] and losing in Treviso in game four [in 2010].
"The experienced Irish boys had just come back in and apparently I had lost the dressing-room and the first question I was asked at the next press conference was, 'Joe, is this the beginning of the end of Leinster Rugby?' I thought that was a little melodramatic!"
Even aside from Schmidt’s time coaching some of these Irish players, there will be a strong familiarity between he and the team.
He was part of the All Blacks’ coaching team that knocked Ireland out of the World Cup in 2023, before bringing the Wallabies to Dublin this time last year, and running coming up just short, losing 22-19 to Andy Farrell’s side.
Only a few months ago, his Wallabies hosted the British and Irish Lions in Australia, losing the series 2-1 Farrell's side which was heavily populated by Irish players and coaches.
Since Farrell’s return to his Irish post, Ireland have struggled to click; beaten by New Zealand in Chicago before a clunky performance in their 41-10 win against Japan.
But Schmidt isn't buying the suggestion that this Irish side are struggling.
"I think there's some really good glimpses. Not too many teams play 20 minutes without a player, and they're ahead of the All Blacks even after 60 minutes, because those 20 minutes take it out of you.
"We played a Test recently against the All Blacks and lost a player for 10 minutes and then another player for 10 minutes, and while you might not lose those two 10 minute blocks, you lose a bit of fuel in the tank because they're always going to stretch you at the back end of the game.
"So I felt in that game, as a consequence, it made the back end certainly a bit tougher.
"I look at some of the guys who've been selected for this game and were selected last week, and there's some very good boys coming through, like young Paddy McCarthy.
"It’s disappointing for Joe [McCarthy] that he's not there, but not disappointing for us that he's not there."
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