Ireland legend Johnny Sexton says he’s seen enough to believe “genius” Joe Schmidt can turn around the Wallabies and make them a competitive foe for the Lions, starting with their Spring Tour Tests in Europe.

Sexton, who won Six Nations titles under Schmidt with the Irish, was doing the podcast rounds this week to promote his autobiography Obsessed.

On The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast Sexton was asked if the Wallabies coach still had the necessary X-factor as a national coach

It was put to Sexton that Schmidt’s edge had been in analysis and finding a competitive advantage and that other nations might have caught up due to an improvement in analysis.

“I still see it, though,” said Sexton, while referencing a moment in the recent Bledisloe Cup game where a Wallabies attacking move just came to grief when Jake Gordon knocked on with the try line under him.

“Like, you saw Australia, then they only didn’t score because a player just knocked it on at the very end. But they break New Zealand open with that move where the nine kind of breaks left… [Schmidt] scouted that.

“That’s him. That’s him just doing that. It sounds like he still has that intelligence and brains and… But it’ll take time. He’s only had a few weeks with them, a few games, and obviously they had a sort of bad half against Argentina. But other than that, they’ve been really competitive, I would say.”

Sexton added he’d seen “improvements in the games. Joe will improve every team he goes into.

“Listen to the New Zealand guys talking about him. They loved him, the years he worked there. And he’s been successful everywhere he’s gone, really.

“I know he didn’t win a World Cup in New Zealand as an assistant coach, but they came pretty close. Sometimes you need a little bit of luck.”

On the BBC’s Rugby Union Weekly podcast, Sexton said Schmidt continued to have an impact on him even after they stopped working together.

“I’ve had some amazing coaches, and I’m so lucky to have them because like some guys go through their career and they’ve got one or two coaches and they’re only okay,” Sexton said.

“I remember playing games at the end of my career with Joe Schmidt’s [voice] still in my ear, in a good way. Because he was a genius. And he influenced me so much in that period of my career, I worked with him from 2011 to 2018 so the majority of my career was with Joe in one way.”

Sexton said he never thought anyone would get close to Schmidt as a coach, but believed the Kiwi’s former assistant and successor as Ireland coach Andy Farrell has done that.

“He does it all. He coaches attack and defence, like brilliantly, like the best, the best of the best. Good man manager, can motivate a team.”

The pair will come face to face when the Lions arrive Down Under next year.

“It’s a year out so [the Wallabies] have got time. I think it’ll be a great tour. I think it’s a great narrative, isn’t it? Joe against Andy again, having worked so closely together and them still having a very good relationship and would still be in contact with each other.

“It’ll be interesting. I wonder if it’ll go down like last time when [Warren] Gatland went to New Zealand and there was all this, you know, firing back and forth between the coaches. But I don’t think it will. Faz and Joe would be very respectful, I’d say.”

Sexton also used the word genius to describe Schmidt during his GBR appearance, and

“He had probably the biggest influence (on me)….what he thought me is embedded in my head, I’d still play games at the end of my career with his voice in my head….I’d probably need to go see a psychiatrist,” said Sexton.

“How he saw the game, he gets this type of reputation that he doesn’t attack but he’s just a smart coach. So if he sees a trend in the game he’ll go with it. But his thing was a very simple message go to space if there’s no space put the pressure on them.

“He didn’t care if you ran from behind your own try line and that’s what I think some of the media forget. International rugby is very different, there’s not a lot of space at times so you do have to play the kicking game. In Leinster we used to run everything, when we came to Ireland, international rugby not as much space you have to find a different way, we kicked a lot.

“But he also saw the strengths in our backline we had Jared Payne playing 13 who was a fullback who was unbelievable in the air, we’d Robbie Henshaw playing 12…brilliant in the air. We’d a back three who were brilliant in the air so we used to kick a lot and we used to win the ball back most of the time. He’s a genius Joe.”