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Cape Town - Ireland coach Joe Schmidt has to begin the daunting internal negotiation between prioritising either his personal or professional responsibilities.
The New Zealand-born strategist's dilemma comes down to pursuing his career as the Ireland head coach until 2019 as the Irish Rugby Football Union have offered him the job until the Rugby World Cup. Or tending to his son who struggles with epilepsy.
The current Ireland boss clearly feels emotional about the decision as he told the Independent about the issue after his side's series loss to the Springboks in South Africa.
"Yeah, (it is a big decision) for all sorts of reasons. It's not my decision really. I've got a young fella struggling at the moment. That's just the way it is," said Schmidt.
He then commented on the courageous effort his charges invested into trying to achieve Ireland's first series victory on South African soil.
"You cannot fault the work ethic of these guys," added the 50-year-old.
"It's huge ... I'd be lying if I thought that we were suddenly world-beaters. We're just going to try and roll our sleeves up and try to profit from the investment that the last three weeks has been."
"If you'd said to me before we came here 'there'll be three six-point results and you'll get one of them', I would have grabbed it. I'm not sure the players would have, because they are so committed to trying to justify the support they get. They did a super job."
